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Named for President John Tyler, the city was established
on April 11, 1846 by the Texas Legislature as it also created Smith County.
Tyler was designated the county seat.
A site was selected for the new town
at the center of the county. Tyler has an elevation of about 544 feet, and
is positioned about half-way between Dallas and Shreveport.
The rapidly growing Tyler was later incorporated in 1850,
when the county already had a population of over four thousand residents.
Farming grew quickly as farms and plantations thrived on the
rich soil, and led to Tyler becoming a major commercial center of East Texas.
 In the late 1800s, the railroad became another key element in the local economy.
Tyler Tap Railroad, later renamed the Texas & St. Louis Railway, was founded with headquarters in Tyler.
It was later reorganized as the St. Louis Southwestern Railway,
commonly known as the Cotton Belt Railroad.
Banks were formed, and commerce grew, and cotton became the main commercial
crop.
Read more about the Cotton Belt south of Tyler, and the history of Tyler-Gresham-Flint-Bullard Cotton Belt line, and the communities of Gresham, Flint and Bullard.
Tyler became a city in 1907 when it was approaching a census
of about 10,000 people. followed by truck farms and fruit orchards. However,
a blight decimated much of the fruit industry, and by 1920 the rose growing
industry had gained a major foothold in the area, and led to the creation
of the world-renown Tyler Rose Festival.
 Another major economic stimulus arose in the early 1930s with
the discovery of oil in the area. Many oil companies opened facilities in
Tyler, pushing the population to near 30,000 by the 1940.
World War
II saw the creation of Camp Fannin northeast of Tyler.
Post-war Tyler gradually changed, and emerged, into the leading
manufacturing, commercial, agricultural, and retail center of East Texas,
in addition to its base in the oil, gas, and chemical industries. Tyler also
is the home of numerous highly-respected educational institutions, including
the University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler Junior College, and Texas College.
As it moved into the 21st century, the Tyler MSA has a population
of about 185,000.
Postcards represent another media that enables us to visualize, and
remember, the past. We have only a few in our private collection, and these
are shown in the Tyler Texas
Postcard Highlights.
Perhaps the best and most complete collection of Tyler postcards has been
assembled by Robert E. Reed, Jr. We recommend you visit his site A
History of Tyler Texas Through Postcards. It is part of Robert's Past
Glimpses of Tyler Texas, an incredible web site that anyone with an interest
in Tyler should visit.
We have also read, and highly recommend, Robert Reed's book entitled "Images of America: Tyler", published by Arcadia Publishing, available in many local Tyler stores, bookstores and major online book sources.
Smith
County Historical Society
 Marvin Methodist Church Historic Marker |
Historic
Tyler, Inc.
Heart
of Tyler Main Street Program
Past
Glimpses of Tyler...by Robert Reed
History
of Tyler at The Handbook of Texas Online
Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon
House Historic Estate
National
Register of Historic Places - Smith County Sites
Smith
County History (RootsWeb)
Tyler
History (City of Tyler)
Camp
Ford Historical Association
Camp Fannin
East
Texas Historical Association
Historic US80
Preservation
Texas
Texas Historical
Commission
Texas
Downtown Association
Texas Association
of Museums
Texas State
Preservation Board
National
Trust for Historic Preservation
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