[5] A rural community called "Cottonwood Grove" began to emerge near the present site of Verden before the Civil War.

It was on the eastern edge of the Kiowa and Comanche reservation that was established by the Medicine Lodge Treaty, that was made with the U.S. government in 1867.

The land around the community, outside the reservation, belonged to the Half Moon Ranch, owned by W. G. "Caddo" Williams.

His son-in-law, Charles Campbell, owner of the 7BC Ranch, and E. B. Johnson bought the Half Moon around 1900.

CRI&P or Rock Island Railroad) built tracks through this area, between Chickasha and Mangum in 1900.

In 1907, Verden became a town incorporated in Oklahoma Territory by the commissioners of Caddo County, and had a population of 312.

By 1910, the population had climbed to 524 and the town had two banks, a newspaper, the Verden News, a telephone connection, an electric company, a grain elevator, a cotton yard, a cotton gin, a milling company, a lumberyard, and several retail outlets.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.33 square miles (0.85 km2), all land.

Verden resident Allen Toles was an African American farmer who had become a landowner through the Homestead Act of 1862.