Editing Tyler, Texas (section)

===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"/>