About

TYE, TEXAS: Tye, also known as Tebo and as Hines, is at the intersection of the Missouri Pacific line, State Highway 84, and Farm-to-Market 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, 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.