George Morgan Perry
Perryton, Ochiltree County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A native of Iowa, George Morgan Perry (1862-1944) moved to the Texas Panhandle town of Ochiltree in 1886. Active in the formal organization of the county, he served as county clerk, district clerk, and county judge. A supporter of railroad building in the Panhandle, he was honored by the Santa Fe Railroad when the town of Perryton was established on the rail line and named for him in 1919. He served as first president of the Chamber of Commerce and continued to promote settlement and business development in the city until his death in 1944. (1994)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
An Iowa native, George Morgan Perry came to the raw Texas Panhandle in 1886 and helped stitch a frontier region into an organized county, serving as clerk and judge. A tireless booster of the railroads then reaching the plains, he was honored when the Santa Fe placed a townsite on its line in 1919 and named it Perryton for him. As the town's first Chamber of Commerce president, he promoted its settlement and growth until his death in 1944.
Why it matters
Perry's story captures how the Panhandle was settled not by soldiers or homesteaders alone but by civic organizers who turned rail sidings into permanent towns across the last American frontier.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Gray Community Church
Perryton, TX
Founded by settlers just across the line in Oklahoma, the Gray church was organized in January 1915 by the Rev. J. W. Duff, with lumber freighted from Kansas and furnishings bought by the ladies aid society. When the Santa Fe Railway laid track between Gray and Ochiltree in 1919, it created the new town of Perryton, and most of Gray's buildings were dragged south on horse and mule teams to the rails—leaving the church behind. For decades its blue neon cross and its message that "Jesus saves" drew travelers, until the congregation finally moved the building to Perryton in 2002.
Ochiltree Townsite
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Ochiltree County was created in 1876 and named for Texas jurist William Beck Ochiltree, but settlers only began digging dugouts near Wolf Creek in 1886, organizing the county in 1889 with their village as county seat. A two-story courthouse of Dodge City lumber rose in 1891 and doubled as church, school, and social hall; by 1903 the town of Ochiltree had 600 people, a bank, flour mill, and newspaper. When the Santa Fe Railway founded Perryton 8 miles north in 1919, the railroad lured residents with free lots and whole buildings were hauled to the new site.
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C. E. Jones opened this trading post in 1874 along the Jones and Plummer Trail, the freight and cattle route running from Dodge City, Kansas, down to Mobeetie in the Texas Panhandle. At first it dealt food and cloth to Native peoples in exchange for hides; as ranching took hold, it became a supply stop for cattlemen hauling goods up from Dodge City. The State of Texas marked the site in 1936.
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