Editing Tyler, Texas (section)

==History==
{{see also|Timeline of Tyler, Texas}}
===Founding and Civil War (1846–1865)===
Legal recognition of Tyler was initiated by an act of the [[Texas Legislature|state legislature]] on April 11, 1846. The Texas government created Smith County and authorized a county seat. The first plat designated a 28-block town site centered by a main square within a {{cvt|100|acre|ha sqmi|adj=on}} tract acquired by Smith County on 6 February 1847. The new town was named for [[John Tyler|President John Tyler]], who advocated for the [[Texas annexation|annexation of Texas]] by the United States. A log building on the square's north side served as a courthouse and public meeting hall until a brick courthouse displaced it in {{year|1852}}. The City of Tyler was incorporated on January 29, 1850.

Early religious and social institutions included the First Baptist Church and a [[Marvin Methodist Episcopal Church, South|Methodist church]],<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://marvin.church/who-we-are/our-history/ | title=Our History | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201045909/https://marvin.church/who-we-are/our-history/ | archive-date=2023-02-01}}</ref> a [[Masonic lodge]] and an [[Odd Fellows|Odd Fellows lodge]], and Tyler's first newspaper.<ref name="hto">{{cite web |series=Handbook of Texas Online |first=Christopher |last=Long |title=TYLER, TX |access-date=November 3, 2018 |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hdt04 |date=June 15, 2010 |publisher=Texas State Historical Association}}</ref> Though Tyler's early economy from {{year|1847}}–{{year|1873}} was based on agriculture, it was also well-diversified during this period. Logging was a second major industry, while complementary manufacturing included metalworking, milling wood, and leather tanning. As the seat of Smith County, the town also benefited from government activity.<ref>{{cite web |title=National Register of Historic Places Form: People's National Bank Building |access-date=November 3, 2018 |page=7 |series=Texas Historic Sites Atlas |url=https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/NR/pdfs/02000896/02000896.pdf |last=Williams |first=Diane Elizabeth |date=June 20, 2001}}</ref>

The local agricultural economy relied on [[Slavery in the United States|slave labor]] before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. In 1860, the population of enslaved people in Smith County was 4,982, the 4th most in east Texas.<ref>{{Cite web |year=1860 |title=Population of the United States in 1860: Texas |url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1860/population/1860a-34.pdf |access-date=October 10, 2022 |website=Census.gov |publisher=United States Census Bureau}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=October 17, 2021 |title=How farmland, timber and oil changed the face of East Texas forever |url=https://thetylerloop.com/how-farmland-timber-and-oil-changed-the-face-of-east-texas-forever/ |access-date=November 10, 2022 |website=thetylerloop.com |language=en-US}}</ref> By 1860, Tyler held over 1,000 enslaved persons, which represented 35 percent of the town's population. There was strong support for [[Secession in the United States|secession]] and the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] within Tyler, as a high percentage of its residents voted for secession and many of its men served in the [[Confederate States Army]]. The town was a secure enough location during the war for the [[Trans-Mississippi Department]] to establish the Tyler Ordnance Works for the resupply of its forces west of the [[Mississippi River]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Albaugh |first=William A. III |date=1958 |title=Tyler, Texas C.S.A. |pages=43–210 |chapter=Chapter 3: The C. S. Ordance Works at Tyler, Texas |location=Harrisburg, Pa. |publisher=[[Stackpole Books|Stackpole Co.]] |lccn=58012307 |oclc=1099590 |ol=30522064M}}</ref>

