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About Gray County
Gray County is located
in the central part of the Panhandle and the
eastern edge of the High Plains. Its center point
is at 35°25' north latitude and 100°49' west
longitude. Lefors is located near the center of
the county, and Pampa, the county seat, is about
twelve miles away in the northwestern corner.
Pampa is approximately sixty miles northeast of
Amarillo on U.S. Highway 60. The county occupies
934 square miles of level prairie and rolling
river break. Formed in 1876 out of the Bexar
District, the county was named for Peter W. Gray,
a lawyer and politician of the Republic of Texas
and Civil War eras.
Ranchers began to reach
the region as early as 1877. In 1878 a well-known
local rancher, Perry LeFors, established a small
ranch on Cantonment Creek. Other small ranching
operations developed in the eastern part of the
county. For the rest of the nineteenth century
Gray County remained the domain of cattle
ranchers.
By the turn of the
century, farmers began to appear in the county.
The county population grew to 3,405 by 1910 and
4,663 by 1920. The newly arriving farmers settled
in the western and northern parts of the county,
planting wheat, corn, and grain sorghums on
fertile, newly broken lands. Farming and ranching
dominated the county's economy for a short time,
and then major petroleum discoveries greatly
altered the county.
By the 1980s the great
bulk of the county's population lived in urban
areas served by the highway and rail system.
Pampa had 19,959 residents in 1980, and McLean
had 849 and Lefors 656. Other communities were
Alanreed, Kings Mill, Laketon, and Hoover. The
modern economy of the county depends upon a
healthy mix of oil, petrochemicals, farming, and
ranching.
A
More Detailed History of Gray County
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Search The Gray County
Page
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Gray County
Research News!
On a May 2009 visit to Gray and surrounding Texas
panhandle counties for genealogical research, the
former Gray County TXGenWeb Coordinator,
Marie Bartholomew, completed numerous projects
which she has
generously donated to this Gray County website.
She photographed 200+ tombstones for several
cemeteries,
including Fairview
Cemetery in Pampa, TX, and
also photographed
approximately 500 pages of the Fairview Cemetery
roster books.
The tombstone photos are being prepared for
presentation on this
website and will be added as they are completed.
The photos of the roster books will also be added
in the future.
Along with the cemetery photos, Marie sent us a
copy of the 1938 Pampa High School yearbook, and
that will be uploaded soon. Finally, she obtained
a 1902-1982 anniversary edition of The Pampa
News, and excerpts will be included as they are
transcribed. She has also graciously volunteered
to add her name to the Lookups
page for Fairview Cemetery.
Our sincere thanks to Marie for the valuable
research material she has contributed
to the Gray County TXGenWeb Project page over the
years!
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Fairview Cemetery Photos (work in progress)
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To post your Queries,
Biographies, Bible Records, Deeds,
Obituaries, Pensions, and Wills, please visit the
new Rootsweb
Message Board for Gray County, Texas.
Gray County Message
Board
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World
War I and World War II
Texas Panhandle Casualties
and Missing in Action
World War I
World War II
Source:
Amarillo Globe-News
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NARA
-- Access to Military Service and Pension Records
The National Archives
and Records Administration (NARA) is the official
repository for records of military personnel who
have been discharged from the U.S. Air Force,
Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard.
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 Texas Panhandle Ranches
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Ranches.org is home for several
Texas panhandle ranches.
Included on the site, which is
maintained by rancher Jay O'Brien,
are biographical sketches,
ranch histories, and information
about the McLean
Feedyard.
Ranches
included are:
The Swamp--O'Brien Ranch,
the JA, The Circle,
and the Exell Ranch.
Biographies
include:
John G. O'Brien, G.W. O'Brien,
Will O'Brien, Exie Eagan O'Brien,
James Christopher Paul,
and Howard Paul.
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Visit
the page!
The Gray County
Sheriff's Office
has recently completed a project
to gather photos and biographies of
County Sheriffs over the last 98 years.
Officers
featured include the first female sheriff in
the State of Texas, and Otis Hendrix, the only
Gray County police officer to be killed in the
line of duty.
The collection is
currently on display in Pampa,
and Sheriff Don Copeland has graciously allowed
us
to feature their work on this website.
Our thanks to Sheriff
Copeland
and Deputy Sheriff Gary Noblett
for making this possible.
Earliest Texas Panhandle
Sheriffs
A
follow-up project to the
Early Sheriffs of Gray County
is to gather photos and biographies of the
very first sheriffs of the Texas Panhandle.
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Visit
the Gray County Sheriff's Office webpage!
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Gray County Mailing List
Topics of
genealogical and historical
significance to Gray County are discussed,
as well as queries of local interest.
To subscribe,
send the command subscribe
(and nothing else) to
TXGRAY-L-REQUEST@rootsweb.com.
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Neighboring
Counties
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If you are
interested in sponsoring a Texas County in the
TXGenWeb Project, please visit the Orphan Counties page.
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If
you like what you've seen here, please cast your
vote.
County
of the Month
Thank you!
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Bluebonnets - Texas State
Flower
© 1997-2009 by the Gray County
Coordinator
for the TXGenWeb Project
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