Judge William Claude AUSTIN

1880 - 1946  (66 years)

• Name	William Claude AUSTIN
  Title	Judge
  Birth	24 Jan 1880	Nashville, Howard County, AR
  Gender	Male
  Name	William Claude "Will" AUSTIN
  Death	5 Oct 1946	Altus, Jackson County, OK
  Burial	City of Altus Cemetery, Altus, Jackson County, OK
  Notes	(1) Chesser, Dean Cecil R., Across the Lonely Years: The Story of Jackson County [OK], Altus, OK: Altus Printing Co., 1971: William C. Austin was born January 24, 1880. He was the son of Robert J. and Sabra (Ford) Austin. The Austins have a long history of leadership in the field of education and law, and it was only natural that the young Arkansas farm lad would look in that direction after his school days ended. W.C. studied under the able W.C. Rogers, a lawyer of Nashville, Arkansas and was admitted to the bar in August 1901. During that year he married his childhood sweetheart, Miss Lillie E. Dildy and they decided to seek their fortune in the new lands being opened up for settlement in old Greer County. Their trip was made by train with the new bride riding in the Pullman car and the husband keeping an eye on his livestock in the cattle car. Upon their arrival at Quanah, Texas, they sought a place to stay at the Quanah Hotel instead of the wagon yard where so many pioneer families spent the night. Mr. Austin remained a devoted husband all his life. Nothing was too good for his wife, Lilly, and he devoted every effort to see that she was properly cared for despite their financial situation. After spending the night at Quanah, they journeyed to Reed, Oklahoma near Mangum by covered wagon. They arrived there on November 18, 1901 and spent the first night in a dugout owned by Mr. and Mrs. Mack Harvey. The young couple began their home in a rock grainery of a friend. Austin established his first law office in the corner of the Reed Drug Store. The business was a little unusual in that there was a law office in one corner, a post office in one, a drug store in one, and the fourth corner was rented to a doctor! After a stay of two years at Reed, Austin sold his farm and moved to the Eldorado community. There he established a law office and began the long rise to a successful attorney. The spirit of the young man won the confidence and respect of the growing town and he enjoyed a successful business from the very beginning. Together with many of the business leaders, he helped organize the First National Bank. He served this institution as a member of the board of directors and as its attorney. In time he built a stone building to house his law office and insured the comfort of his wife and growing family by building a very comfortable home within the city. The presence of gypsum in the Eldorado area interested the men in the wallboard business. Partly through Austin's efforts, the giant gypsum plant came to be established which provided employment and financial assistance to the growing community. Austin invested his earning in land near the town and helped Mr. W.H. Peaden plot the Austin and Peaden additions to Eldorado. One of the law partners with Mr. Austin at Eldorado was Carl Hatch. Mr. Hatch later moved to New Mexico where he rose in political circles and was elected to the United States Senate from that state. Like many of his co-workers, Austin was a member of the Masonic fraternity and rose to the degree of Shriner in the York Rite. He was also a member of the Woodmen of the World. Both himself and his wife were faithful members of the Baptist Church. By 1925, Austin was turning his attention to the growing town of Altus. Within a year he had moved his office and his family to this town. When Altus leaders such as W.B. Gover, H.T. Kimball, Elmer Garnett, Harrington Wimberly and J.A. Walker and others decided to seek irrigation for the areas surrounding that town, they enlisted the aid of Mr. Austin to serve as their attorney. Their choice was a good one and for the next several years, Austin devoted at least a part of every day to this project. As attorney he spent much time away from his family and office. On one occasion he went to Washington, D.C. to talk with President Roosevelt concerning this work. Everyone left the office and just the president and Austin were alone for a few moments while the Altus attorney placed his request before this powerful world leader. The project was approved and the work begun. In 1947, the name of the irrigation project was officially named the W.C. Austin Project and a memorial erected at the site of the dam on Lake Altus. Austin served as state senator during the years 1927-31. He was active in the Oklahoma Bar Association and was a member of the Oklahoma Planning and Resources Board from its beginning until his death. The children of W.C. and Mrs. Austin are Lowell, Harlan, Sabra Ware, Robben O'Byrne and Harriett Cunningham. [Note by compiler: This article fails to mention another son, Dr. Dildy M. Austin.] (2) Farrell, Dani, "W. C. Austin: The Man Behind the Dam," Austin Families Association of America Newsletter, Vol. 23, No. 2 (August 2013), pp. 1, 4: Standing on the bridges that cross the main canal, with a backdrop of the Washita Mountains, it is easy to forget how important the Lugert-Altus Dam is. The main canal, rivers, creeks, farmers' fields and the wilderness reserves each receive their water thanks to the Lugert-Altus Dam. The history behind this magnificent dam is infused with passion, hard work, and the plain old Oklahoma stubbornness of one man, W. C Austin. He was better known as "Judge Austin," and on occasion, "Senator Austin". The latter was from 1926 to 1929; although that was not something he enjoyed and did not like being reminded of it. That was not even the start of what a dirt poor kid originally from Nashville, Arkansas, accomplished. William Claude "Willie" Austin was born on January 24, 1880, to Robert and Sabra Austin, the fourth of six children. As Austin became older, he realized he wanted to do more than just farm. So, at the tender age of sixteen, he started his journey to become a lawyer, a decision he made one afternoon in a field. He had a very limited education, but that did not stop him. He worked very hard in a barrel stave factory to save money for college and entered the University of Little Rock to study law. Not having the startup money for his practice, he traveled to Texas to work in the cotton and molasses mills for sixty five cents a day. After putting a little money back, he went to his hometown, married his childhood sweetheart, Lillie Dildy, and headed to Oklahoma. The couple took a small amount of bedding and traveled by train. Austin put his wife in the passenger coach, but he slept in the cattle car. They joined a group of people in Quanah, Texas, who were traveling by wagons into Oklahoma Territory. Not having much, they made do. They spent their first winter in a silo, the only shelter on their rented farm. They hung quilts from the ceiling to make a smaller square room inside the large round space of the silo so that the stove could heat the space better. Austin tried his hand at crops, but due to drought, the farm was a bust. He sold the only thing he owned, a horse and buggy, and built a small office in Reed. The office became a post office, and his store grew into a drug store, thanks to his mother-in-law's offer to give the newly-weds a gift of three hundred dollars. This new space gave the local doctor a more accessible place to put an office, so in the corner of the establishment was Dr. Barr. It was quite a sight; law books on the shelves, window for the drug store, post office on one side, and a doctor on the other side. Feeling the need to expand, Austin later sold his business and moved to Eldorado. In a short time he was considered a prominent citizen; this is also where they had six of their seven children. Here is where his law office took off and was well established. Most of his work was in Altus, so the family moved again. A respected lawyer in Altus, he was asked if he wanted to run for senator, so he ran and won 2,058 to 374 against a Dr. Fox. Due to his background as a lawyer, he was on several legislative committees, including reclamation and agriculture. He understood their problems and how bad it was for agriculture. The generation after the land run would have it rough, because in came a whirlwind of blowing top soil and blistering hot summers. So when the people of Altus