Smith County, Texas
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Submitted by Leroy B. Butler, leroybutler@hotmail.com 16 May 2001
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Title: A History of Texas and Texans
By: Frank W. Johnson
Publisher: American Historical Society
Date: 1914

                                     Smith County

This county was created in 1846 from Nacogdoches County and was 
organized in the same year. Its settlement had begun about the time 
the Texas Republic was established, and before the war it contained 
a relatively large population, had a large area cultivated in 
plantations, worked by slave labor, and even at that time Tyler was 
one of the leading towns in population, trade and culture in east 
Texas. The products of the plantations were sent to market chiefly 
by the Sabine River, which forms the northern boundary of the county, 
or by the Neches, a portion of the western boundary. Even before the 
war the population had grouped around a number of small church, post 
office and trading centers, and in 1856 the post offices credited to 
Smith County bore the following names:  Belzora, Berrien, Clopton, 
Flora, Garden Valley, Gum Springs, Hickory Grove, Jamestown, Mount 
Carmel, Ogsburn, Seven Leagues, Starrville, Summer Grove and Tyler.

When the first Federal census was taken in 1850, Smith County had a 
population of 4,292 with 717 slaves. In 1860 the population was 
13,392, with 4,982 slaves; and at that time Tyler had a population 
of 1,024. Though Smith County was characteristically Southern in all 
respects, its slave population was less in proportion than we found 
in other east Texas counties. The population since the war is shown 
by the following figures: In 1870, 16,532; in 1880, 21,863, in 1890
28,324; in 1900, 37,370; and in 1910, 41,746 (17,246 Negroes). Tyler, 
the metropolis of the county, had a population in 1890 0f 6,908; in 
1900, 8,069; and in 1910, 10,400. The next largest town in the county 
is Troupe, which originated as a railroad town, and in 1890 had 465 
population, in 1900, 724, and in 1910, 1,126. Lindale had 658 
inhabitants in 1910, and other towns are Swan, Bullard and Flint, all 
of which are important as shipping centers for the fruit and vegetable
districts of the county, and Winona, Starrville, Mount Sylvan, 
Arp, Omen and Whitehouse.

Smith County still has an abundance of hardwood and pine timber, and 
in 1880 the amount of short-leaf pine in the county was estimated at 
over two billion board feet. For more than thirty years the timber 
resources have supported numerous sawmills and kindred factories, and 
the county has valuable deposits of iron ore, salt and clay. The 
county possesses a great variety of fertile soil, including a large 
acreage of alluvial land along the river bottoms. For thirty years or 
more the county has been noted for its fruit crop, but within the 
last twenty years this industry has been placed on a commercial basis, 
and according to statistics Smith County is now in the very front 
ranks of fruit raising counties in the state, especially in the 
orchard fruits. The first carload of peaches or truck is said to
have been shipped out of the county about twenty years ago, and since 
then the crops of apples, peaches, tomatoes, berries and other forms 
of truck have aggregated more than a thousand carloads annually, with 
a value reaching about a million dollars. The agricultural progress 
of the county before the war is indicated by the increase of the 
improved land from about 9,000 acres in 1850 to over 80,000 acres by 
1860. The profits of the plantation were derived chiefly from the 
growing of cotton and corn together with the raising of live stock. 
While cotton still occupies the first place in local agriculture, as 
measured by acreage, diversified farming is an established fact in 
Smith County and the varied economic resources include lumbering, 
stock raising, the standard lines of agriculture, poultry, vegetables
and fruit. The total area of Smith County is 588,800 acres. The last 
census reported 447,178 acres included in farms, and about 267,000 
acres as "improved land" as compared with about 221,000 acres in 
1900. The number of farms increased from 4,993 in 1900 to 5,924 in 
1910. The number of cattle enumerated at the last census was 25,411; 
horses and mules, about 12,000; hogs, 20,358; poultry, 128,183. In 
1909, 87,123 acres were planted in cotton; 68,052 acres in corn; 
2,056 acres in oats; 1,288 acres in hay and forage crops; 689 acres 
in peanuts; 843 acres in potatoes, 702 acres in sweet potatoes, 2,906 
acres in other vegetables. The pre-eminence of Smith County as a 
horticultural section is indicated by the enumeration of about 889,000 
orchard fruit trees, nearly three times the number found in the average
county of the eastern fruit belt. Besides the orchard fruits, among 
which peaches were the chief in number and value, about 1,000 acres 
were planted in small fruits, strawberries, blackberries and dewberries, 
and the growing of nuts also had a place in the statistics. The 
assessed value of taxable property in Smith County in 1870 was 
$1,893,076; in 1882, $3,523,290; in 1903, $6,982,427; and in 1913, 
$14,127,621, values having more than doubled in the past 10 years.

