Dave DULIN

The following bio was taken from page 183 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

Dave Finley Dulin was born June 16, 1886, near the Pine Hill Community of Rusk County. Dave had little time for schooling, as his father, John J. Dulin, died when Dave was about nine years old and the child had to go to work on the family farm. The family moved to the Pone Community, now called Hickey, where Dave met his future bride, Lucy Ward (1886-1975). Lucy was the daughter of John W. Ward and Mary Woolf. Lucy’s mother, like Dave’s father, died of pneumonia when Lucy was very young. Dave and Lucy eloped to Keatchie, Louisiana, where they were married on December 27, 1902. They first settled on a rented farm on the New Salem road. To their marriage were born four children: Johnnie Augustus, born in 1904 and named for Lucy’s brother, “Gus” Ward; Bessie Mae; Lavenia; and Rayford Finley Dulin. The two oldest children grew up picking cotton while Dave shuttled a wagon back and forth to Henderson. Later, Dave took his oldest son, Johnnie, with him. This trip was a big event in those days as it was seldom that a family made it to town more than once a month. On several occasions, Johnnie and his father would have to stay overnight at Henderson. They would sleep on the cotton piled high on the wagon and sometimes under the wagon if it rained. Henderson was a town of mud streets and plank sidewalks until well after the turn of the century. In 1917 Dave purchased one hundred and thirty-seven acres from J. A. and Nettie Davis and moved a bit closer to town. The back of his farm joined the road that ran in front of the Hickey School, where his children received their education. Dave Dulin owned either the first or second automobile in Hickey, a 1914 or 1917 Oakland touring car. Once Dave started to Henderson after a heavy rain. He attempted to cross a creek bed, which served as part of the road, and the Oakland stalled. The water was rising rapidly, so he waded out of the branch and went back home to hitch up his mules and wagon. By the time he returned, the tourer was submerged. He tied it onto the car and pulled it from the creek. As the inside drained, several fish were found lying on the floorboard. The fish were served for supper. Dave and Lucy were Missionary Baptists. Dave grew up in the Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church and joined this church in 1901. He later attended church at Hickey and Ebenezer before he moved to Henderson in the late 1940’s, when he joined the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. In 1945 Dave retired from farming, sold his farm, and moved to Henderson, purchasing a smaller place on the Old Tyler Highway and also a house in town. On November 24, 1954, while visiting friends, Mr. And Mrs. Talley Walker, at Laneville, Dave suffered a heart attack and died. Lucy moved to the house in town, where she lived for the remaining twenty years of her life. She was an active member of Calvary Missionary Baptist Church until her death in 1975. Written by John R. Dulin