William Angelo Dial

DIAL, WILLIAM ANGELO (1903~1963) William Angelo Dial, Texas Ranger, was born February 7, 1903, in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, to Joseph G. and Alma Hargett Dial. He served as a Texas Ranger from August 29, 1923, until July of 1924, where he was assigned to the border. Dial patrolled the Rio Grande on horseback looking for smugglers bringing contraband into Texas from Mexico.

After mustering out of the Rangers, Dial accepted the position as Chief of Police in Gladewater, Texas, where it was up to him to bring law and order to the oil boomtown. After leaving Gladewater, Dial re-enlisted in the Texas Rangers on November 1, 1931, and served until October 31, 1933, where he resigned before they became part of the newly created Texas Department of Public Safety.

After retiring from law enforcement, Dial settled in Victoria, Texas, where he became a state supervisor in the land department of the Tennessee Gas Transmission Company.

William Angelo Dial passed away on June 17, 1963, and because of his service to the State of Texas, Governor John Connally signed a proclamation granting his burial at the State Cemetery. Dial was buried four days later, close to one of his Ranger predecessors, William Alexander Anderson "Bigfoot" Wallace.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: State of Texas Adjutant General's Department "Warrant of Authority and Descriptive List"; "Enlistment, Oath of Service, and Descriptive Ranger Force", courtesy of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco, Texas; Proclamation by the Governor of the State of Texas, June 1963, "Texas Ranger Grave Marker Will Be Dedicated Today," Texarkana Gazette, Friday, July 7, 1967; "The 'Original' Ranger Trail," The Houston Chronicle Rotogravure Magazine, Sunday, December 15, 1957.