Source: The Handbook of Texas Online
McLEAN, TEXAS
ALANREED, TEXAS
BACK, TEXAS
BELCO, TEXAS
BOYDSTON, TEXAS
COLTEXO, TEXAS
DENWORTH, TEXAS
ELFCO, TEXAS
HOOVER, TEXAS
KELLERVILLE, TEXAS
KINGS MILL, TEXAS
LEFORS, TEXAS
WESCO, TEXAS
WILCOX, TEXAS
McLEAN, TEXAS
McLean, on Interstate Highway 40 in southeastern Gray
County, is the second largest town in the county. In 1901
the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Texas Railroad Company dug a
water well and built a switch and section house three
miles inside Gray County.
Around this switch the following year Alfred Rowe, an
area rancher, laid out a townsite. The town was named for
a Texas legislator and railroad commissioner, William P.
McLean, and was granted a post office in 1902 with C. C.
Cooke as postmaster. By 1904 McLean had three general
stores, a bank, two wagonyards and livery stables, a
lumberyard, and a newspaper, the McLean News.
A windmill pumped water from a well drilled in the middle
of Main Street, and citizens hauled the water in barrels
and buckets. The town was incorporated in 1909 with C. S.
Rice as mayor. Soon McLean became a center for area
agriculture. Several hundred carloads of hogs and
watermelons were shipped annually. Four telegraph
operators were required to handle the messages of the
railroad business.
In 1908 and again in 1919 McLean made an unsuccessful bid
against Lefors to become the county seat. During the
1920s the town profited from the oil boom and became a
shipping point for area livestock, gas, and oil. By 1940
McLean had six churches, a newspaper, fifty-nine
businesses, and a population of 1,521.
The growth of Amarillo and the emergence of Pampa as the
county's industrial center helped to reduce the
population to 1,447 in 1950, 1,330 in 1960, and 1,183 in
1970. In 1970 McLean had a hospital, a library, a bank,
and fifty businesses.
The number of businesses dropped to twenty-five by 1980,
when the population was 1,160. In addition to a garment
factory, McLean has had several industries connected with
petroleum and its products. In 1990 the population was
849.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], The
Lefors, Texas, Story (Nazareth, Texas, 1975).
H. Allen Anderson
ALANREED, TEXAS
Alanreed is on Interstate Highway 40 and U.S. Highway 66
in southern Gray County. In the early 1880s a group of
farmers clearing timber from the basin of McClellan Creek
selected the site, which was on the stage line from
Mobeetie to Clarendon. By 1884 the Clarendon Land and
Cattle Company began selling townsite lots. F. R.
McCraken and R. P. Reeves were among the first settlers.
In 1886 a post office called Eldridge was established six
miles north of the present site of Alanreed. At various
times the town was also called Springtown or Spring Tank,
for a large spring-fed tank; Prairie Dog Town, for one
located nearby; and Gouge Eye, for a saloon fight. The
present townsite was laid out in 1900 by a surveyor for
the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Texas Railroad. The town's
present name was reputedly derived from the name of the
contracting firm, Alan and Reed.
In 1901 the first school was built. In 1902 the post
office was moved from Eldridge and renamed Alanreed.
After the Rock Island line was completed in 1903 the town
became a shipping point for cattle. G. E. Castleberry's
land company sold parcels at $2.25 an acre. By 1904
Alanreed was the largest town in Gray County.
In 1907 it had a bank, a hotel, a depot, Baptist and
Methodist churches, a saloon, two grocery stores, a
hardware store, a livery stable, and a blacksmith shop.
Watermelons became a major crop; the town shipped an
average of 500 cars annually. In 1912 a two-story school
was built. By 1917 the town had telephone service and an
estimated population of 250.
Like its neighbor McLean, Alanreed made several
unsuccessful bids to be the county seat. The oil boom of
the 1920s led to a temporary increase in population, but
it also shifted development to other towns in the area.