approached Austin about helping to promote a water reservoir in southwest Oklahoma, he was more than capable of helping because he knew his way around Washington, D.C. Soon the tall, slender figure with small-rimmed glasses was sweeping through the U.S. Capitol, knocking on doors, and explaining the problem and the need for water in his little part of western Oklahoma. He showed them that the farmers were in desperate need of water for the crops and how a dam would provide water for irrigation. Getting a dam in place was no easy or fast task; it took talent and fortitude, especially for a dam that would need to control the North Fork of the Red River. Austin wrote to the chief engineer of a federal agency about Jackson County's desperation, "The drought conditions here are continuing and the people feel that upon this project rest the substantial future of this community." Austin went back to Washington, D.C. and successfully lobbied for money for a survey. A month later President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed that $30,000 be made available for the study of the North Fork. The Lugert-Altus project was about to become a reality. In March, 1940, the committee that would oversee the dam was appointed, seed money was provided, and plans were made for an additional $500,000 appropriation. Even before it was signed off on by the President, construction began. This massive project would span 778 square miles of Jackson County and would touch Greer and Kiowa counties. The dam is located 18 miles from Altus. In addition to forming the reservoir, Lake Altus, five earthen dikes surround the lake, and four canals, 52 miles in length, and miles of masonry lateral lines were built to supply water to the City of Altus and many privately-owned farms. To understand how big the Lugert-Altus Dam is, one only needs to walk across the bridge and look up at the full glory of the dam. It is breathtaking! While there, one can read a bronze plaque that tells the story of W.C. Austin and what he gave southwest Oklahoma. It was made possible by a man who as a kid, while standing in the middle of a dusty corn field, decided to become a lawyer to make a difference. Even in his last years of life he was at every board meeting, still active, and very much dedicated to the dam. Unfortunately, W. C. Austin passed away October 5, 1946, before he could see his project finished. He knew, however, it was in good hands and would be completed. Less than a year after his death, the irrigation project was renamed the "W. C. Austin Project," and dedicated in 1947. He is remembered, not only as a lawyer, senator, and president of the Bar Association of Oklahoma, but as the man behind the dam that brought modern irrigation to southwest Oklahoma. (3) W. C. Austin: Pioneer and Public Servant <http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v031/v031p066.pdf>: By Monroe Billington Southwestern Oklahomans have paid deserved tribute to W. C. Austin. With public approval the officials of the Lugert-Altus irrigation project, appreciative of the fact that Austin had given his time and efforts unstintingly in behalf of their program, had the name of the irrigation works changed to bear his name. Yet this Oklahoman was more than an irrigationist; he was also a competent lawyer, an exceptional state senator, a reclamationist, a water conservationist, and a reviser of tax laws. Both farmers and farm land were poor in Arkansas in the years following the Civil War. Meager crops accompanied the monotonous lives of most of those dirt farmers. When Robert J. Austin and Sabra Elizabeth Ford were married. Their ambition in life was to live on a farm, grow cotton, and "raise" a family. It was into this environment near Nashville, Arkansas, that William Claude Austin was born on January 24, 1880, the fourth in a family of six children. As Willie grew older, he became dissatisfied with farm life and decided one afternoon while alone in a cotton field that he was not going to live on a farm all his life. He wanted to be a lawyer instead. Will had received only a limited high school education in Nashville, but despite this drawback he began to read Blackstone by the hour in the office of W. C. Rodgers in Nashville. At the age of sixteen he left his home to work in a barrel stave factory in near-by Arkadelphia. After saving a small amount of money, he entered the University of Little Rock where he continued his training for the legal profession. He was admitted to the Arkansas bar in August 1901. Not having money to launch his profession career, he went to Pittsburgh, Texas, and worked in both cotton fields and molasses mills for sixty-five cents per day. When he had saved twenty-five dollars, he moved to Mountain Park, Oklahoma Territory. Within two weeks he had returned to Arkansas, where he married his childhood sweetheart, Lillie Etta Dildy. Immediately after the ceremony, the young couple left for Oklahoma Territory, Austin having rented some land on the "halves" from Tom Pruitt near Reed. They took a small amount of bedding and travelled by train-the wife on the passenger coach and the husband on the cattle car-to Quannah, Texas. Here they joined a group of people who were traveling by wagons into Oklahoma Territory. After much cold weather and difficulty the Austins reached their farm near Reed. The only available shelter was an old abandoned silo. Since a stove could not heat the place adequately, quilts were hung from the ceiling to make a smaller square room within the large round space of the silo. This was their home during the cold winter of 1901-02 in Oklahoma Territory. In the spring Austin planted a crop, but there was a drought in the summer and not much chance of making money. He sold his horse and buggy and built a small business house in the village of Reed where he began to practice law. He hired two young men to help him gather his crop, and with the limited profits he bought a few books. Soon afterward, he was appointed postmaster at Reed. The post office was moved to one corner of his new building, and his wife helped him in operating their business establishment. One day Austin made the casual remark to his wife that if he could save enough capital, he would start a drug business. Upon hearing that three hundred dollars was the amount needed, Mrs. Austin informed him that was the exact amount her mother had wanted to give them when they were married. She had refused to take the money because they wanted to be entirely independent. When approached on the subject, however, her mother was still willing to give them the money, and soon a drug counter was added at one side of their store. A Dr. Barr rented a small amount of office space from Austin, thus completing four different businesses in the building: a row of law books on the shelves in the rear, a postal service window on the right, a drug counter on the left, and a medical doctor's office in one corner of the store. Soon after opening his law office, Austin had his first client. A dry goods peddler who had arrived in Reed to sell his materials was discovered carrying a gun. The people of Reed being peaceful, law-abiding citizens decided to put the man on trial, and the peddler persuaded Austin to be his attorney. The trial was held, and the young lawyer used all the oratory and persuasive power he could muster in defending the itinerant. During the course of the trial the gun disappeared, and without such evidence the man could not be convicted. The peddler paid Austin twenty-five dollars in dry goods for services rendered. This meant that the Austins received large quantities of towels, cotton cloth, and calicos-enough dry goods to last them for many months. Several pairs of men's washable pants were also included for the young attorney. With all of the cloth available, Mrs. Austin made herself some long "mother hubbard" dresses. In September 1903, the Austins moved from Reed to the frontier town of Eldorado. The St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad from Oklahoma City to Quannah, Texas, had just been completed through this settlement, and Austin felt that his profession would flourish if he were in a railroad town. He remembered his vow of earlier years to be a lawyer, and he did not intend to be diverted by his other jobs. He resigned as postmaster of Reed and sold all his possessions-including his drugs and business establishment-except