GRUVER, TEXAS. Gruver is on State Highway 15 and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad in central Hansford County. The town was named for Joseph Hezkiah Gruver and his son, Lawrence, who around 1907 established a ranch nine miles west of what is now the townsite. About 1925 Gruver became a wheat and small-grain farming center. A post office opened there in 1927, and a school began in 1929, when the railroad reached the town. Gruver incorporated in 1930, when it had a population of 650 and thirty-two businesses. By 1948 the town had declined to 350 residents and twenty-three businesses, but by 1954 its population reached 813 and by 1968, some 1,555. At that time Gruver had fifty-eight businesses. In 1988 Gruver had 1,199 residents and thirty-seven businesses. In 1990 it reported a population of 1,172. The population dropped to 1,162 in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hansford County Historical Commission, Hansford County, Texas (2 vols., Dallas: Taylor, 1980?). Dotty Jones, A Search for Opportunity: A History of Hansford County (Gruver, Texas: Jones, 1965). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

Claudia Hazlewood