Although the population was estimated at 500 in 1927, by
1929 both the hotel and the bank had closed. In 1930 the
Alanreed school was consolidated with three other area
schools. In 1933 the number of residents was estimated at
150.
By 1939 the population had grown to 200, and fifteen
businesses were reported. In 1947 Alanreed reported
eleven businesses and a population of 300. In the early
1960s the Alanreed school district merged with that of
McLean, and a new school was built in 1964.
The town reported a population of 200 and five businesses
in 1967, but over the next decade both continued to
decline. In 1977 the population was estimated at sixty,
and no businesses were reported. In 1990 the population
was still reported as sixty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gray County 50th Anniversary, 1902-1952:
Souvenir Program (Pampa, Texas: Pampa Daily News, 1952).
Gray County History Book Committee, Gray County Heritage
(Dallas: Taylor, 1985).
H. Allen Anderson
BACK, TEXAS
Back, originally Pumpkin Ridge, is a rural community at
the junction of State Highway 273 and Farm Road 1321, in
eastern Gray County. The area was first settled by
farmers in the late 1890s. In October 1899 a post office
was opened there and named Northfork because of its
proximity to the North Fork of the Red River.
John J. Simpkins was the first postmaster. Many of the
Pumpkin Ridge farmers built their homes out of lumber
procured from the abandoned Fort Elliott near Mobeetie. A
one-room school, opened in 1899, was originally taught by
Miss Fannie Womble and later by T. M. Wolf, future Gray
county judge. The community received its present name
after John David Back arrived in the fall of 1904 with
his wife and ten children from near Van Alstyne, in
Collin County.
Back, who became a pillar in the community, gave land for
a new school building after the first one was
mysteriously plundered for its lumber. The Back school,
which served as a church building on Sundays, quickly
became a local gathering place. For recreation, area
residents enjoyed hunting in the breaks of the North
Fork, and in 1905 a local baseball club was organized.
Oil and natural gas discoveries in the area during the
1920s led real estate men to begin platting lots for a
proposed Back City in 1927, and roads were graded to the
local oil wells, some of which reportedly produced as
much as 6,000 barrels a day. A new brick schoolhouse was
completed in 1928.
The proposed town failed to materialize, however, after
the Phillips Petroleum Company constructed a plant on the
North Fork and the Fort Worth and Denver Northern Railway
completed its line from Childress to Pampa in 1932. The
Northfork post office, which had closed in 1928, was
reestablished at the oil camp of Denworth in September
1932. Most people found it cheaper to live in either
McLean, to the south of Back, or in Denworth, to the
north.
The Back community school remained in operation until
1950, when its district merged with that of McLean.
Afterward the building was used as a community center.
The area still produces oil and gas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Arthur Hecht, comp., Postal History in the
Texas Panhandle (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains
Historical Society, 1960). S. G. Reed, A History of the
Texas Railroads (Houston: St. Clair, 1941; rpt., New
York: Arno, 1981). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola],
Story of the Texas Panhandle Railroads (Borger, Texas:
Hess, 1976). L. M. Watson, Jr., Back Community (MS,
Interview files, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum,
Canyon, Texas).
H. Allen Anderson
BELCO, TEXAS
Belco, in northwestern Gray County, was established as an
oil camp in 1929, during the height of the local boom. It
sprang up around the refinery erected by the Bell Oil and
Gas Company a mile east of Pampa. Mail came through the
Pampa post office.
During the 1930s Belco reported four businesses but had
no population listings until 1945 and 1947, when the
Texas Almanac recorded a population of eighty. In 1932
Danciger Oil and Refineries, manufacturer of Roadrunner
Gasoline, took over the plant and hired as many as 200
people. A year after the takeover the capacity of the
refinery was increased by 4,000 barrels.
During World War II Danciger produced high-octane
gasoline as aviation fuel for area bases. The refinery
also was known as the sponsor of the Pampa Road Runner
baseball team, which included Sammy Baugh of subsequent
football fame. The Phillips Petroleum Company bought the
refinery in 1946 and later closed it. That move, in
addition to the growth of Pampa, resulted in Belco's
rapid demise.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gray County History Book Committee, Gray
County Heritage (Dallas: Taylor, 1985).
