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This was one of the last of the Panhandle counties to be organized, a county government being instituted in 1902. The population of the county in 1880 was 56; in 1890, 203; in 1900, 480; and in 1910, 3,405. The Kansas Southern Division of the Santa Fe Railroad was constructed across the northwest corner of the county during the latter '80s, and in 1903 the Rock Island Line was built along the southern border of the county. The county seat is Lefors, in the center of the county, while important railroad towns are Pampa, Alan Reed and McLean. The last ten or fifteen years has witnessed the introduction of the same changes in this section as in other parts of the Panhandle. In the southern portion of the county a considerable acreage of sub-irrigated land has been made to produce alfalfa, wheat and other grain and forage crops, and gradually the live stock industry has become secondary to diversified farming along the railroads. |
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Gray County, formed in 1876 out of the Bexar District, was named for Peter W. Gray, a lawyer and politician of the Republic of Texas and Civil War eras. The county's prehistoric Plains Apache inhabitants gave way to the Apaches, who in turn were displaced by the Comanches and Kiowas. These peoples dominated the Panhandle until they were crushed in the Red River War of 1874 and removed to Indian Territory. With Gray County for settlement, 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. In 1882 the Francklyn Land and Cattle Company purchased a huge tract of land that included the western part of Gray County. The company failed in 1886 and was reorganized as the White Deer Lands , which operated the huge Diamond F Ranch. For the rest of the nineteenth century Gray County remained the domain of cattle ranchers. |
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