Welch is a town in northern Craig County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, Welch had a population of 622. It is south of the Kansas state line, at the intersection of state highways 2 and 10 with U.S. Highway 59.
History
Welch was established in 1888 in the Cherokee Nation on land that D. B. Nigh leased from Frank Craig. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway (Katy) had built a line through the area in 1871, and in 1891 it built a switch on Nigh's property, providing a shipping point for local hay and grain. The town that began to grow around the switch was named for a Katy railroad official, A. L. Welch. A post office was established in 1892. The town plat was approved in 1902, and the town incorporated in 1909. A newspaper called the Welch Watchman began publication in 1902, and continued in business, although later renamed as the Welch American, until the mid 1960s.
In 2003, Welch had two convenience stores, a grocery store, a feed store, Thomas Funeral Home, the Blossom Shoppe, a meat processor, a livestock sale barn, two cafés, a new automotive shop, two saddle shops, an assisted-living retirement home, Graham Equipment Company, and a new medical office, among other enterprises.
1999 kidnapping and murders
On the night of December 29–30, 1999, firefighters responded to a fire reported at the home of Danny and Kathy Freeman in Welch. After extinguishing the blaze, they found the body of Kathy Freeman in one of the bedrooms, where she had been shot in the head, and also found that the fire had been deliberately set. Initially, they found no other bodies, but noticed that both Danny and their teen-age daughter, Ashley, were missing. The family car was in the driveway, with the keys in the ignition. The local police immediately assumed that the father had killed the mother and kidnapped Ashley.
When Lorene and Jay Bible woke on the morning of December 30, they discovered that their daughter, Lauria, had not come home after spending the previous day with Ashley Freeman, her best friend. They found Dan's body in the rubble. He too, had been shot to death. Later that day, they learned that the two girls and Kathy Freeman had been seen earlier that day in the local pizza parlor, celebrating Ashley's birthday. None of them had been seen since.
Sometime during the following decade, news media reported that two convicts, Tommy Lynn Sells and Jeremy Jones, had confessed to murdering the four victims. Their story did not check out, and they recanted their claims. Convicted murderer, Ronnie Busick, had bragged about killing the two girls. He and two alleged accomplices, Phil Welch and David Pennington claimed that the victims owed them money, and that they kept the girls alive for awhile hoping to get the money back. They further claimed that they tortured the girls before killing them and dumping the bodies in an Oklahoma mine shaft.
Geography
Welch is north of Vinita, the county seat, and west of Miami, the seat of Ottawa County.
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2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Welch had a population of 622. The median age was 38.0 years. 28.3% of residents were under the age of 18 and 19.0% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 95.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.6 males age 18 and over.
There were 237 households in Welch, of which 39.2% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 48.1% were married-couple households, 11.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
! Race !! Number !! Percent
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| White || 461 || 74.1%
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| Black or African American || 5 || 0.8%
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| American Indian and Alaska Native || 87 || 14.0%
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| Asian || 0 || 0.0%
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| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 0 || 0.0%
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| Some other race || 7 || 1.1%
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| Two or more races || 62 || 10.0%
|-
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 22 || 3.5%
|}
2000 census
As of the census
Notable people
- Ma Barker, leader of the 1930s Barker gang, is buried in Welch along with two of her sons, Herman and Fred.
- Joe Bauman, baseball player, was born in Welch.