White Deer Land Museum
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  • Eloise Lane Articles 1-100
    • Articles 1 - 20 >
      • About Eloise Lane
      • The "White Deer" Name
      • The Log House
      • Obtaining The Land
      • The Lands Organized
      • Cattle Brands Tell Story
      • Ghosts And All . . .
      • Southern Kansas Railroad
      • Fire Guard Dam
      • When The Railroad Came
      • The Sutton RR Station
      • Post Office At Pampa
      • The Bell Family
      • J. C. Short
      • Pampa 1892-1902
      • Pampa Laid Out in 1902
      • Crystal Palace Founded
      • Gray County Organization
      • Organization - Continued
    • Articles 21 - 40 >
      • The "White Deer" Name
      • Gray County - Lefors
      • McLean - The Largest Town
      • Gouge Eye
      • The "Mother Road"
      • German Family Reunion
      • Desks From Hopkins
      • Grandview School Begins
      • The Oil Money
      • History Wall Painted
      • Boydston Or Boydstun?
      • Ontario???
      • Laketon - Early Farming
      • Laketon - Continued
      • First Couple To Marry
      • Hoover
      • Water Well Drilling
      • Kingsmills Visit Pampa
      • George Tyng Left
    • Articles 41 - 60 >
      • Tragedy In Utah
      • T.D. Hobart - Manager
      • M.K. Brown Arrives
      • Rider Livery Stable
      • The Pioneer Cottage
      • Pampa's First Doctor
      • Doctor Makes House Calls
      • A Red Cross Nurse
      • Pampa's First School
      • Hobart Went To London
      • Cemetery Began In 1904
      • First Business District
      • C.P. Buckler Arrives
      • Five Barrett Brothers
      • Influence Of The Santa Fe
      • Trains Still Roll
      • John V. Thomas - Teacher
      • Cattle-loading Center
      • Rolla J. Sailor & Arrowheads
      • A.H. Doucette Arrives
    • Articles 61 - 80 >
      • Lands Are Advertised
      • The Holland Hotel
      • Wheat Left Pampa
      • First National Bank Begins
      • Pampa News Begins
      • First Denominational Church
      • 2nd Office Of WD Lands
      • J.N. Duncan Arrives
      • Nels Walberg Sells. . .
      • Dormer Simms
      • Fourth Of July Celebrations
      • Pampa's First Cars
      • Pampa In 1907-08
      • J. S. Wynne Family Arrives
      • Gray County State Bank
      • Baptist Church Organized
      • Joe And Lizzie Bowers
      • Threatened By Prairie Fire
      • Library Began In 1907
      • J.R. Henry
    • Articles 81 - 100 >
      • Sir Gordan & Lady Cunard
      • Three Vicars Brothers
      • Dodd Grain And Produce
      • December 29, 1991
      • D.C. Davis Family
      • Long Christmas Celebration
      • First Christian Church
      • Facts About Pampa
      • Buster Brown
      • The Last Hanging
      • Bones Hooks
      • The "Red Brick" Is No More
      • The Purviances Family
      • The Dr. E. von Brunow Park
      • Boards Of 1st Headquarters
      • Mary Jane Purvis
      • Cook - Adams Addition
      • Nativity Scenes
      • Clyde Carruth
  • Eloise Lane Articles 101-200
    • Articles 101 - 120 >
      • The Mine Tragedies
      • Additions To Pampa
      • Third Family In Pampa
      • Frank Dittmeyer
      • Bricklayer Indian Jim
      • A.A. Tiemann
      • First Movies And Lights
      • Pampa Incorporated
      • Mark And Sara Fletcher
      • Annie Baker Daniels
      • Pampa's Business District
      • Birthday Tea Of 1919
      • Former Pampa Minister
      • John Mack Patton
      • The First Brass Band
      • Early Graduating Class
      • "How We Met"
      • F.P. Greever Is Assassinated
      • George Tyng's Father
    • Articles 121 - 140 >
      • L. H. and Lula Greene
      • John and Lena McKamy
      • Robert and Mary Yeager
      • "Dear Old PHS"
      • Supt. Believed in People
      • William A. and Ruth Greene
      • Jason A and Alice Poole
      • Wayside School
      • Pampa Football Begins
      • The Pampa School Building
      • Rev. C. E. Lancaster
      • Panhandle Lumber Co.
      • Will Wilks & Mora Hughey
      • An Unusual Valentine
      • Charles A. Tignor
      • O. A. Barrett
      • Poppies In Flanders Fields
      • Barnard & Williams Families
    • Articles 141 - 160 >
      • 4th of July Celebrations
      • Cuyler Street Underpass
      • The King Family
      • Kretmeier and Baer Families
      • Stephen B. Oates
      • Phebe Worley
      • Organization of Gray County
      • First Courthouse
      • Pampa Laid Out in 1902
      • Pampa in 1902
      • W. R. Kaufman
      • The Pampa Country Club
      • Living In Pampa in 1902
      • Pampa Buildings of 1902
      • May Foreman Carr
      • Scaffers - Early Residents
      • Nita Luna
      • Former Sub Debs Reminisce
      • PHS In 1932
    • Articles 161 - 180 >
      • PHS Appreciated
      • The Forth Worth and Denver
      • From Pampa to Childress
      • The Origination Of "Taps"
      • The Warners
      • J. C. Studer
      • Floyd, John and Otto
      • Our American Flag
      • Stories and Memories
      • Museum in Pampa?
      • The Franklin Farm
      • The Franklin Family
      • Beryl Wayne Vicars
      • Historian Made Cookies
      • The Pioneer Cottage
      • The Orginial Swastika
      • Library Clerk
      • Women's Clothing Store
    • Articles 181 - 200 >
      • Jon and Pat McConal
      • Whitey Walker Gang
      • How Rudolph Began
      • Gwendolen Avenue
      • Jerry Kerbow
      • Two Paintings
      • Second Part - Paintings
      • Bones Hooks
      • Original Nativity Figures
      • Why "V" Instead of "U"
      • Pampa Incorporated
      • Prairie Fires
      • Abert's "Day of Anxiety"
      • George Autry's "A Fable"
      • Girls Basketball
      • Thomas and Lard
      • Henry and Jenny Ledrick
      • C. J. Walstad
      • Ledrick and Walstads
      • Bert and Annie Lard
      • Peter Gray
      • H. H. and Kate Heiskell
      • The Story of Elsie (Lard) Hall

