Blossom

Blossom is on the Missouri Pacific Railroad and at the intersection of Farm Road 196 and U.S. Highway 82, nine miles east of Paris in eastern Lamar County. The site was occupied by 1849, when the post office opened under the name Blossom Prairie. In 1876 the settlement became a stop on the Texas and Pacific Railway and was soon a shipping point for lumber, railroad ties, livestock, and grain. By 1884 the population reportedly had grown to 1,000. Businesses included five steam-operated gristmill-cotton gins, four sawmills, five grocery stores, two drugstores, three saloons, two dry goods stores, and Mrs. L. E. Jackson's millinery. Citizens also had access to three churches, a district school, a telegraph office, three doctors, a lawyer, a barber, and an undertaker. A newspaper, the Knights of Honor Sentinel, was published weekly, and D. G. Flenniken was postmaster.

The town was incorporated in 1886, and two years later citizens shortened its name to Blossom. In 1890 postmaster W. H. Byrn reported 1,200 inhabitants. A new gin and mill, as well as several new sawmills, had been established. William Chester was editor of the Blossom Bee, a weekly newspaper that had replaced the Sentinel. New businesses included a livery stable, a butcher shop, two confectioneries, the Crockett brothers' photography studio, and Mrs. L. R. Burke's hotel. In 1892 postmaster Green B. Eades had opened a furniture factory, Mollie E. Cross had established a new millinery shop, and the Exchange Bank was in operation with a capital of $30,000. The Blossom school reported four teachers and 259 students in 1896.