County of town: Gray County
Location of town: Almost center in county; crossroads of TX-273 & FM-2375
County is in the SE portion of the Texas panhandle
Post Office location: N. Main St. & E. 2nd St., Lefors
Elevation: 2,805 ft (855 m)
Population: 513 (2013)
"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.
Lefors, Texas Forum
*There is no Emma Thut... she is Emma Lang... a sister to Henry Thut's wife... She married Perry LeFors. Thank you. - Ray Carter ~ Texas Escapes
"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 (see FRANCKLYN LAND AND CATTLE COMPANY). 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. The population dropped to 559 in 2000." ~ TSHA Online