TYE, TEXAS: Tye, also known as Tebo and as Hines, is at
the intersection of the Missouri Pacific line, State Highway 84,
and Farm Road 707, eight miles west of Abilene and just north of
Dyess Air Force Base, in northern Taylor County. The community was
laid off by the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881 and named Tebo.
The Methodist Little Elm Church was organized there in 1892. The
John J. Hinds family was among the early settlers at the townsite;
the first community school was named the Hinds school for them in
1895. When a post office opened in 1899, it also took the name
Hinds, or Hines. A Baptist church was organized at the community in
1900. In 1901 the name of the post office and community was changed
to Tye, to honor John P. Tye, who served as the first postmaster
and as a Methodist minister. By 1914 Tye included two general
stores, a lumberyard, a grocery store, and a drugstore. The
population grew from an estimated forty inhabitants in 1925 to 100
in 1940, when the community had five businesses, four churches, the
Tye school, and a number of dwellings. During World War II, the Tye
field was built just south of the community for the Army Air Corps;
the field briefly served as Abilene's airport. In 1953 work began
to restore and enlarge the field, and it was reactivated as Abilene
Air Force Base in 1956. Later that year the base was renamed Dyess
Air Force Base. As the base and nearby Abilene grew in the 1950s,
Tye also continued to expand. It incorporated in the mid-1950s, and
its population grew to 521 in 1960, 857 in 1970, and 1,088 in 1990.
In the 1980s trucking and oil were among the more important sectors
of the local economy. In 2000 the community had a population of
1,158 and listed fifty-five businesses.
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