Biohazard Cleanup Near North Loyal Loyal, OK

Loyal is a small town in west-central Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, about 18 miles northwest of the city of Kingfisher.

Loyal was founded around 1894 as Kiel, named after Kiel, Germany, because many of its early settlers were German immigrants who arrived after the Cheyenne-Arapaho land opening of April 19, 1892.

A store and post office were operating by June 1894 on land owned by Dr. Paul Friedeman, and the postal designation for Kiel was granted on June 15, 1894.

By 1900 the town of about 300 people supported Catholic, German Lutheran and Methodist churches, a bank, a public school, a hotel, three doctors and roughly 20 retail establishments.

During World War I the town shed its German name and became Loyal, a name chosen to profess the residents' loyalty to the United States amid anti-German sentiment.

Direct descendants of composer Johann Sebastian Bach, through his son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, lived in Loyal, and the town's Friedemann Avenue is named for that family.

Loyal's residents long sought a railroad line, but one was never built to the town.

Loyal was not incorporated until the 1930s, and its first census, in 1940, counted 177 residents.

Loyal's population was 81 people in 35 households at the 2000 census, 79 at the 2010 census, and 71 at the 2020 census.

Loyal covers only about 0.1 square mile of Kingfisher County wheat country.