Western Cattle Trail/Friendship

In 1875 the last free bands of Comanches and Kiowas were confined to reservations at Fort Sill, allowing regular cattle drives over the Western Cattle Trail. By the time the drives ended, millions of longhorns passed this way, through what is now Friendship, bound for Dodge City. This area was Greer County, Texas, until 1896, when the US Supreme Court determined it was a part of Oklahoma Territory. Friendship was once called Alfalfa, serving as the site of the Alfalfa Post Office from 1903 to 1905. Clabber Flat School, which began one mile west and one-half mile north of here in 1899, became the first Friendship School, acquiring its new name because it was the home of the Friendship Baptist Church. After the church was located here in 1908, the town also became known as Friendship. At its peak, Friendship included more than a dozen businesses, all of which gradually closed with the decline in rural population after World War II.