Bud Matthews

Dike is on Farm Road 69 ten miles northeast of Sulphur Springs in northeastern Hopkins County. The site was first settled around 1850, when Michael and Elizabeth Miller built a mill and a small log schoolhouse; the mill, which became known as Smith Mill, continued to operate for some time after the Civil War but around 1887 was replaced by a gin and mill run by William Henry Moore and Bob Matthews. In 1888 Newton Rhodes opened the first store in the settlement, which during the 1870s and 1880s was known as Union Valley. In 1890 a post office was secured, and the name was changed to Dike at the suggestion of Bud Sheppard, a native of Dike, Iowa. A public school was in operation by 1905, when it had an enrollment of thirty-three. In 1914 Dike had six general stores, a blacksmith, and two physicians. The population reached 250 in 1925 but declined after World War II ; in 1945 the town had 100 residents and two businesses. In 1948 Dike had two stores, two churches, a blacksmith shop, and a three-teacher school. In 1985 it comprised three churches, a post office, a business, a camp, and a population of 170. The population remained the same through 2000.