his law books. With the money he moved to Eldorado, bought a small lot, and built a home. In Eldorado, Austin began his profession in earnest, and within a short time he was a prominent citizen there. He and his wife became leaders in the First Baptist Church. He was Sunday School Superintendent for several years, as well as a member of the building committee. When the church was without a pastor for a while, Austin, having become an ordained deacon, kept the church together until another pastor could be secured. The Austins had six children born in their Eldorado home. In the order of their births they were Rob Ben, Dildy, Lowell, Harlan, Sabra, and Harriett. Their first child born at Reed died at the age of two and a half years. A young man by the name of Carl A. Hatch, who grew up in Eldorado, was quite impressed with this lawyer Austin. The Hatch and Austin families became well acquainted, and it was Judge Austin's personality that helped young Hatch decide to become a lawyer. He read Austin's law books and received beneficial instruction from him. After his high school training at Eldorado, Carl A. Hatch went to Vanderbilt University and received a degree in law. In the summer of 1912 he was admitted to the bar, and immediately became associated with Austin, an association that later developed into a partnership under the firm name of Austin and Hatch which lasted until Hatch moved to New Mexico in 1916. The Hatch acts of 1939 and 1940, which limit the annual expenditure of any political committee to three million dollars and any individual annual contribution to a national political committee to five thousand dollars, show legal training which undoubtedly roots in the close association between Hatch and Austin. The Austin family had stayed in Eldorado but most of Austin's business was carried on at Altus because that town was the county seat of Jackson County. The law profession tends to prosper in a county seat. In 1925 the Judge had set up his office in Altus. A home was bought in Altus and the family moved to that city in January 1926. Since his law office was already set up there, Austin had little change to make in respect to business details. He handled a few criminal suits in his early years as a lawyer, but he was handling only civil suits by the time he moved his office to Altus. Only a few months after moving to Altus, his friends began asking him to run for state senator. He at first refused to consider the position, but finally yielded and became a candidate in the Fifth Senatorial District composed of Jackson and Tillman counties. He was the only Democrat seeking the office, nevertheless his name was placed on the ballot, and he received 1829 votes in the first primary. In the general election in November, Austin won over the Republican nominee, Dr. Raymond II. Fox, 2058 to 374. The victor did little campaigning for this office. The Altus-Times-Democrat, the leading daily newspaper in the district, carried no advertising in his behalf. If Austin did not work to acquire the office, he certainly worked while in office. He felt that a public office was a public trust. He expressed this attitude in a letter to his good friend and former partner, Carl A. Hatch, when he wrote, "I am now in the State Senate doing what I can for the public. This, as you know, is at a heavy [financial] loss." He felt that a public call was a demand, and he did his best to comply with that demand. As an inexperienced law maker, Austin naturally did not contribute a great deal to the Eleventh Legislature during the first few weeks of the session. His colleagues soon learned, however, that he had a keen legal mind, and they depended on him for legal information and advice before the session was over. The majority of the bills of his authorship related to laws already on the statute books, such as making minor changes in court laws or rephrasing ambiguous sentences. One of Austin's most important bills made appropriation for the construction of a building to be located on the state capitol grounds in Oklahoma City for the use of the Oklahoma Historical Society, its library, museum, and other effects and property. The impeachment trial of Governor Henry S. Johnston was by far the most outstanding event during Austin's term in the Senate. Friction arose between the executive and the legislature when Mrs. O. O. Hammonds, confidential secretary to the governor, allegedly prohibited the legislators from conferring with the governor about legislative policies. When it appeared that Mrs. Hammonds was screening all persons who wanted to see the governor, the legislators became impatient and appointed a committee which waited upon the governor to ask her removal from office. The governor refused to discharge her but agreed to accept her resignation if she would resign. She would not. Agitation grew when trouble arose concerning the paving of state roads. The State Highway Commission, preferring asphalt over concrete, received bitter criticism for its preference. When the agitation increased, an investigating committee of the lower house brought hasty impeachment charges against the governor. The Governor, with the aid of the National Guard, refused to allow the legislators to meet in the Capitol. They convened in the Huckins Hotel and drew up five articles of impeachment. The Senate had organized as a court of impeachment without executive call and had also retreated to the hotel when the state militia appeared on the scene. They adjourned until after the Christmas holidays, however, before a vote was taken on the articles of impeachment. Tempers cooled during the vacation days, and the Senate voted 22 to 16 to refuse to entertain the impeachment charges which had been preferred by the House. Alice M. David, state organizer of the Oklahoma Women's Christian Temperance Union, wrote Austin on December 31, 1927, after the Senate dispersed, "I want to personally thank you for your position in standing for the supremacy of the law in this recent struggle." Austin felt that there had to be a legally organized Senate before it could organize itself into an impeachment court. He believed that the articles of impeachment had to be presented to the Senate, not to the court of impeachment. The Senate could then organize itself as a court of impeachment presided over by the chief justice of the state supreme court. On December 28, 1927, the Senate quitely dispersed, and the so-called "Ewe Lamb Rebellion" came to an end. Carl Magee, editor of the Oklahoma News, charged that the Governor had used bribery to adjourn the Senate court of impeachment. No doubt Magee had good intentions when he made the charges of corruption, but after the charges were widely publicized throughout the state, some of the senators though of joining in a criminal libel action against Magee. Austin was asked to join this suit, but the attitude reflected in part of a letter written to a colleague expressed his strong character and his profound belief in the public : ["]I don't favor joining in a criminal libel action against Magee. I believe that the matter should be forgotten I am just as confident of the integrity of my fellows in the Senate, as I am of my own integrity in the matter We have done everything that honorable men could do, by way of offering the public authorities the benefit of information. I may be wrong in my conclusion, but I just do not feel that I want my name dragged into the courts to prove my innocence of a thing that the public does not charge me with, and of which, there is no semblance of truth I do not want to join in any court proceeding. I do not deem it necessary, but I do deem it very unwise.["] With the Governor and the senators remaining under fire throughout 1928, it became more apparent as the months passed that investigations were forthcoming as soon as the legislature reconvened. In November 1928, Austin was reasonably sure that investigations would be made but felt that no investigations would hurt an honorable officer, "but if properly and impartially conducted, will reflect to his credit." He wrote: ["] . . . my position will be, that whatever investigation is made, [it] should be conducted openly fairly, impartially but thoroughly and if charges are to be preferred against any individual officer, they should be presented to and tried by the Senate, as a fair minded court, having no preconceived opinions and devoid of prejudice in any degree.