H. Allen Anderson
BOYDSTON, TEXAS
Boydston, near Interstate Highway 40 and the Donley
county line twenty-four miles south of Pampa in
southwestern Gray County, began in northern Donley
County. Henry S. Boystun was the first settler in the
area. A post office named Boydston opened in 1891.
In 1903 the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway built
through the area and constructed a siding just across the
county line from the settlement; the community's post
office was subsequently moved to the new Gray County
location. Sources disagree upon whether the town was
named for Boystun or for H. S. Boyd, an official of the
railroad.
John Fraser had opened a general store in Boydston by
1910. In 1930 the community had a store and a population
of ten. By 1941 it reported two businesses and a
population of forty, figures that remained stable through
1964. After 1940 local residents' mail was sent through
Groom.
The completion of Interstate Highway 40 led to the
community's demise. By 1980, when the railroad ceased
operations there, only a cow shed and two abandoned grain
elevators remained at the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Arthur Hecht, comp., Postal History in the
Texas Panhandle (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains
Historical Society, 1960).
H. Allen Anderson
COLTEXO, TEXAS
Coltexo, an oil camp on Farm Road 1474 three miles
northeast of Lefors in north central Gray County, was
established in the late 1920s. The camp was named for the
Col-Tex Refinery Company, which erected a carbon black
plant on a spur of the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway.
Earl and Thelma Butterick operated a store there, and
local mail came through Lefors. After the improvement of
transportation in the area, many of the plant's employees
moved to Lefors.
The Coltexo community declined when carbon black lost its
importance in the petroleum industry. In 1990 the
population of Coltexo was recorded as five.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gray County History Book Committee, Gray
County Heritage (Dallas: Taylor, 1985). Carl Coke Rister,
Oil! Titan of the Southwest (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1949).
H. Allen Anderson
DENWORTH, TEXAS
Denworth, near Farm Road 2857 three miles east of the
Wheeler county line in eastern Gray County, was laid out
in 1919 as a townsite for the Fort Worth and Denver
Railway, for which it was named.
Although it thrived for a time as an area shipping point
during the oil boom days, its isolated location
eventually caused the town to fail. A post office was
opened in 1932 with Mrs. Ina Marshal as postmistress, and
by 1939 the number of residents was estimated at fifty.
Despite a reported population increase to 100 in 1945,
the post office closed in March 1946. The completion of
Interstate Highway 40 has subsequently caused the
community to fall almost into oblivion. A pump station
was still at the site in 1988.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Arthur Hecht, comp., Postal History in the
Texas Panhandle (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains
Historical Society, 1960).
H. Allen Anderson
ELFCO, TEXAS
Elfco was on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway three
miles southeast of downtown Pampa in northwestern Gray
County. It was the site of the Texas Elf Company carbon
black plant, established during the 1930s. The company
erected several houses near the plant for its employees.
A county highway map for the 1940s shows Elfco as
fourteen dwellings along dirt roads and the railway, on
the edge of the Panhandle oilfield. The same map shows a
second cluster of seventeen dwellings and one business,
labeled "Texas Elf Company Settlement," a mile
south of Elfco on a dirt road and a spur of the Fort
Worth and Denver City Railway.
Mail for Elfco was routed through Pampa. When local
highways were improved, most of the plant employees were
able to live in Pampa. After carbon black lost its
importance in the petroleum industry during the late
1950s, the plant was abandoned and eventually dismantled.
Almost nothing remained at the site in the 1980s.
H. Allen Anderson
HOOVER, TEXAS
Hoover, near the Roberts county line in northern Gray
County, was named for Harvey E. Hoover, a prominent
lawyer and landowner of Canadian. It began in 1887 as a
switch on the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway.
E. D. McClain became postmaster after an office was
granted in January 1910. It was discontinued in 1914 but
reestablished the following year. By then Hoover had
become a livestock shipping point with a population of
twenty-five.
