About the USGenWeb Project



Gray County Archives

TXGenWeb Archives

USGenWeb Archives



HELLO - WELCOME!

My name is LaRae Halsey-Brooks, and my daughter,
Eireann Brooks, and I are the County Co-Coordinators
for the Gray County TXGenWeb Project.

If you would like to contribute Biographical Sketches of your 
Gray County families to this website, please let us know. 
We will be happy to create a special page for your material 
and include any photographs, scanned documents, 
or other items you'd like to add to the page.

If you live in or near Gray County and would like to
take digital photographs of cemeteries and tombstones,
please let us know.
 
If you have access to existing cemetery transcriptions, 
land records, tax rolls, school class rosters/photos, etc., 
we would be most grateful for any and all submissions.

If you are interested in hosting another county
in Texas for the TXGenWeb Project,
please visit the Adoptable Counties page.

Please check back from time to time
as we add more information to the page!

Thank you!
LaRae & Eireann






About Gray County

Gray County is located in the central part of the Panhandle and the eastern edge of the High Plains. Its center point is at 35°25' north latitude and 100°49' west longitude. Lefors is located near the center of the county, and Pampa, the county seat, is about twelve miles away in the northwestern corner. Pampa is approximately sixty miles northeast of Amarillo on U.S. Highway 60. The county occupies 934 square miles of level prairie and rolling river break. Formed in 1876 out of the Bexar District, the county was named for Peter W. Gray, a lawyer and politician of the Republic of Texas and Civil War eras.

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. For the rest of the nineteenth century Gray County remained the domain of cattle ranchers.

By the turn of the century, farmers began to appear in the county. The county population grew to 3,405 by 1910 and 4,663 by 1920. The newly arriving farmers settled in the western and northern parts of the county, planting wheat, corn, and grain sorghums on fertile, newly broken lands. Farming and ranching dominated the county's economy for a short time, and then major petroleum discoveries greatly altered the county.

By the 1980s the great bulk of the county's population lived in urban areas served by the highway and rail system. Pampa had 19,959 residents in 1980, and McLean had 849 and Lefors 656. Other communities were Alanreed, Kings Mill, Laketon, and Hoover. The modern economy of the county depends upon a healthy mix of oil, petrochemicals, farming, and ranching.

A More Detailed History of Gray County



Search The Gray County Page

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Gray County Research News

On a May 2009 visit to Gray and surrounding Texas panhandle counties for genealogical research, the former Gray County TXGenWeb Coordinator,
Marie Bartholomew, completed numerous projects which she has
generously donated to this Gray County website.

She photographed 200+ tombstones for several cemeteries,
including
Fairview Cemetery in Pampa, TX, and also photographed
approximately 500 pages of the Fairview Cemetery roster books.
The photos of the roster books will also be added in the future.

She has also graciously volunteered to add her name to the
Lookups page for Fairview Cemetery.

Our sincere thanks to Marie for the valuable research material she has contributed
to the Gray County TXGenWeb Project page over the years!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fairview Cemetery Photos (work in progress)



To post your Queries, Biographies, Bible Records, Deeds,
Obituaries, Pensions, and Wills, please visit the Ancestry Message Board
for Gray County, Texas.


Gray County Message Board



Gray County Resources

Addresses
Biographies
Calendar

Cemeteries
Census Records
Churches
County History
County Lookups
Creeks & Rivers
Early McLean Photos
Historical Markers
Landmarks

Land Survey Abstracts

Map Collection
Newspaper Obituaries

Postcards

Panhandle of Texas
Queries
Research Links
S.S. Death Index
Towns
TX Courthouses
TX Historical Literature
TX Prehistory
TX Research Helps
TX Research Sites

Directory of Officers and Teachers
Pampa Independent School District
February 11, 1941

Pampa Photographs

McLean High School, Graduating Class - 1915
McLean High School -- 1916/17

McLean High School -- 1918/19
McLean Grade School -- Class Photos
McLean High School - 1961 Junior Class Play
McLean High School -- 1962 Senior Class Play

TXGenWeb County Pages
TXGenWeb Alphabetical Counties List
World War I Civilian Draft Registration
USGenWeb Special Projects



Obituaries
Indexed by town, including
Alanreed, Lefors, McLean, and Pampa.

