Tyler County

Tyler County, Texas

Tyler County, Texas

The Tyler County Courthosue is located in Woodville, Texas. Photograph by Larry D. Moore.
Tyler County, Texas

Tyler County, Texas

Map of Tyler County, Texas. Map Credit: Robert Plocheck.

Tyler County is in southeastern Texas near the Louisiana border. Woodville, the county seat and largest town, is fifty-six miles north of Beaumont and ninety miles northeast of Houston, very near the center of the county at 30°47' north latitude and 94°25' west longitude. Tyler County is bounded on the north and east by the Neches River. The county comprises 908 square miles of the East Texas timberlands, an area densely forested with pine and a great variety of hardwoods. It contains two units and parts of two more of the twelve units of the Big Thicket National Preserve established by Congress in 1974. The land is gently rolling, with an elevation ranging from 100 to 400 feet above sea level. Northern and eastern Tyler County is drained to the Neches River via Caney, Russell, Billiams, Pamplin, Wolf, Theuvenins, and Rush creeks. The southwestern part of the county contains numerous springs and drains into Horsepen, Hickory, Turkey, and Cypress creeks. The largest body of water in the county is B. A. Steinhagen Lake on the Neches River, impounded in 1951 by Town Bluff Dam (also called Dam B); the lake covers 13,700 acres. Two main soil types are found in Tyler County. In the northern, rolling two-thirds are clayey to sandy marine and continental deposits, and in the level, southern one-third are recent noncalcareous and calcareous clayey flood plain and alluvium. The former, with its loamy or sandy surface layers and clayey or loamy subsoils, supports heavy stands of pine and hardwoods. The latter, more varied soil supports hardwood forest, grasses, crops, and pasturage. Excellent farmland comprises 21 to 30 percent of the land in the county. Mineral resources include clay, industrial sands, oil, and gas. Temperatures range from an average high of 94° F in June to an average low of 38° F in January, rainfall averages forty to fifty inches per year, and the growing season extends for 241 days.

The area of Tyler County was for centuries occupied by agricultural Caddoan, and possibly Atakapan, Indians. White settlers there in the early nineteenth century encountered both Caddoan-related Cherokees uprooted from the east and groups of Alabama and Coushatta Indians, recent migrants from Louisiana. In 1809 there were hundreds of Alabama Indians living on the west bank of the Neches River, three leagues above the junction of the Neches and Angelina rivers. At Peach Tree Village in Tyler County, their principal Texas settlement, the Alabamas kept cattle, horses, and hogs and cultivated corn, potatoes, beans, and yams. The Cherokees were eventually driven from the state by order of Mirabeau B. Lamar, but the Alabamas and Coushattas cooperated with Sam Houston and others friendly to their cause and have survived as one of only two Indian groups living on their own reservations in Texas. The Alabama-Coushatta Reservation is just across the western Tyler County line in Polk County. The settlement by Whites of what was to become Tyler County began before the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836. Three Americans received land grants there from Mexican authorities in 1834, and thirty-four more men and one woman, Jane Taylor, received grants during 1835. The area was originally organized in 1842 under the name of Menard District, "for judicial and other purposes," from a part of Liberty County. Tyler County was officially established by the Texas legislature on April 3, 1846, and was named in honor of President John Tyler. In 1842 Town Bluff, one of two early settlements, became the temporary county seat. In 1845 a permanent location was chosen. This was the site of the present county seat, Woodville, on 200 acres of land donated by Dr. Josiah Wheat in the forks of Turkey Creek. Woodville was named in honor of George T. Wood, who introduced the bill to establish the county and was the second governor of the state of Texas. The other early settlement, Fort Teran, on the Neches River where it crossed the Old Spanish Trail from Nacogdoches to Liberty, was established as a result of Anastasio Bustamante's Law of April 6, 1830 and its policies of restrictions on immigration.

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Megan Biesele | © TSHA

Handbook of Texas Logo

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Tyler County is classified as a County

Altitude Range

50 ft – 461 ft

Size

Land area does not include water surface area, whereas total area does

  • Land Area: 924.5 mi²
  • Total Area: 935.6 mi²

Temperature

January mean minimum: 37.5°F
July mean maximum: 91.8°F

Rainfall, 2019

56.2 inches

Population Count, 2019

21,672

Civilian Labor Count, 2019

6,933

Unemployment, 2019

11.5%

Property Values, 2019

$2,272,247,120 USD

Per-Capita Income, 2019

$32,081 USD

Retail Sales, 2019

$141,680,466 USD

Wages, 2019

$37,555,101 USD

Tyler County

Highlighted:
  • Tyler County
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Place Type Population (Year/Source) Currently Exists
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Lake Yes
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Town 277 (2021) Yes
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Town 551 (2021) Yes
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Town 160 (2009) Yes
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Town 300 (2014) Yes
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Town 250 (2009) Yes
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Town 1,372 (2021) Yes
Town 0 (2012)
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Town 98 (2009) Yes
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Town 590 (2009) Yes
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Town 429 (2009) Yes
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Town 847 (2021) Yes
Town
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Town 2,440 (2021) Yes

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