["] When the Twelfth Legislature met in January 1929, it passed a resolution which authorized the investigation by a committee of the Senate of the charges made relative to the action of the court of impeachment in the year 1927. The senators had been accused of being bribed with one hundred thousand dollars to quash the purported articles of impeachment presented to them by the House. Austin, being partially responsible for this action to clear himself and his colleagues of the unwanted publicity of the earlier events, was made chairman of this committee. From January 26 to 28 the senators appeared on the witness stand to testify that they had received no bribes in connection with the 1927 gossip." After three days of intensive investigation which disclosed that the senators had not changed their votes overnight in the impeachment proceedings, the affair was closed. Conducting the investigation of the bribery charges on a high plane of efficiency, Austin won many friends for the way he handled the entire affair. In the meantime the House in regular session had voted articles of impeachment, including charges of incompetency, corruption in office, and moral turpitude, against the Governor. When presented with these charges on January 21, 1929, the Senate voted to accept them. The trial lasted from February 11 to March 20, during which time 141 witnesses appeared on the stand. From March 7 to 14 the governor himself testified in his own behalf. On March 20 Senator Mac Q. Williamson moved that the charge of general incompetency be voted on. Guy L. Andrews (McAlester), Tom Anglin (Holden- Ville), and W. C. Austin (Altus) were the first three names on the Senate roll, and generally the entire Senate voted much the way they did. Each man was asked to rise and cast his oral vote clearly and distinctly. Andrews and Anglin had voted "aye" and Austin stood to cast his vote. It was a dramatic moment. He spoke so low that some of the senators asked how he had voted. When the newspaper reporters heard that the first three men had voted "aye", they ran to the telephones knowing that Johnston was the same as convicted. They were right. By a vote of 33 to 9, Johnston was removed from Oklahoma's highest office. William J. Holloway became governor of Oklahoma on March 20, 1929. Holloway called a special session of the Legislatures in May to consider reorganization and economy proposals, since the regular session of the Twelfth Legislature had been devoted almost entirely to judicial duties. When that session was over, Austin was happy; he had not enjoyed his tenure as a senator. About a year later he wrote, "I am not going to take any active interest in polities . . . as I do not feel that I ever want any more political experience." After his term of office, people often referred to him as "Senator", thinking that he would take the remark as a compliment. They were mistaken. He did not enjoy being a senator and did not want people to remind him of his unhappy experiences in that capacity. During the impeachment proceedings Austin wrote a letter which he probably thought would be read by no one except his law associate. This letter most likely expressed his true feelings: ["]March 15, 1929 ["]Mr. Ross Rutherford, Altus, Oklahoma, ["]Dear Ross: ["]It now appears impossible for me to be in the office tomorrow, as a motion was passed, this morning, to continue the session until tomorrow at 5 o'clock. It Is beginning to worry all the members, but there's nothing to do, but stay in the chamber and do our duty whatever it may be. I, in casting my vote whatever it shall be, will follow what I deem to be in the line of best interest for the public for the next two years. I may err and I am sure will be criticized either way, but cannot avoid that. I have made up my mind to cast a vote on my judgment of what the state's interest demands and take the consequences as they come. I am quite sure that it will not be long until I will be in the office. ["]Yours very truly, ["]W. C. Austin (signed) ["]WCA:OH["] Austin voted the way his conscience prompted when all of the evidence had been presented and carefully weighed in the impeachment proceedings. He won many friends by his conduct and fine attitude during these distasteful events. Austin's ideals in public service brought respect from those whom he served and among those with whom he worked. In 1928 he was elected to the American Bar Association. When the State Bar of Oklahoma was organized in Oklahoma City in 1929, Austin was a leader in his district. He felt that this was a great step in raising the standards of the bar in Oklahoma, his interest in this taking him to Washington in 1933 to attend the American Law Institute. In 1931 when Sam Massingale declined to be a candidate for re-election as Governor of the State Bar, several of Austin's colleagues felt that he was the logical candidate." He was approached on this, and his remark was, "I respect that office. I will register no objection if events turn in that direction." That was characteristic of him. If his services were required, he was willing to serve. In the later months of 1932 Austin was elected to the office of Governor from the Ninth Supreme Court Judicial District. In this capacity he served on the Board of Governors for the State Bar of Oklahoma for the year 1933. At that time several lawyers were trying to get the State Bar Act repealed. Austin believed that if that were done, it "would be unfortunate for the Bar of the State and for the public in general." Austin was re-elected as Governor for the Ninth District in December 1933. The duties of the Board of Governors include the handling of all the executive functions of the state bar and the enforcement of the provisions of the State Bar Act which includes the power to fix and determine the qualifications for admission to practice law in Oklahoma, and the power to formulate and enforce the rules of professional conduct. The records show that as a member of this board Austin carried out his duties faithfully. Alter his tenure on the Board of Governors, Austin was appointed to a committee on rules for the State Bar of Oklahoma. He was adept with legal phraseology, and his proficiency was revealed when he wrote legal documents or rules. He was elected to the executive committee of the State Bar in December 1939. Concurrently with Austin's several responsibilities as a governor and as a committee member of the State Bar were also his accomplishments in the field of taxation. In 1935 he was appointed chairman of the section on taxation, a subdivision of the State Bar. A statement of policy for the Oklahoma Tax Commission reads: "One of the principal functions of the Oklahoma Tax Commission under the law is to study the tax system of this and other states with a view to the equitable distribution of the burdens of taxation in Oklahoma." With this statement in their minds, Austin and his committee pursued the theory that the State Bar had not been called upon to write a new code on taxation based upon their own concept of what it should be, but rather to restate in more simplified and effective form the tax laws and policies of the state as they had been established by the Legislature. All revisions were made in the light of administrative interpretation and judicial construction. Austin served on this committee for three years, during which many Oklahoma tax laws were rewritten and simplified. For his efforts to bring reclamation benefits to Southwestern Oklahoma, Austin was elected the first president of the Oklahoma Reclamation Association when that group met in Altus for its organizational meeting on November 13, 1941. He retained that position until his death five years later. The Oklahoma Reclamation Association was organized as a means of localizing information from the National Reclamation Association with reference to irrigation, water uses, and related problems affecting the arid and semi-arid West. Its purpose is to include appropriate support of new projects and their presentation for official consideration. As such projects are found to be feasible and in the public interest, it is to aid in securing their authorization for construction. This program has become of extreme importance to every citizen in the state. Governor Robert S. Kerr, in his inaugural address in January 1943, included the development of the natural