Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Welty, OK

Welty is an unincorporated community in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, sitting on the west side of State Highway 48 between Bristow to the north and Castle to the south.

Welty is named for Edwin A. Welty, the townsite developer who purchased land there in 1905 and sold it to pioneer settlers.

Welty's post office was established on October 12, 1905, with Jeremiah D. Wilson as the first postmaster.

The area's first settler families actually arrived a decade earlier, in the mid-1890s, when J. B. Wilson and John Jones built homes south of the present community; Welty Cemetery traces its start to 1895, when Wilson buried his infant child on the open prairie.

A school first opened in the Welty area in 1898, and in 1912 classes moved into a new two-story building — school downstairs, lodge hall upstairs — that served more than 100 pupils.

At its peak Welty supported area farmers and ranchers with several dry goods and general stores, a blacksmith, grocery stores, a cotton gin, and several churches.

Welty's school and post office have since closed, but the community still has a volunteer fire department, churches, and a small store.

The 2020 census counted 131 residents in Welty, with a median age of 47.4 years.

Welty lies in Okfuskee County, which was organized at Oklahoma statehood in 1907 and named for an old Creek town in Alabama; the county seat is Okemah.