As a railroad, manufacturing, commercial and social center, the city 
of Tyler has long had a distinctive place among Texas cities. 
Braman's Information about Texas, published in 1857, said of Tyler: 
"Tyler, the county seat, is directly on the line of the Pacific 
Railroad. It is already a place of considerable importance, and
contains many buildings of taste and beauty. The public square is
 very large and in the center is a natural mound on which the 
courthouse is built. Education has received the special attention 
of the people of Tyler, as evidenced by the commodious building 
devoted to learning." As intimated by this quotation the expectation 
at that time was that the old Southern Pacific Railroad, then in 
course of construction between Shreveport and Marshall would pass 
through Tyler. After construction was resumed on that road, 
following the war, it was built to Longview, with Tyler still on 
the proposed route of westward expansion. The continuation of the
railroad according to the original survey would have been a heavy 
blow to the progress and prosperity of the North Texas towns, 
chief among which was Dallas.  Credit has been given to the 
enterprise of some Dallas citizens in securing a change in the 
route for it to pass through that city, and when the work of
construction from Longview west was undertaken in 1870 the Texas 
and Pacific diverged to the north and all but missed Smith County 
entirely. In 1872 the International and Great Northern was built 
across the southeast corner of Smith County from Palestine to 
Longview. Thus the city of Tyler failed to secure its coveted 
position on either side of those important pioneer Texas roads. 
Thus disappointed, the city and county raised a large amount of 
money and in a few years was at the center of several diverging 
railways. The original Texas portion of that great system now know 
as the St. Louis Southwestern or Cotton belt was the Tyler Tap 
railroad, which was chartered in December 1871. It was built on a
narrow gauge line from Tyler to Ferguson, a distance of twenty-
one miles, taping the line of the Texas and Pacific, and was 
completed in 1871. That gave Tyler a connection with what was then 
the chief railroad in north Texas. A few years later, in 1874, the 
branch of the International and Great Northern was completed 
between Troupe, in the southern part of Smith County, north 
through Tyler to Mineola. That gave Tyler two railways. The Tyler 
Tap having in the meantime become a portion of the system now 
known as the St. Louis Southwestern was extended west from Tyler 
to Waco in 1881. In 1881 another railroad enterprise originated
in Tyler, known as the Kansas and Gulf Short Line, which was built
from Tyler south and in the course of several years was completed 
to Lufkin.  In 1887 this road was acquired by the Cotton Belt 
interests, but subsequently was operated by the Tyler and 
Southeastern Company, until 1899, when it again became part of the 
Cotton Belt and so remains at the present time. Since the city 
redeemed itself by acquiring railway connections in all directions, 
the city has been growing in importance. In 1882 it claimed a 
population of about 4,000, had ample banking facilities, a number 
of business houses that sought their trade beyond the limits of 
Smith County, and was an important shipping point for cotton and 
other products. At that time it was the seat of East Texas 
University, a school of high standing. The town of Troupe, in the 
southeastern part of the county, at one time threatened a serious 
rivalry with Tyler until the latter became a railroad town, but 
since has retained its position as the second city of the county. 
Tyler now has all the modern municipal facilities and conveniences, 
has a number of industries employing extensive capital and hundreds
of men, and a number of wholesale houses have been developed, so 
that the city now distributes merchandise over nearly all eastern 
Texas.