Cemetery Lists

Tombstone Photos

Gray County Obituaries - 2003

Source: Amarillo Globe-News



Gray County Photographs

A series of photographs
taken in Alanreed, McLean, and nearby Shamrock.



World War I and World War II
Texas Panhandle Casualties
and Missing in Action

World War I

World War II

Source: Amarillo Globe-News

NARA -- Access to Military Service and Pension Records

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the official repository for records of military personnel who have been discharged from the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard.



Gray County Vital Records

Births: 1926 - 1950

Marriages: 1966 - 1970

Deaths: 1964 - 1998



Gray County Family Genealogies

If you would like to submit your Gray County Family Genealogy for inclusion on the page, please send it as an e-mail attachment to me at TimeTrvlrO@aol.com.

Plain text-only (.txt) formatting is preferred.

You can also send it in one or two emails,
if you'd like... 8-)

Your genealogy does not have to be exclusive to Gray County, but your family should have been residents of the county for a period of time.

Photos can be added to your family page.
Submit them in .jpg, .gif, or .bmp format only.

TURNER, HUGG, BARNES, KITE
and Related Families

submitted by Judith Grimes

Bunia Jackson KUNKEL
submitted by Eddie Kunkel

JONES Family
submitted by Bobby Jones

Descendants of John Austin ROBINSON
submitted by Betty Coffman

Jesse Roberts BLALACK Genealogy
submitted by Kirk D. Lyons



Texas Panhandle Ranches

Ranches.org is home for several
Texas panhandle ranches.
Included on the site, which is
maintained by rancher Jay O'Brien,
are
biographical sketches,
ranch histories, and information
about the
McLean Feedyard.

Ranches included are:
The Swamp--O'Brien Ranch,
the JA, The Circle,
and the
Exell Ranch.

Biographies include:
John G. O'Brien, G.W. O'Brien,
Will O'Brien, Exie Eagan O'Brien,
James Christopher Paul,
and
Howard Paul.



Gray County Notables

Events, locations, and industries important
to Gray County history.

Battle of the North Fork of the Red River

Carbon Black Industry

Fort Worth & Denver Northern Railway

German Prisoners of War

Pampa Army Airfield

Panhandle Field - Oil & Natural Gas

Panhandle Water Conservation Authority

Rescue of the German Sisters from the Cheyenne

Ro Ranch - Alfred Rowe, 1878

Oil & Natural Gas Industry

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Visit the page!

The Gray County Sheriff's Office
has completed a project
to gather photos and biographies of
County Sheriffs over the last 98 years.

Officers featured include the first female sheriff in
the State of Texas, and Otis Hendrix, the only
Gray County police officer to be killed in the line of duty.

The collection is currently on display in Pampa,
and Sheriff Don Copeland has graciously allowed us
to feature their work on this website.

Our thanks to Sheriff Copeland
and Deputy Sheriff Gary Noblett
for making this possible.



Neighboring Counties

Gray County




County Links

We maintain eight Texas panhandle counties for the TXGenWeb Project, as well as three more counties and five Special Project pages for the OKGenWeb Project. 
 
If your families spread westward over the past century and a half like mine did, you might have need of some research we've done for the other counties.


If you are interested in sponsoring a Texas County in the TXGenWeb Project, please visit the Orphan Counties page.

If you have questions regarding the TXGenWeb Project, 
please contact:

TXGenWeb State Coordinator - Gina Heffernan
Asst State Coordinators -
Jane Keppler, Carla Clifton,
Laura Gregory Roberts

For more information, you may also visit 
the
Texas Counties page.

If you like what you've seen here, please cast your vote.
County of the Month
Thank you!




Gray County Co-Coordinators:
LaRae Halsey-Brooks & Eireann Brooks



This page was last updated November 12, 2023.



Bluebonnets - Texas State Flower



(Image from I Am A Texan - Facebook Group)

© 1997-2023 by the Gray County Coordinator
for the TXGenWeb Project