After the removal of the Indian threat, rapid settlement in this area around 1875 led to the development of a rural community with a few homes, a school, and a trading post-store operated by W.F. Matheney, whose name was shortened to Theney for business purposes and came to designate the town. Among the pioneer families was that of B.F. Barnes at nearby Jones Crossing in 1876, and his great-grandson Ben Barnes, Lt. Gov. of Texas, was reared in Comyn-Theney. In 1881 the Texas Central Railroad was built through the community and a depot was established. M.T. Comyn, a railroad official, succeeded in having the town and depot named for him, though the school remained Theney. The settlement soon included several general stores, a post office, drug store, blacksmith shop, lumber yard, cotton gin, cafe, barber shop, and a hall for the Woodmen of the World. In 1918, when Humble Pipeline Company began building a tank farm here to store oil from new West Texas fields, a tent city of several hundred appeared, but when construction ceased in 1919, the townspeople moved away. Theney Consolidated School, formed in 1924, soon built a new plant and became an outstanding high school before declining attendance caused it to close in 1952.