George Morgan Perry

The town that took Perry's name grew fast. It had 2,000 people by 1920. Two businessmen, Charles E. Whippo and Fremont Mead, built its water and electric plants and later sold them to the city; five grain elevators stood by 1925; and because Perryton was a designated mail stop between Amarillo and Wichita, an airport was built near the city dump in 1932 and became known as the Sewer-Side Airport. After oil and gas came in the 1950s, the city built three schools, a city hall and a library between 1957 and 1968.

What the plaque says

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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Plains — 1.0 mi
  Perryton's four-acre museum of the wheat country at the top of Texas, with an 1899 depot, five historic buildings and a life-size Hank the Cowdog, whose author grew up here.

More markers nearby

• Colonel William B. Ochiltree — steps away
• Ochiltree County — 1.1 mi
• Gray Community Church — 1.1 mi
• Ochiltree Townsite — 7.9 mi