resources of Oklahoma as a part of his program. In view of this proposed program, the Nineteenth Legislature passed a bill re-organizing the Oklahoma Planning and Resources Board. Selected by the governor to serve on his nine-member board, Austin was designated chairman of the Water Resources Committee. This committee was to make investigations and recommendations concerning flood eontrol, irrigation, water pollution and projects, for the streams of Oklahoma. Appointed a member of the agricultural committee of which H. G. Bennett was chairman, Austin's efforts had much to do with the development of the soil and water resources of Oklahoma. The minutes of the Oklahoma Planning and Resources Board show that he was a regular attendant of its meetings during the years 1944 to 1946. As stated in the introduction, Austin is most known for his part in the successful completion of the Lugert-Altus irrigation project in Southwestern Oklahoma. The labors of many went into this dream that became a reality, but beyond question W. C. Austin was the primary motive power behind this great project. Fully one-third of the last ten years of his life were spent in completing it. All of the time and energy Austin gave to this project were gratis. He received no money for the countless telephone calls and the many letters written every day. He traveled widely in this work, and only with reluctance did he accept expense money for two trips to Washington while trying to get the project approved. Farmers in Southwestern Oklahoma are receiving benefits now and will continue to receive them because of his perseverance. Judge Austin died on October 5, 1946, knowing that other hands would complete the task which had been his for so many years. Less than a year later, an act of Congress changed the name of the irrigation project to the "W. C. Austin Project," and in September, 1947, it was formally dedicated. At that time, a large bronze plaque set in natural granite and permanently affixed to the east end of the Altus dam was unveiled. The plaque contains an image of Judge Austin's face in bas-relief. Below it are these appropriate words: W. C. Austin whose life was completely dedicated to the service of his God, his Country, his community and his fellow man. Who never turned away from a call for his helping hand. Who asked as his reward for accomplishment only another chance to serve. Loved and respected by all who had the privilege of knowing him, the citizens of Oklahoma unite in dedicating to him this monument and the irrigation works comprising the project which now so rightfully bears his name. Presented by friends of Southwestern Oklahoma, September 5, 1947 (4) Autobee, Robert, "The W. C. Austin Project," U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, 1994 <https://www.usbr.gov/projects/pdf.php?id=206>: Dams begin as concepts, but it takes talent only a few possess to convince others to bring those abstractions to reality. Those who browbeat or begged Washington into watering their little corner of the West were often driven by self-promotion and profit, but one of the more altruistic quests was led by Judge W.C. Austin of Altus, Oklahoma. A sober gaze framed by a pair of rimless glasses masked the intensity he brought to his search for irrigated water for Southwest Oklahoma. During a decade of writing letters, sending telegrams and participating in one-on-one meetings with anyone who would listen, W.C. Austin led the charge to control the waters of the North Fork of the Red River. In the pantheon of the persistent, William Claude Austin stands at the front of the hall. The Project bearing the name of this small-town jurist carries a roll-call of honors and firsts that reads like the back of an All-Star's baseball card: first federal dam built in Oklahoma, known by three different names during its existence (Lugert-Altus, Altus, and W.C. Austin), the last masonry dam built by Reclamation, and the Bureau's eastern-most dam in a sub-humid zone. Currently, the Project provides, since the late 1940s, municipal water for the City of Altus, recreational facilities, flood control, and irrigation water for 46,777 acres. Both pioneer and civilizer, the actions of Austin's life mirrored the twentieth century West as it shed the wild and wooly for the safe and stable. A generation after the days of the "Sooners," just as the people of Oklahoma thought they had deeply planted the roots of civilization, nature came undone. In the 1930s, millions of acres of blowing topsoil and endless dry summers forced the migration of thousands of Oklahomans. The situation called for both the persistent and the technical to work together to stop a modern day exodus. Project Location Southwestern Oklahoma is on the far western edge of a climatological strip of sub-humid climate extending from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. However, for farmers this point east of the ninety-seventh meridian sees too few downpours and too many months of drought. Average annual rainfall is 26 inches; better than the 13 to 20 inches of rain sprinkling the high plains of Colorado and New Mexico to the West, but much less than the 35 to 45 inches falling on Eastern Oklahoma. In most places in the West watered by Reclamation, 26 inches would amount to a few years' worth of rain, but at Altus, storms are haphazard and the heat quickly evaporates any moisture. Often, a seemingly interminable July and August diminishes the yield and limits the quality of the harvest, preventing any diversification of crops. Dark plains soils first supported native vegetation like bluestem and buffalo grasses before the land was converted over to cotton. The lengthy growing season of 225 days is due partly to Southwest Oklahoma's low altitude of 1,250 to 1,500 feet above sea level. The North Fork of the Red River is a fabled and capricious source of water. Early settlers favored some sort of management of the river to prevent sudden flash floods. In the spring and autumn, peak flows running as high as 30,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) have wiped out adjoining fields and towns. The W.C. Austin Project covers most of the 778 square miles of Jackson County, while touching neighboring Greer and Kiowa Counties. Project lands are bounded on the west by the Red River's Salt Fork and on the east by the North Fork. The Altus Dam sits on the North Fork, 18 miles north of the City of Altus. In addition to the dam, other features include the reservoir, Lake Altus, five earthen dikes surrounding the lake's perimeter, and four canals totaling 52 miles in length teamed with approximately 220 miles of laterals. Scattered throughout the canal system are a number of checks, turnouts, siphons, drops and bridges. Historic Setting The wave of humanity that peopled the western half of the continent during the mid-nineteenth century took a little longer to blow into Oklahoma. A buffalo hunter named Frazier was the first white settler in the Project area in the 1870s, however the decimation of the herds soon put his line of work in jeopardy. Frazier's decision to set up shop on this spot soon grew into a small community along the Bitter Creek. In 1891, floods drove settlers to an elevated location two miles east of the creek. Someone in the group with a knowledge of Latin christened the new town, Altus, commemorating the decision to move to higher ground. As more settlers entered this region, they found themselves geographically and politically in the middle of a land dispute between the State of Texas and Oklahoma Territory. The Texas legislature in 1886 established the North Fork of the Red River as the border between Texas and Oklahoma. The contested area, known as Greer County, was a part of Texas for the next ten years. The feud went all the way to the United States Supreme Court before the justices determined Greer County to be Oklahoma's. The present-day Oklahoma counties of Jackson, Greer, and Harmon were formed from this one-time chunk of Texas. In 1897, Congress opened Jackson County to homesteaders after passing a special act protecting the rights of earlier settlers. Before the measure, over population was not a problem, as the region's grasslands mainly fed passing herds of cattle. By the turn of the century, fifty-one percent of future project lands were settled in farms averaging 160 acres. Settlement continued over the next twenty years until