By 1930 the town had three businesses and two churches.
Oil discoveries in the area during the early 1930s
brought more people to Hoover. Its population reached
seventy-five by the mid-1940s. For several years the town
sponsored a boy scout troop. Hoover declined as a result
of Pampa's growth.
In 1972 the post office was discontinued, and only the
general store remained in business. In 1980 Hoover
reported a population of thirty-five and no businesses. A
grain elevator, erected in 1954, continued to be used
during harvest season. The population in 1990 was
recorded as five.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gray County History Book Committee, Gray
County Heritage (Dallas: Taylor, 1985). Arthur Hecht,
comp., Postal History in the Texas Panhandle (Canyon,
Texas: Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1960). Fred
Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1980).
H. Allen Anderson
KELLERVILLE, TEXAS
Kellerville, on Farm roads 1443 and 2473, near the Gray
county line in western Wheeler County, began in the late
1920s as a result of the discovery of oil near Shamrock.
A post office was established in 1935 with Mrs. Frankie
Buford as postmistress. An influx of oil money resulted
in the founding of a school district and the construction
of a modern building, which for a time had six teachers.
In 1940 three businesses, three churches, and a
population of 150 were reported. In January 1949 the
Baptist church burned, and the people rebuilt it in seven
months. Since that time improved transportation and an
economic recession caused a population decrease.
In 1984 Kellerville reported 107 residents, the church, a
store, a post office, and a service station. In 1990 the
population was fifty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, comp., Hide Town in the
Texas Panhandle: 100 Years in Wheeler County and
Panhandle of Texas (Hereford, Texas: Pioneer, 1968).
Arthur Hecht, comp., Postal History in the Texas
Panhandle (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains Historical
Society, 1960). William Coy Perkins, A History of Wheeler
County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1938).
H. Allen Anderson
KINGS MILL, TEXAS
Kings Mill is on U.S. Highway 60 seven miles southwest of
Pampa near the western border of Gray County. It is on
land formerly owned by the White Deer Lands Trust, a
syndicate of British investors which assumed the assets
and debts of the Francklyn Land and Cattle Company when
the latter failed in the mid-1880s.
It is named for Andrew Kingsmill, London banker and
representative of the British investors. Kingsmill was
instrumental in reorganizing the company after its
bankruptcy and in hiring George Tyng as manager of the
White Deer lands in 1886. In 1902 Lord Rosebery, former
British prime minister and largest holder of Francklyn
and White Deer bonds, instructed Kingsmill to return to
Texas in order to check up on the bondholders' interests
and on the possibility of the sale of land in and near
Pampa.
During this trip Kingsmill, acting on Tyng's
recommendation, hired Timothy Dwight Hobart as manager to
replace the retiring Tyng. At this time Kingsmill also
purchased, at five dollars an acre, a section of land on
Rosebery's behalf and ordered that a water well be
drilled on it.
Because foreigners were not allowed to own land in Texas,
the acreage was held in trust for a time by the Foster
and Cuyler law firm of New York, which had originally
purchased the White Deer lands for the British syndicate
and which assisted Kingsmill in representing their
interests. A small community of homesteaders and cowboys
subsequently grew on Rosebery's land.
By 1907 the Southern Kansas Railway of Texas had
established a station, known as Kings Mill, at the site.
The post office, established in 1916, was initially named
Elca but was renamed Kings Mill in the early 1920s. The
discovery of oil at about the same time attracted
additional settlers; by 1931 the town had a school,
sixteen businesses, and 400 residents.
The population dropped to 150 by 1947. The proximity of
Pampa and its emergence as an industrial center led to
the demise of Kings Mill. The post office was closed by
1966, and from 1968 to 1990 the population was listed at
sixty-five.
During some of this time Kings Mill had a store and two
grain elevators. The Cabot Company's Kings Mill carbon
plant is on the highway two miles northeast.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Arthur Hecht, comp., Postal History in the
Texas Panhandle (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains
Historical Society, 1960). Lester Fields Sheffy, The
Francklyn Land & Cattle Company (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1963).
