The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

LIBERTY.

Situated due south of Glenpool on U.S. Highway 75, the town of Liberty straddles the line between Tulsa County and Okmulgee County. The original inhabitant was Wallace W. Baird, a farmer from Illinois, who arrived in Tulsa County in 1912 by way of Kansas. Members of the Baird and Spradling families lived on a forty-acre site near Tulsa's present 206th Street and Sheridan Road. Liberty is a dispersed rural community that was incorporated by the Baird family on October 1, 1978. It incorporated for a second time on June 29, 1982. In 2014 the town's total area encompassed 6.1 square miles spread out along the county line. Liberty's economy has always depended on agriculture, with some residents working in the nearby urban areas. By the year 2000 some 86.6 percent of residents commuted to work elsewhere, and more than one-third of the population worked in management or the professions. The Liberty Fire Protection District covered 58 square miles in both counties and is a volunteer group. The Liberty School District covered 47 square miles in both counties. In past years nearby larger towns in both counties have provided utility service and street maintenance. Liberty grew into the three-hundred-resident range by the mid-1980s. U.S. Highway 75 passes through the west side of town. The 1990, 2000, and 2010 censuses counted 19, 184, and 220 inhabitants, respectively. The April 2020 census reported 149.

Dianna Everett