Sutton

Pampa, the county seat and largest town in Gray County, is at the junction of U.S. highway 60 and State highways 70, 152, and 273, in the northwestern part of the county. The site, once owned by the Francklyn Land and Cattle Company (later White Deer Land Company), was designated as a station on the Southern Kansas Railway in the summer of 1887. The first resident was Thomas H. Lane, the railroad section foreman, who settled his family in a half-dugout near the boxcar station, which was known initially as Glasgow and then as Sutton. Because of confusion with Sutton County, railroad officials asked George Tyng, manager of the White Deer Land Company, to select a new name for Sutton. After his first suggestions were rejected by the chief engineer, Tyng submitted the name Pampa because the place resembled the pampas of Argentina, which he had earlier visited. The post office opened in 1892 with Lane as postmaster. Tyng constructed Pampa's first frame building as the White Deer Land Company boardinghouse. This building later was leased to the Matador Ranch as a headquarters and then sold to Alfred Ace Holland, who made it the town's first hotel. As early as December 1, 1889, Tyng had recommended that the White Deer Land Company establish a town at the Sutton station. In 1898 Russell Benedict, associate of trustee Frederic Foster, came from New York to investigate this possibility.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.