The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

SPAULDING.

Located six miles southwest of Holdenville, the county seat of Hughes County, Spaulding is situated on County Roads E1380/N3690. The community developed after the St. Louis, Oklahoma and Southern Railway (later the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway) constructed a line between 1900 and 1901 to connect Sapulpa to the area north of the Red River. A post office was established on December 29, 1902. In 1906 Nora Coate served as principal of the Spaulding school, which enrolled one American Indian and fifty white students. In 1918 R. L. Polk's Oklahoma State Gazetteer and Business Directory estimated the town's population at two hundred. At that time eight grocers and general stores served the surrounding agricultural area, which produced cotton and wheat. Residents conducted their banking business in Holdenville. In 1930 two school districts were united to form Spaulding Consolidated district Number Seven. That year's enrollment in the elementary and high schools reached 155 and 43, respectively. During the 1940s and 1950s Spaulding had two grocery stores. On May 20, 1966, the post office closed.

The Spaulding School Gymnasium (NR 88001389), a Works Progress Administration project, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Spaulding became an incorporated town on March 17, 1993. After incorporation the town received matching funds from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture to buy fire-fighting equipment. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the community's first federal census recorded 62 residents. By 2010 that number had nearly tripled, reaching 178. The April 2020 census reported 147.

Linda D. Wilson

Related Resources