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LEFORS,
TEXAS
Gray 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)
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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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