Volume 12 , Issue 35

Phroso, Oklahoma

Phroso, Oklahoma was considered a Hamlet and situated in Major county, Section 21, Township 21N, Range 15 West Indian Meridian (1 mile north, 19 miles west of Fairview, Oklahoma.

The Post Office ran from September 19, 1900 through May 29, 1937. Phroso, OK (Mapqquest view) shows Phroso located east of US 281, Northeast of Chester and Northwest of Orion, Oklahoma (where my PARIS and HURT ancestors settled.


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Phroso is somewhat typical of numerous hamlets that developed in the dryer and rougher western part of the Cherokee Outlet. Soon after the Outlet was opened for settlement, a small store was started. The area had no roads, and transportation, either on horseback or in a horse or ox drawn vehicle, was slow.

The store prospered and expanded as those living in the vicinity traded there because of the difficulty of getting to a larger place. Accordingly, other businesses were attracted. Soon a blacksmith shop had located nearby, and in 1900 a post office was located at the site.

By 1905 a second blacksmith, a doctor who also started a drugstore, a shoe and boot maker, and a livestock dealer made their headquarters in Phroso. A few farmers bullet homes near the hamlet. A school was organized and a church started. In 1908 Phroso had a population of about sixty persons.

With the changing economic conditions and the technological advances since the late 1920s plus the movement of population from rural to urban areas, hamlets like Phroso have disappeared. Much of the land formerly in crops has reverted to pasture. There is no longer a need for the sotre or the garage that eventually replaced the blacksmith shop. All that now remain are the unused school, its outbuildings and a storm cave that stood in 1975. Does it still stand today in 2010?   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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