almost all the arable land in the county was under cultivation. W.C. Austin and his wife, Lillie, were part of this migration, arriving in neighboring Greer County by wagon in 1901. As Southwest Oklahoma's only good sized town, turn-of-the-century Altus had not yet been touched by rail lines, telephones, and electricity. The nearest connection to the outside world was the railstop at Vernon, Texas, - 55 miles by wagon. Born in Arkansas in 1880, W. C. Austin was the fourth child in a family of six. As a young man, Austin worked in the cotton fields and molasses mills of northeast Texas for sixty-five cents a day while studying the law. Eventually moving to Altus in 1926, he held office as a state senator, member of the state planning and resources board, and president of the Oklahoma Reclamation Association. Almost a third of the last ten years of his life were dedicated to completing the project. He received no money for the daily telephone calls and letters, and he often paid his own way for trips to Washington, D.C., speaking with anyone who would listen about bringing irrigation to Altus. In 1902, the seed of irrigation was planted by two Altus merchants, J. A. Walker and Robert Dunlap, and a local pioneer irrigator, W. L. Fullerton. Fullerton and Dunlap went to an irrigation congress in Seattle hosted by the recently minted United States Reclamation Service (USRS), where "so loud was the noise" made by the duo, the Bureau quickly sent a man to check irrigation possibilities in the Altus region. A USRS engineer, J. G. Camp, came to Altus loaded down with equipment to test the flow of the North Fork. A few days into his survey, he believed a cut in the Wichita Mountain range in northeast Jackson County held the greatest potential for a damsite. The weather that spring eventually dampened Camp's opinion, as often he would set up his instruments to test the stream only to have a flood wash his tools, and once, one of his surveyors, downstream. In disgust, he told locals "what this _____ country needs is a little flood control, not irrigation." The Reclamation Service conducted two surveys of the area during the first five years of its existence. Those with a financial state in selling land opposed both the 1902 and 1904 USRS studies. Many Oklahoma land agent believed those areas far away from irrigation sources would not be as valuable as those nearest to canals and laterals. For anyone serious enough to make a go of it, farming was a difficult life in turn-of-the-century Altus. A farmer's life was filled with "days of prairie fires, drought, and flood - days when we met at the community church to pray for rain, or perhaps, to pray for it to cease raining." In the face of those conditions, three federal authorities - the USRS/Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the War Department - all managed studies over the next three decades, but with no tangible results. Eventually, federal inertia exasperated the citizens of Altus so much they went and built their own dam. The City of Altus completed a 46-foot high Ambursen dam for municipal use in 1927. The Ambursen Dam Co. of New York City held the patent on a concrete and buttress design found mainly in the Eastern United States. Soon after Altus Dam went into service, a group of farmers met with city officials seeking to divert water from the city's main pipeline for irrigation. Their success sparked discussion of creating an irrigation district, but service from the city was as far as they got. In the 1920s, few dams in the West could boast of an Ambursen design, but the city neglected to note the quantity of silt carried by the North Fork into the reservoir. Seventeen years later as the dam was torn down to make way for a new facility, Lake Altus had been "rendered practically useless" by mounds of silt which reduced its storage capacity from 13,000 to 700 acre feet. Jackson County was the biggest cotton-producing county in the world in the 1920s. An average of 92,000 bales were produced and ginned annually over a five year period from 1924 to 1929. Three-fourths of its arable land was covered in white bolls, as cotton production accounted for 80 percent of the county's total agriculture revenue. Almost everyone in the county depended on a bumper crop. Growers, ginners, compressors, cotton seed oil mill operators, and marketers all had a stake in its success. A few farsighted growers wanted to ensure and expand cotton's profitability with irrigation. Believers cited cotton's success in New Mexico on Reclamation's Rio Grande and Carlsbad Projects. Unfortunately, the conversion from dry land farming to irrigation did not come soon enough to avoid the onset of the dry, "dirty thirties." Oklahoma was neither doing fine nor "OK" in the 1930s. Ironically, the dust storms blowing through the state cast the national spotlight on a group possessing "not quite the twang of the Midwest nor the drawl of the Deep South, but a composite of both" - the rural poor of the Southwest United States. Foreclosure and bankruptcy, over-dependency on cotton production, jobs lost to farm mechanization, mounting disillusionment pushed 440,000 people out of Oklahoma; almost 18.4 percent of its population in 1930. It was the greatest out-migration of any state during the depression. The population of Jackson County alone decreased by 6,000 during the decade. By the mid-thirties, even the most orthodox dry land farmer began to see irrigation as the county's last hope. On a hot summer day in 1935, a quartet of Altus' leading citizens met with W. C. Austin in the lobby of the National Bank of Commerce to explore how to entice the federal government into constructing a dam and reservoir. Austin listened and agreed to organize local support and make contacts with state and Federal officials. For the next decade, Austin politely and persistently stated his region's case to the federal government. Able to couch his concern in courteous language in late 1938, Austin wrote to Reclamation's Chief Engineer R. F. Walter about Jackson County's desperation: "The drought conditions here are continuing and the people feel that upon this project rests the substantial future of this community." Project Authorization At Oklahoma Senator Elmer Thomas' suggestion, Judge Austin visited Washington, D.C., in February, 1937, attempting to sway the federal government to start another survey. Austin's efforts paid off later that month, when as President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed $30,000 from the Reclamation fund be made available toward a study of the North Fork. This report, incorporating information from both Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, was published a year later as Senate Document No. 153 of the 75th Session. Lobbying by Oklahoma's representatives in Congress resulted in the inclusion of the "Lugert-Altus Project" in the Rivers and Harbors Act of June 28, 1938 (52 Stat. 1215, 1219). In March 1940, a vote by land owners who had previously pledged to join any future project, created the Lugert-Altus Irrigation District. Voters also ejected dry land farmer Joe Zinn president of the irrigation district. Zinn, and two other elected board members, now had the legal power to make contracts with the Bureau. Seed money was planted two months later with an initial allocation of $500,000 included in the Interior Department Appropriation Act of 1940. Although the project had yet to be signed into law by the President, work began on a number of pre-construction tasks. Assigned as the Construction Engineer for Lugert-Altus, Russell S. Lieurance arrived in the town of Altus on May 31, 1940, to coordinate preliminary construction. This included the building of a sand processing plant, field laboratory, and test drilling of the bedrock at the existing Altus Dam. These first months went smoothly according to Lieurance, thanks to the lack of a "holier than thou attitude" by officials of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) responsible for supplying the labor. By October, there were approximately 300 WPA hires working on the project. A January 21, 1941 letter from Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to President Roosevelt illustrates Ickes favorable attitude toward the Altus Project. Ickes believed few newcomers would homestead Altus, but "Any advantage to be derived would come through increased production." After three