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LEFORS,
TEXASGray County,
Texas Panhandle
First County Seat in Gray County
Hwy 273 and FM 2375
10 miles SE of Pampa
57 miles NE of Amarillo
Population: 610 (1990) 816 (1980) |
History
in a Pecan shell
First there were the buffalo. Then a man with the
pioneer name of Travis Leach moved into the area in the 1880s. The other settlers
consisted of a few others - the Lovett, Lefors, and Thut families. Emma Thut*
was the first unmarried woman in Gray County. At 14 she was getting worried about
becoming an old maid so she married the man LeFors. They lived in a dugout, which
was the custom, and Emma's father Henry was the first postmaster.
The
first post office had dirt walls and the "mailboxes" were carved into the walls.
Henry expected Lefors to grow and carved 14 boxes into the walls, although only
four were used. Thut also brought in the lumber for the first Gray County Courthouse.
After the county seat became Pampa, the Thut family
moved into the old courthouse.
Lefors had a severe blizzard in 1938 and
90% of the town was destroyed in 1975. Each disaster claimed one life.
In 1932 Lefors became a stop on a railroad built between Childress
and Pampa. The railroad let the whole town ride
to Childress and back for free. |
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