H. Allen Anderson
LEFORS, TEXAS
Lefors is on the North Fork of the Red River and State
Highway 273, twelve miles southeast of Pampa in central
Gray County. The town was named for Perry LeFors, who
traveled with his father to the Panhandle in 1878 and
later became foreman of the Diamond F Ranch, part of the
White Deer Lands.
The first homestead (1882) on the future townsite was
that of Travis Leach, a rancher and surveyor, whose log
cabin served as a stagecoach stop on the mail route from
Fort Elliott and Mobeetie to Tascosa. Henry B. Lovett, a
former buffalo hunter, and Henry Thut, a Swiss immigrant
whose sister-in-law, Emma Lang, married LeFors, also
settled in the vicinity during the 1880s.
George Henry Saunders had a ranch camp headquarters
nearby. Other settlers soon moved into the area, and in
1892 a post office was opened at Lefors with Thut as
postmaster. (Postal officials required that the F be
lowercased.) Four years later a combination school and
church building was built.
When Gray County was organized on May 27, 1902, Lefors
was elected county seat. A two-story frame courthouse was
built for less than $2,500, and Thut, who became the
first county treasurer, erected a hotel. Perry LeFors
served as the town's first constable.
The population reached 150 in 1910, and despite its small
size and the lack of a railroad, the town managed for a
time to remain the county seat. When the oil boom hit the
county during the 1920s, three oil pools were discovered
in the vicinity. Lefors profited handsomely from the
boom, especially in real estate, but Pampa became the
county seat in 1928 after a special election.
Nevertheless, the boom resulted in the establishment of
an independent school district and the bringing of
electricity and other modern utilities to the town. By
1931 Lefors had incorporated, and in 1932 the town
finally got a railroad, when the Fort Worth and Denver
extended its line from Pampa.
The population increased to 809 by 1940. Several
Protestant denominations established churches in the
community. The town suffered a flood in 1961,
unemployment from the closure of several area carbon
black plants in 1964, and a tornado in 1975.
In 1984 Lefors had eleven businesses and a population of
829. In 1990 its population was reported as 656.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gray County 50th Anniversary, 1902-1952:
Souvenir Program (Pampa, Texas: Pampa Daily News, 1952).
Gray County History Book Committee, Gray County Heritage
(Dallas: Taylor, 1985). Elleta Nolte, For the Reason We
Climb Mountains-Gray County, 1902-1982 (Pampa, Texas:
Gray County Historical Commission, 1982). Millie Jones
Porter, Memory Cups of Panhandle Pioneers (Clarendon,
Texas: Clarendon Press, 1945). Lester Fields Sheffy, The
Francklyn Land & Cattle Company (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1963). F. Stanley, The Lefors, Texas,
Story (Nazareth, Texas, 1975).
H. Allen Anderson
WESCO, TEXAS
Wesco is at the junction of Farm roads 1321 and 1474, two
miles east of Lefors in central Gray County.
Originally it was the location of a carbon black plant
owned by the Western Carbon Company.
Since the 1950s the community has declined with the
carbon black industry and the growth of both Lefors and
Pampa.
H. Allen Anderson
WILCOX, TEXAS
Wilcox is a rural community in northwestern Gray County
five miles southeast of Pampa. It was founded in the late
1920s when the Wilcox Oil Company leased a section of
land on the Combs-Worley Ranch and began drilling wells.
By 1940 Wilcox reported a population of fifty. Dane
Cambern, later a noted area cattle raiser, resided there
in the early 1940s and worked as the company's production
foreman. Mail and supplies were received from Pampa.
The decrease in oil production resulted in the decline of
Wilcox, and in 1990 it had a population of five.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gray County History Book Committee, Gray
County Heritage (Dallas: Taylor, 1985).
H. Allen Anderson
(information from The Handbook of
Texas Online --
a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history,
geography, and culture.)