Dell was incorporated in 1905. . .Most residents at that time were associated with logging or the railroad. . . .By 1911, farmers were moving in to claim the cheap overcut land. . . .Wilson began as a plantation town--owned by R. E. L. Wilson. . . .Burdette was also a plantation.
The census seems low, but within a few years, there was be a boom in population for the entire county as farmers, tenants, and sharecroppers moved in to till the rich, alluvial soil. . . .Earl Magers--my grandfather--was one of them, arriving in Dell with his family in 1916. . . .They came from Missouri in a covered wagon. . . .just as many others arrived.
