24/7 Trauma & Biohazard Cleanup Near West Gordon Gordon, TX

Gordon is a city in southern Palo Pinto County whose history begins in 1864 with the founding of the nearby community of Hampton, Texas.

The Texas and Pacific Railway planned the town of Gordon in 1874, one mile south of Hampton, and named it for H. L. Gordon, the civil engineer who surveyed the townsite for the railroad.

Gordon's post office opened on October 17, 1883, with local businessman Robert Rogan serving as the community's first postmaster.

Gordon's first school classes were held in 1882, and Gordon High School was built in 1887; by 1889 the town had five general stores, three drug stores, three hotels, and three cotton gins.

The notorious train robber Rube Burrow robbed his second train at Gordon in January 1887, successfully taking $4,200 from the express car.

Gordon peaked at 1,000 residents in the 1920 census, got telephone service in 1901 and its own power plant in 1912, but shrank to fewer than 500 people by 1960 as the Great Depression ended its boom years.

The 2020 census counted 470 people living in Gordon, and the city survives today as a point of commerce and shipping for local ranching and petroleum production.