The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

SLAUGHTERVILLE.

Located in Cleveland County eight miles south of Noble, Slaughterville lies on State Highway 77. The name honors Jim Slaughter, who operated a store in the area. Before the Land Run of 1889 opened the region to its first general settlement, the present townsite lay within the Unassigned Lands. In 1889 settlers erected a building for the Shiloh Methodist Church, one-half mile north of present Slaughterville, and two other buildings soon followed. Through most of the twentieth century the town existed as a dispersed rural district. A service station/dry goods store on U.S. Highway 77 served farmers and ranchers. The curve of the highway at Slaughterville had a reputation as hazardous, and in 1937 an editorial in the Daily Oklahoman urged that the curve be straightened.

In 1970 the crossroads town incorporated in self-defense against perceived annexation threats from Norman, Noble, and Lexington. Soon, a fire department organized. The original city limits, approximately twenty-seven square miles in the 1970s, decreased in 1985 when the town's trustees deannexed nearly 40 percent of the land. There were 1,953 residents in 1980 and 1,843 in 1990. In 2000 the population stood at 3,609, and the town had increased its area to 38.108 square miles. A majority of the employed residents commuted to larger towns to work. The children attended school at Lexington or Noble. In 2010 the population was 4,137. The April 2020 census reported 4,166 inhabitants.

Larry O'Dell