From Pampa to Childress on the Forth Worth and Denver Line

Eloise Lane PhotoEloise Lane
On July 15, 1932, Olin E. Hinkle, then managing editor of the Pampa Daily News, wrote that the scenery from Pampa to Childress was picturesque to passen- gers traveling on the new Fort Worth and Denver line. - - When leaving Pampa, travelers could see level wheat fields where recently "the song of the combine harmonized with the symphony of rail-laying crews." Near Lefors trains traveled swiftly over ravines that gave travelers "the il- lusion of looking down on a carpet of green patterns studded with hundreds of oil derricks." From the forest of derricks, smoke from carbon black plants rose lazily at intervals, and occasionally white steam puffed from exhaust pipes of gasoline plants and booster stations. In the sandy soil of central Gray County, trees were more abundant, cattle ranged the rolling hills and oil derricks continued plentiful. Continuing southward to Childress, travelers could see farms increasing in number, new towns springing up, cotton fields in abundance, row crops in luxuriant growth, cotton gins instead of oil industries, smartly appointed towns older and prouder, and lazy streams with little water.

Probably no one was more pleased than Mel B. Davis to have the Fort Worth and Denver come through Lefors. Davis and J. M. Shaw had developed the town site of Lefors and adjacent lands after the discovery of oil and gas. Doubtless Davis had an important part in obtaining the railroad since a stop was named Meldavis, and he may have been responsible for giving everyone a free ride to Childress and back on the first train. An article in Focus, Summer 1987 relates experiences of several Lefors resi- dents in regard to the Fort Worth and Denver. Charles Lisenbee, his father and brother, who lived at Quanah, began work- ing with the FD&W track at Childress. They returned to Quanah when work on the railroad ended, but Charles came back while working on the highway. He liked this part of the Panhandle and got a job with the Texas Company that lasted the remain- der of his life. Herman Cates, who worked at the Saunders Ranch headquarters near the Texas Company Picnic Grounds, said that the ranch crew plowed the road bed and used fresnos (big scoops) to build the grade. The ranch boss loaned Herman to drive a truck during the building of the Shamrock Gasoline plant when an open line was laid from the main track. F. C. Jones,"Jonesy," was a riveter who riveted all the steel together to build the tanks at the station. Herman used a winch to unload the tank iron from the railroad cars after track was laid to the station. Bobby Thacker hauled water to Childress from Lefors and Shamrock. He and several other contractors raked the lava rock from the railroad and hauled it for local driveways and also driveways in Pampa. After the termination of rail service, a sawmill was set up northwest of the Senior Citizens Center at Lefors where timbers from the trestles were sawed up. Joe Clarke said that the track costing a half-million dollars was constructed with used steel and paid for itself in one year. Much shipping went to Keller- ville and Bellco oil fields. Crews made up the train and loaded tank cars at the depot and banged cars around until programs at school could not be heard. Some cars were filled with oil at night. Once a train was stopped so that someone could buy an antique ice cream table in Joe Clarke's yard. On one occasion Imogene Clarke and Grace Lee Brown rode the caboose home to Lefors after shopping in Pampa. When trains stopped for water, some of the school students would scoot under or between the cars, and there were two boys who would climb into the caboose. After they received repeated warnings to stay away from the train, which they ignored, teacher Ardelle Briggs spanked them. When they reminded her of this at a class reunion 31 years later, she said that she wished she had gone with the boys because she had always wondered what the inside of a caboose looked like. While Pat DeGray Steele was cleaning house, her three young children who were playing outside decided to go walking. Pat missed the children and was beginning to look for them when she heard a train whistle and then a screeching of brakes. She was panic-stricken to see two-year old Vickie sitting between the rails. The brakeman, in a split second decision, pushed Vickie down flat and six cars ran over her. Vickie was rushed to a hospital where it was learned that she had a twisted baby tooth and a skinned place on her forehead. The brakeman was commended by his superiors for his quick thinking.

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116 S Cuyler St | Pampa, TX 79065 | Phone (806) 669-8041 | Fax (806) 250-2185

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