Founders of the Oak Dale community began arriving in 1867, including John R. Pickard; George Lidia, who became Pickard's son-in-law; the Rev. James M. Johnson, a Methodist minister; and William Jasper Mefferd. These men and their families, including Johnson's four sons, harvested timber along the Bosque River to build cabins and began farming the land. Samuel Johnson chose Oak Dale as the settlement's name for the abundance of trees in the area. By 1868, the wives of both John Pickard and James Johnson were interred here on Pickard's land, and the graves are now unmarked. The first marked burial is that of two-day-old Ruth Ann Johnson, who died in 1877. Local residents established Oak Dale School, which consolidated with Stephenville in 1951. A Baptist church and a Methodist church also served the community until the mid-20th century, when they likewise moved to the county seat. The settlement began to decline in population during the Great Depression and World War II, and Oak Dale Cemetery remains the final resting place of generations of area residents, including military veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War.