Wylie

Wylie is on State Highway 89, or Buffalo Gap Road, five miles southwest of Abilene in north central Taylor County. It bears the name of J. J. Wylie, a pioneer of the area who moved to Texas from Tishomingo, Mississippi, in the mid-nineteenth century and to Taylor County in 1880. Though early residents had farmed in the Wylie area from the time that patents were first issued in 1881, community development did not begin until 1902, when John H. Vance arrived from Austin, purchased land to the southwest of Abilene, and built the first general store, with a residence attached at the back for his family, on the southwest corner of what is now the intersection of Buffalo Gap Road and Antilley Road. The same year residents expressed a need for a school and a church, so Mary V. Wylie, widow of J. J. Wylie, donated land across the road to the north of the Vance store. While early records show that a Wylie school district was designated as early as 1888, none can be found to indicate that a school ever operated until 1902. Read more at TSHA