OKLAHOMA CITY — The Governor’s Outstanding Legacy in Agriculture Award was presented posthumously to King of Hydro. He was born in 1918 in “Blackjack Country” in the sandy hills of Caddo County and grew up on a farm homesteaded in 1904. While he farmed and took correspondence classes from Hills Business College in Oklahoma City, he volunteered for one year of service in the U.S. Army just nine months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. During his service he saved money and he and his wife, Lola, were able to purchase a small farm north of Eakly in 1945.
King worked tirelessly to persuade the Farmers Home Administration to loan him money to drill a well so he could irrigate his farm. After six years of effort, he drilled the first irrigation well in Caddo County in 1951. This revolutionary act was so successful he eventually farmed over 1,100 acres and rented an additional 600 acres. His experience with irrigation led to opening King’s Irrigation Service in 1954 which was later expanded to include agricultural machinery.
King helped Caddo County become a leader in peanut production and irrigation innovation. By 1970, his county led much of the southwest in peanut production. King was instrumental in founding organizations to work with elected officials and was responsible for the establishment of the Caddo Research Station. He was the founding president of the Caddo County Area Peanut Growers Association and the Oklahoma Peanut Commission. He was the founding Chairman of the National Peanut Growers Association and served as chairman of the Southwestern Peanut Growers Association. In addition, King was Progressive Farmer magazine’s 1976 Man of the Year in Oklahoma Agriculture.
After his death in 2013 at the age of 95, his legacy in the Oklahoma peanut industry endures with other advancements in agricultural irrigation science and techniques. The economy of Caddo County benefited from his vision and his determination.
“In all of his public affairs Mr. King was a hard-working, engaging figure of gracious honesty and abiding dignity,” said Congressman Frank Lucas. “I never had to doubt where my friend, Mr. King, stood when matters of conflict arose – it was always, relentlessly, faithfully on the side of the families that produce our country’s food supply and that carry forth the heritage of American agriculture.”
—Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry
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