Pampa Was Incorporated in 1912

Eloise Lane

There has been confusion about when the town of Pampa was incorporated possibly because the city vehicles show a year that is incorrect. Although 1902 is an important year in the early history of Pampa, it is not the year of incorporation. The town of Pampa was incorporated in 1912. Perhaps it is appropriate to review some of the events in the early history of Pampa that occurred in years 1982, 1902 and 1212. On April 15, 1892, George Tyng wrote to Frederic Foster: `~A couple of months ago, the Railway Co. changed the name of their siding from Sutton to `PAMPA'." (Tyng was the manager of the White Deer Lands that had given land for the station and Foster was a trustee for the British bondholders of the White Deer Lands.) Pampa was first known as a station named Glasgow on a map of the Santa Fe Route in 1888. Because of confusion with Glasgow, Kansas, the name of the station was soon changed to Sutton. Three years later there was confusion with Sutton County in southwest Texas~ and railroad officials asked Tyng to choose a new name for the station. Tyng's first suggestions were unsatisfactory then he thought of how the grassy plains of this area resemble the pampas of Argentina and said to a friend, "We will take the `s' off and call it `Pampa'." The railroad officials approved this suggestion. Then Tyng began to circulate a petition for a post office, and ~n October 29, 1892, the United States Post Office Department established a post office at Pampa with Thomas H. Lane as postmaster. The application for the post office stated that there were 24 inhabitants in the village and that the post office was to serve a population of 43 and new settlers coming. At the beginning of 1902, unorganized Gray County was attached tp Roberts County for judicial purposes. On April 14, 1902, Roberts County Commissioners Court approved the plat for the original town of Pampa. The town site consisted of 38 blocks bounded by Atchison Avenue on the south, Starkweather Street on the east, Browning Avenue on the north and West Street on the west. The sale of town lots began in May. Also on April 14, 1902, 152 qualified voters in unorganized Gray County filed for petition to hold an election for organizing the county. On May 21, 1902, the petition was granted. On February 17, 1912, an election for incorporation of the town of Pampa was held at the school house (red brick building at 309 N. Cuyler). The result was 34 votes for incorporation and 28 against. On March 5, 1912, the first election was held. On June 23, 1919, the classification of Pampa as "town" was changed to "city". At that time Pampa had 860 inhabitants. (This information is in an article appearing in “The Pampa News" on March 9, 1933. It is the eight article in a series of thirteen, “The Queen City of the Plains", prepared by the News and quoting some of Pampas early city records.)

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