years of incessant studies and a slowly-paced pre-construction period, Lugert-Altus was finally deemed official by President Roosevelt on February 13, 1941. Later that spring, Lieurance entered the Armed Forces, and Howard E. Robbins assumed the duties of Construction Engineer on August 1, a job he would hold over the next six years. The work began in earnest on April 21, 1941, with the excavation of a dike and the relocation of Oklahoma State Highway 44. Both operations were necessary in order to increase the existing reservoir's capacity. Construction History In abstract terms, the 110 foot high Altus Dam looks like a block of concrete sandwiched by two slabs of rock. However, its unique face is a monument to surmounting the scarcities and sacrifices of the manpower and material-short war years. Built on the foundation of the old Altus Dam, the new concrete gravity, partially curved dam is 1,104 feet long with a 10 foot wide crest. Incorporated within the structure works are controlled and uncontrolled spillways and a canal outlet works. The uncontrolled spillway section is 114.5 feet wide while the controlled portion is regulated by nine radial gates 21 feet wide by 15 feet high. The canal outlet works is made up of three conduits, 72 inches in diameter, each controlled by one 5-by-5-foot hydraulically operated high-pressure slide gate. Before the dam took shape, enlarging the existing reservoir was first on the schedule. Creating extra room required relocation of highways, a railroad line, and bridges that would have been washed out if they had not been moved. A portion of Oklahoma State Highway 44 south of the reservoir was redirected along with a section of the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe (A.T.& S.F.) rail line. Bridges along State Highway 9, and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific track (C.R.I. & P.) along the north of the reservoir, were raised 13 feet to make way for a higher water level and the construction of five dikes surrounding the edge of the reservoir. The relocation of Highway 44 took 11 months to finish. Work on Highway 9 and the C.R.I.& P. was curtailed in 1941 by America's entry into World War II. It took four years before both jobs were totally completed in November 1945. The remodeled Lake Altus can hold 152,482 acre feet of water. Of that amount, 132,886 acre feet goes to conservation storage; 19,596 acre feet is for flood control storage, 10,000 acre feet is reserved for municipal water, and the remaining 1,663 acre feet is dead storage. Five earthfill dikes equipped with toe drains were constructed along the lake's perimeter in low lying areas. Each was finished with either riprap or gravel. . . . Originally built for, and occupied by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees, the workers camp had been abandoned for over a year before it was released to Reclamation on September 13, 1940. A WPA crew repaired and reconditioned the camp in anticipation of the arrival of hundreds of project workers. Reclamation predicted there would be an average of 500 jobs with a possible 900 to 1,000 openings during full construction. The expectation that Altus would require 2.5 million man hours of work never materialized, as the largest number of workers hired during the four year construction period was 365 in 1941-2. Many of those men in 1941-42 removed the old dam's downstream apron and buttress as part of the reservoir's expansion. The new dam's upstream face was designed 24 inches downstream from and parallel to the spillway crest of the original Altus Dam. Demolition began with line drilling and placement of shots of dynamite and black powder, but these methods proved to be too slow and costly. Drop hammers and other heavy steel objects attached to a crane were tried, but the machine slid off the apron's slope endangering the crane's boom. A worn granite rock attached to the crane's drop cable finally cracked the concrete. The "stone hammer" was so precise in its method of destruction that over 40,000 lbs. of precious reinforcing steel in the apron slabs were reused in the new dam. As the old dam began to crumble, a new difficulty arose over what to do with 14,000 cubic yards of silt. When the dam's sluice gates were opened, the area downstream was soon covered in silt 50 feet deep in some places. Silt removal began with the use of draglines followed by a pumper mounted on a barge pushing the trapped mud, sand and water into the river. Finally, blasts from high pressure air-water jets dispersed the remaining sediment. As these operations progressed, the river was diverted through a channel in the canal outlet works located in the dam's left abutment to a point 500 feet downstream. The old dam served as the upstream cofferdam, while the downstream cofferdam was formed of earth and rockfill. The last masonry dam built by the Bureau began as rock blasted from the base of Rattlesnake Mountain. Reclamation's decision to build an all-masonry dam was meant to have created jobs for out-of-work Oklahomans and decrease the amount local district water users would have to pay back to the federal government. Masonry as the dam material of preference had been superseded by concrete some 25 years earlier. On the last dam built by Reclamation, Arizona's Theodore Roosevelt, craftsmen were imported from Italy to fashion its striking facade. However at Altus, WPA employees from Oklahoma used hand sets and chisels to cut and shape the granite. The process began with large stones weighing up to 100 tons fractured by jackhammers into smaller boulders. Drilling further reduced the stones, as any remaining granite too small for squaring into blocks was crushed for later use as concrete. The blocks - averaging two to four cubic yards each - were loaded on to trailers and shipped to a storage yard at the bottom of the hillside. From there, a total of 300,000 cubic yards of masonry were hauled to the damsite. Eight months into quarrying, by November 1941, Reclamation realized mounting costs, and scarcity of men skilled enough to cut rock, meant a switch from an all-masonry design to a dam with a concrete core. Fourteen-thousand cubic yards of cut granite blocks stored at the quarry would be now used in the facing and parapet walls. The addition of a concrete core did not mean the dam would be solid concrete. The dam's center is comprised of a lean mixture made of 30 percent pumicite, a lighter material with a similar texture to cement. The pumicite was mined from a pit 17 miles from the dam. The first full year of World War II brought the world to Altus, and shortages of men and material would plague the project for the duration. In May, 1942, the War Department announced its intention to build a twin-engine plane flying school (later known as the Altus Army Air Field) northeast of the city. The school's arrival prompted the Bureau, at the request of the city, to apply for a priority rating on materials to complete the reservoir. By August, the War Production Board (WPB) assigned an A-1-C priority rating allowing partial construction of the dam in order to serve the city and the air field. Receiving a priority rating did not ensure everything and everybody involved in keeping the project running would be readily available. A shortage of tires and repair parts meant costlier replacement equipment and a greater reliance on substitutes for metal spare parts. By the early summer of 1942, truck tires were so rare, an average of only two dump trucks were in use. Tires and parts were not the only commodity in demand, as people were needed to work in the cotton fields and on construction at the nearby air field. Both demands drained the remaining WPA forces to a handful. On October 15, the long anticipated federal liquidation of the WPA was announced, leaving those hired by the Bureau to continue. During September and October, the possibility of bringing Japanese-Americans from the West Coast to supplement the loss of WPA laborers was discussed. The arrival of these "Japanese labor battalions" was supported by many in Jackson County, but their transportation from the West Coast was eventually seen by the federal government as impractical. Months of concern over where to find laborers came to a head on December 12, when the War Production Board (WPB) in Washington issued a "Stop Construction Order" limiting the dam's future purpose to providing water for the city and the Altus Army Air Field. When the stop order went into effect, 50 percent of the dams and dikes were complete; all the earth dikes were done, and the relocation of the A.T.