HOOVER, TEXAS (Gray County). Hoover, near the Roberts county line in northern Gray County, was named for Harvey E. Hoover, a prominent lawyer and landowner of Canadian. It began in 1887 as a switch on the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway. E. D. McClain became postmaster after an office was granted in January 1910. It was discontinued in 1914 but reestablished the following year. By then Hoover had become a livestock shipping point with a population of twenty-five. By 1930 the town had three businesses and two churches. Oil discoveries in the area during the early 1930s brought more people to Hoover. Its population reached seventy-five by the mid-1940s. For several years the town sponsored a boy scout troop. Hoover declined as a result of Pampa's growth. In 1972 the post office was discontinued, and only the general store remained in business. In 1980 Hoover reported a population of thirty-five and no businesses. A grain elevator, erected in 1954, continued to be used during harvest season. The population in 1990 was recorded as five. The population remained the same in 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gray County History Book Committee, Gray County Heritage (Dallas: Taylor, 1985). Arthur Hecht, comp., Postal History in the Texas Panhandle (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1960). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).