===Post–Civil War era (1865–1900)===
In 1870, Bonner and Williams established Tyler's first bank. When both the [[Texas and Pacific Railroad]] and the International Railroad (Texas) originally eschewed routes through Tyler, townspeople financed the [[Texas and St. Louis Railway#Tyler Tap Railroad|Tyler Tap Railroad]] to link the town to the national rail grid.<ref name=Tyler>{{cite web|url= https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/tyler-tx |title=Tyler, TX|publisher=Texas State Historical Society|accessdate=October 8, 2023}}</ref><ref name=Museum/>  Ironically, before that 21-mile line to [[Big Sandy, Texas]] was completed in 1877, Tyler had already gotten its desired rail connection when the [[International–Great Northern Railroad]]  built into town in 1874.<ref name=Tyler/><ref name=Rails>{{cite web|url= https://www.american-rails.com/cotton.html |title=St. Louis Southwestern Railway, "The Cotton Belt Route"|publisher=American-Rails, June 12, 2023|accessdate=October 8, 2023}}</ref><ref name=TSL>{{cite web|url= https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-and-st-louis-railway|title=Texas and St. Louis Railway|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|accessdate=October 8, 2023}}</ref>  Regardless, the Tyler Tap became the seed for the 725-mile-long [[Texas and St. Louis Railway]], which in turn formed the core of the later [[St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company|St. Louis Southwestern Railway]], commonly known as the Cotton Belt.<ref name=Rails/><ref name=TSL/><ref name=Museum>{{cite web|url= https://arkansasrailroadmuseum.org/about/cotton-belt-route.html |title=St. Louis Southwestern Railroad History|publisher=Arkansas Railroad Museum|accessdate=October 5, 2023}}</ref>

On October 29, 1895, an African American suspect named Robert Henry Hillard was burned at the stake in the Smith County Courthouse Square for the alleged murder of a nineteen-year-old white woman.<ref>''Galveston Daily News''. "Slowly Roasted." October 30, 1895.</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">E. R. Bills. ''Black Holocaust: The Paris Horror and a Legacy of Texas Terror''. Fort Worth, Texas: Eakin Press, 2015</ref> Denied a trial and due process, Hillard was taken from law enforcement personnel by a white mob.<ref>''Dallas Morning News''. ""Roasted to Death." October 30, 1895.</ref> Hillard's executioners were never punished. Later, two entrepreneurs combined photographs from the actual lynching with others staged with actors and sold the 16-image production as a stereographic set. One of the original sets sits in the [[Library of Congress|United States Library of Congress]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

===20th century to the present day===
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, fruit orchards emerged as an important business in the regional economy. Eighty percent of the county's agricultural revenue derived from cotton as it persisted as the dominant crop in the first decades of the [[20th century in the United States|twentieth century]]. Peaches were the principal fruit crop as the county fruit tree inventory surpassed one million by 1900. In 1912, Dan Davis, an African-American man suspected of attacking a sixteen-year-old white girl named Carrie Johnson, was burned at the stake in the Smith County Courthouse Square.<ref>''The New York Times''. "2,000 Aid in Burning Negro at the Stake." May 26, 1912.</ref><ref>''Granbury News''. "Negro Meets Death at Stake in Tyler." October 30, 1912.</ref><ref>''Dallas Morning News''. "Negro Meets Death at Stake in Tyler." May 26, 1912.</ref><ref name="ReferenceA"/> Disease struck the peach trees, though, and local farmers moved toward growing roses by the 1920s. Twenty years later, most of the U.S. rose supply originated in the Tyler area.<ref name="hto" />

In {{year|1971}}, the University of Texas system established the [[University of Texas at Tyler]] and [[Broadway Square Mall]] opened in {{year|1975}}.<ref>Paul T. Hellmann (2006). "Texas: Tyler". ''Historical Gazetteer of the United States''. Taylor & Francis. {{ISBN|1-135-94859-3}}.</ref> By 1980, the population grew to 70,508 and the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Tyler]] and East Texas Islamic Society were established in the following years.<ref>"[https://texasalmanac.com/topics/population City Population History from 1850–2000: Tyler]", ''Texas Almanac'', Texas State Historical Association</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.katolsk.no/organisasjon/verden/chronology/usa |title=Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:The United States of America |website=Den katolske kirke |language=no |access-date=March 12, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://tylerpaper.com/news/local/tyler-islamic-community-members-to-build-mosque-subdivision-on-rhones/article_1f2f6198-5e9c-5afd-be8e-83696b08f471.html |title=Tyler Islamic community members to build mosque, subdivision on Rhones Quarter Road |last=GUEVARA |first=EMILY |website=TylerPaper.com |date=October 22, 2016 |language=en |access-date=March 12, 2020}}</ref> During the [[2010 East Texas church burnings]], two Tyler churches were destroyed, and [[historic preservation]] city planning began in 2016 as the population increased and the city continued development.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tylerpreservationplan2016.wordpress.com/project-approach/home/about/ |title=About |date=July 24, 2016 |website=Tyler Strategic Historic Preservation Plan |language=en |access-date=March 12, 2020}}</ref>