Where is abilene located

K Education There are two major school districts in the City of Abilene, as well as a number of private schools providing various levels of primary education.

Early Settlers Abilene owes its genesis to the Texas and Pacific Railway, and a group of ranchers and land speculators. Railroad Taylor County was organized in , and Buffalo Gap was designated the county seat.

Convention Center. Local Links. Moving to Abilene. Public Library. Visiting Abilene. Arrow Left Arrow Right. Abilene Independent School District. Wylie Independent School District. Abilene Christian University. Hardin-Simmons University. McMurry University. Cisco College. In the population was ,; in it was , In the population grew to , Since the first census in , the percentage of Whites, including Hispanics, has been 80 percent or above. The census revealed 8. The population was , in Although Abilene began its existence as a rowdy frontier town and shipping point, the citizens quickly founded schools and churches.

The first class graduated from Abilene High School in Black children attended a separate school, founded by their parents in , until they were incorporated into the Abilene school district. The Woodson elementary and high schools were built for black students in but were closed in in the general movement to integrate schools. A second high school, Cooper High, opened in Wylie ISD included elementary, middle, and high schools.

Abilene ISD had five high schools, including a medical magnet program, as well as four middle schools and fifteen elementary schools. Early in the twentieth century private schools were established; the longest-lived of these was St.

Joseph's Academy, founded by the Sisters of Divine Providence in Joseph's later called Central Catholic educated hundreds of students before it closed in the s. The Episcopal Church opened St. John's School in Cisco Junior College began offering courses in Abilene in the s.

The dominant religious groups in Abilene have been Baptist, Church of Christ, and Methodist; Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Disciples of Christ, and Catholics have been present in smaller numbers. From the beginning, there was an attempt to tame the frontier and make Abilene a town congenial for rearing families. The initial efforts to abolish saloons were successful in ; the city was legally dry until , when a fiercely contested election to legalize the sale of alcoholic beverages barely succeeded.

Abilene had already been bracketed by two wet communities—Impact and Buffalo Gap—since the s. Until the s virtually all local charity was conducted by the churches; they sponsored and funded day-care centers and nurseries and programs for elderly citizens, civic improvement, disadvantaged youth, and disaster relief. For decades churches provided the principal arena for women's community involvement.

This religious environment has been reinforced by the presence of the three church-related colleges. By the early twenty first century there were more than churches in the city. Cultural interests are reflected in the profusion of dramatic clubs, Chautauqua circles, community bands, and literary guilds. The first social and cultural organization for women was founded in ; the City Federation of Women's Clubs dates from The women's clubs were successful in establishing the Carnegie Library, which opened in The original building served the city until the s, when it was razed to make way for a new library building.

The Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first concert in Active little-theater groups, ballet companies, a civic chorus, an art museum, a community band, and an opera association support the fine arts. In the s Abilenians enjoyed polo and horse and auto racing at Fair Park. Withers, town-site locator for the railroad, to select a site in northeastern Taylor County for the new town, ignoring the already established community and county seat, Buffalo Gap.

A tent city of was already established when the first town lots were auctioned on March 15, Before long, Abilene had two newspapers, an imported sheriff John J. Clinton from Dodge City, Kansas , public schools, and churches. In Abilene won the election to become the new county seat. Religion has always been an important part of the community.

In the first of three church-related universities, Simmons College later Hardin-Simmons University , was established. The abundance of Christian universities has led some to say that Abilene is the buckle on the Bible Belt of the South.

There is no doubt that the universities have had their impact on the city; they are a major economic asset and help make Abilene an education center. In the late nineteenth century, as the Texas Plains were being settled, Abilene boosters unashamedly promoted their city, running promotional trains from Fort Worth to give people the opportunity to settle in this "Eden of the West. The Abilene Epileptic Asylum, known today as the Abilene State School, was built in and, along with the West Texas Rehabilitation Center and two major hospitals, made Abilene a major medical center for the region.

Abilene also quickly developed into a center for wholesale and retail trade, transportation, media, and cultural events as well as the headquarters for independent oil operators after the oil boom of the s, which had more than doubled the population to 23, by The closing of Barkeley at the end of World War II spurred civic leaders to diversify Abilene's economic base, but they never lost sight of what a military installation had done for the economy.