Hansford

Hansford, on Palo Duro Creek in eastern Hansford County, was established by J. H. (Huff) Wright and named for John M. Hansford, a physician and frontier judge. A post office was established there in August 1887 with James McGee as postmaster. In 1889 the settlement became the county seat after a contest with Farwell. The first newspaper in the town was the Hansford Herald, published after 1889 by H. E. G. Putnam. This paper was discontinued sometime in 1890, when its offices were destroyed by a tornado. In 1907 the Hansford Investigator was established by Judge A. E. Townsend. When this paper closed, the Hansford Headlight was established by S. B. Hale. The first bank in the county opened at Hansford in 1907 with James H. Cator as president. Hansford had a population of 100 in 1915, when its businesses included the bank, the Hansford Headlight, and a lumber and grain firm operated by B. O. Cator. The community declined in the 1920s when the North Texas and Santa Fe Railway bypassed it in favor of Spearman. Spearman became the new county seat, and the Hansford post office and most of its people and businesses moved there. By 1948 no population was reported for Hansford. The 1975 county highway map showed a cemetery at the Hansford site.