![]() ![]() Louis Railway Company, which located its machine shops and hospital in the town. In 1879 the Tyler Tap line was acquired by the Texas and St. The narrow-gauge line, known as the Tyler Tap Railroad, was completed in 1877. In an effort to ensure the town's prosperity, leading Tyler citizens worked to have a spur built from Tyler to Ferguson (Big Sandy). In April 1874, however, the Houston and Great Northern began service on their branch line to Tyler. The town's woes were further compounded when the Texas and Pacific and the International railroads both bypassed Tyler in the early 1870s. With so much of its wealth invested in slavery, Tyler and Smith County suffered from an economic depression in the early post war period. During the Civil War Tyler was the site of the largest Confederate ordnance plant in Texas, and in 1863 a large Confederate prison camp, known as Camp Ford, was built four miles to the northeast. Not surprisingly, Tyler residents voted overwhelmingly for secession, and local men volunteered for army service in large numbers. In 1860 more than 35 percent of the total population of 1,021 were slaves. George Yarbrough built a three-story building on the northeast side in which he operated a dry-goods store.Īs in much of East Texas, the city's economy was heavily dependent on slavery. Ferguson erected five brick stores on the northwest side of the square between 18, and Col. In 1856, just nine years after its founding, one writer remarked that Tyler was "already a place of considerable importance, and contains many buildings of taste and beauty." Numerous new buildings were constructed in the decade prior to the Civil War. Buoyed by the prosperity of the surrounding farms and plantations, Tyler quickly emerged as a leading shipping and commercial center for the region. The rich soil of the surrounding area attracted numerous planters, and already by 1850 Smith County had a population of 4,292. With the growing wave of immigrants from the Old South into Texas after annexation, Tyler grew rapidly. A Masonic lodge was organized in 1848, an Odd Fellows lodge was founded in 1851, and the first newspaper was published the same year. Tyler was incorporated on January 29, 1850, and instituted an aldermanic form of government. McDonald Lorance served as the first mayor. A Methodist church was organized in 1846, and the First Baptist Church was established in 1848. Another log courthouse was built in 1847 on the center of the Tyler square it was replaced in 1852, when a new, larger brick courthouse was constructed on the same site. A log courthouse on the north side of the square served as the meeting hall and church. On February 6, 1847, commissioners purchased a 100-acre site from Edgar Pollett for $150, and a townsite was laid out in twenty-eight blocks around a central square. The townsite, located near the geographic center of the county, was selected by a panel of commissioners appointed by the legislature and was named for President John Tyler in recognition of his support for admitting Texas to the United States. The city was authorized on April 11, 1846, when the Texas legislature voted to establish Smith County and a corresponding county seat. ![]() It is ninety-nine miles southeast of Dallas at the junctions of U.S. Tyler, the county seat of Smith County, is one of the leading cities of East Texas. ![]()
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