& S.F. railway and State Highway 9 had been accomplished. The WPB's "low-stage development" schedule meant the dam's height would be 20 feet below the initial design, eliminating the use of materials for the war effort. Those closely involved with the project saw the WPB order as a set-back that revised their main objective - water for farmer's fields. A year-and-a-half long sales job by Reclamation Commissioner Harry W. Bashore, Construction Engineer Robbins, Director of the State Division of Water Resources Don McBride and Judge Austin inevitably wore down the WPB. In April of 1944, the WPB was won over, classifying Altus Dam as a War Food Project. This classification meant completion of Altus was vital for war-time production of food and fiber. Despite the sense of renewed importance resultant from the classification, for the rest of construction engineers and laborers still had to have to make due with equipment breakdowns, spotty delivery of lumber and reinforcing steel and a lack of spare parts. The last cubic yard of concrete was poured to complete the spillway crest in the summer of 1945. The project was finished except for installation of the radial gates and permanent spillway bridge. Reclamation entered into a series of contacts with private firms to dig the laterals and complete reconstruction of State Highway 9. Much of the delivery system remained to be finished, but construction of "Oklahoma's first irrigation project" was far enough along that a tour of the facilities was conducted on January 30, 1946. Judge Austin and Howard Robbins hosted several hundred people as they viewed the dam and dikes and were told about irrigation and its importance to Oklahoma in the future. The first section of canal was achieved April 30, 1946. Austin was back again six months later on June 19, as the first delivery made its way to the northern end of the project. The beginning of operations would be the last aspect of the Altus Project Austin would be involved with as a prolonged illness took his life on October 5, 1946. Life and the project went on, and a year later the City of Altus threw itself a party in honor of the new dam. Three days of parades and celebrations culminated in Dedication Day, Friday, September 5, 1947. It was a 110 degrees in the shade that afternoon with the only relief provided by "parasols and newspapers." Secretary of the Interior Julius "Cap" Krug, and Oklahoma Governor Roy Turner, were not much better off sitting for two hours of speech making under the grandstand's sheet-iron roof. Construction of the distribution systems was done by 1949, while open surface and subsurface drains were in operation four years later. The Main Canal has a capacity of 1,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) and transports water 4.2 miles from Altus Dam to the project's northern boundary. The canal crosses the North Fork by means of a 10-foot, 3-inch-diameter siphon, 1,920 feet long. The lower end of the Main Canal delivers water to the principal canals of the project's 270 mile distribution system. These channels vary in capacity from 710 cfs at the head of the Altus Canal down to a few cfs in the smallest lateral. Only a few sections of canal are concrete, as the majority remains unlined. The terminus of the Main Canal branches off into the 21.7 mile Altus Canal and the 11 mile long West Canal, both serving the main delivery system. The 14.8-mile Ozark Canal branches off from the Altus Canal. The canals and laterals can be used for drainage if rainfall is too plentiful or a flash flood occurs. A contract between the federal government and the City of Altus provides water from the reservoir for the municipality. The final tribute to the man who redirected the agricultural fortunes of Southwest Oklahoma originated when Senator Thomas and Congressman Preston Peden introduced legislation in Congress to name the Altus Project after W.C. Austin. The Eightieth Congress passed Public Law 69 and President Harry S. Truman signed the measure on May 16, 1947. The W.C. Austin Project's final price tag was $12.8 million, of which $8 million came from the WPA and other non-reimbursable funding. The water users' repayment obligation barely topped $3 million, with irrigable owing $2 million, and the city of Altus paying $1 million for the upgrading of their municipal water supply. Project water users were charged slightly more than $1.00 per acre per year over a forty year repayment period. By 1990, rural water users retired the $2 million debt. Enduring longer than a repayment schedule, a plaque set into a block of granite at the damsite remembers Austin's endeavors as an individual, "who asked as his reward for accomplishment only another chance to serve." Post Construction History World War II had just ended, but the cotton country surrounding Altus looked much as it did when it was first settled. A characteristic Jackson County homestead was a ramshackle two-room frame house and a barn with the siding and roof missing. With a little lumber and a paint job, this piece of farm property would soon serve as a testing ground to illustrate the benefits irrigation would bring to the region. The Bureau's 58-acre demonstration farm was co-sponsored by the Soil Conservation Service and Oklahoma State College to help introduce irrigation practices to farmers experienced only in dry land methods. As soon as the first gate was lifted, irrigation took off like a prairie wind storm within the next two years. Eleven farmers watered 510 acres in the northern end of the project in 1946. That year, an average return on an acre of irrigated land was $130, versus $22 an acre for non-irrigated land. A year later, 3,200 acres on 60 farms were watered. The difference managed water made was visible at harvest-time, as cotton stood five feet high and was loaded with bolls. On non-irrigated land, plants grew only to two feet and was "barely worth picking." A half decade after Altus' completion, yields of alfalfa and cotton doubled and trebled on some farms. The operation and maintenance responsibilities for the project distribution system were transferred from Reclamation to the Lugert-Altus Irrigation District on October 1, 1952. Reclamation retains ownership of the dam, reservoir and main canals. The Lugert-Altus District built an additional 34 miles of open drains in the nearby Bitter and Stinking Creeks. The only notable maintenance has been weed control, replacement of the turnout gates and grouting program to combat seepage along the dikes i
  Person ID	I16788	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Robert Joseph AUSTIN,   b. 3 Mar 1847, Hickory Flat, Tippah [now Benton] County, MS d. 12 Feb 1934, Baptist State Hospital, Little Rock, Pulaski County, AR (Age 86 years)
  Mother	Sabra Ellen Elizabeth FORD,   b. 29 Sep 1856, Anniston, Calhoun County, AL d. 1933, Nashville, Howard County, AR (Age 76 years)
  Marriage	2 Jun 1872	Anniston, Calhoun County, AL
  Family ID	F7509	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Lillie Etta DILDY,   b. 19 Jan 1881, Howard County, AR d. 1946, Altus, Jackson County, OK (Age 64 years)
  Marriage	3 Nov 1901	Nashville, Howard County, AR
  Children	1. Nolan William AUSTIN,   b. 1 Jan 1902, Reed, Greer County, OK d. 1 Jan 1905, Jackson County, OK (Age 3 years)   2. RobBen AUSTIN,   b. 17 Sep 1903, El Dorado, Jackson County, OK d. 28 Oct 1992, Westmoreland Nursing Center, Lake Forest, Lake County, IL (Age 89 years)   3. Dildy McCown AUSTIN,   b. 17 Sep 1905, Eldorado, Jackson County, OK d. 28 Mar 1936, Belen, Valencia County, NM (Age 30 years)   4. Lowell Erskine AUSTIN, Sr.,   b. 19 Oct 1908, Eldorado, Jackson County, OK d. 15 Sep 1973, Altus, Jackson County, OK (Age 64 years)   5. Capt. Marshall Harlan AUSTIN, Sr.,   b. 14 Jun 1911, Eldorado, Jackson County, OK d. 19 Jul 2005, Sacramento County, CA (Age 94 years)   6. Sabra Elizabeth AUSTIN,   b. 26 Sep 1913, Eldorado, Jackson County, OK d. 5 Nov 1997, Lawton, Comanche County, OK (Age 84 years)   7. Harriet Pershing AUSTIN,   b. 26 Aug 1917, Eldorado, Jackson County, OK d. 17 Mar 1987, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, OK (Age 69 years)
  Family ID	F7494	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024