The history of Irwin Auto Companies and the Irwin family, who have made Oklahoma their home since the 1890s, is foremost a story of vision and hard work. The success of the family continues today and is a clear reminder of the proud heritage that has led them throughout the twentieth century.

The family's first glimpse of Oklahoma began as Grant Chambers Irwin left his home in Pennsylvania at the age of twenty-two in a Conestoga wagon bound for Vancouver , Washington . Grant joined his sister, Martha Jane Irwin Fogle, and her husband, Adam Fogle, in May of 1887 on the 3,000 mile journey along the Ozark Trail. The trail took them through the tall prairie grass of present day Lincoln Country, Oklahoma , where Grant would later buy a farm in 1894.

Upon their arrival in Washington State , Adam Fogle acquired a sawmill. Grant Irwin worked alongside Fogle in the sawmill until it was damaged by fire and the men were forced out of business. Having encountered such bad luck in Washington , Fogle and his wife had recently heard of the upcoming land run in Oklahoma and immediately set out for the event. Fogle was a Sooner among Sooner. He homesteaded a pre-selected site four miles east and one mile south of the present site of Meeker.

Grant and Cecile Irwin had eleven children. The seventh son, Ernest Leslie, was nicknamed “Cotton” for his white hair. Cotton married Bertie Evelyn Neer and they had four children-Herbert Grant, Richard L., S. Patrick, and H. Susan Irwin.

Cotton stayed in Meeker and continued the Irwin entrepreneurial tradition established by his father. With only $600 and a $1,000 guaranty from their mother, Cotton and his brother, Marion, acquired the Meeker Chevrolet dealership in 1938, creating a legacy that continues today. In 1942, WWII brought the cessation of all automobile manufacturing. With no new automobile sales, the dealership survived by patching up the aging local vehicles used by many area residents going to and from Tinker Field.

Shortly after WWII, Cotton entered the road construction industry after being awarded several contracts for dirt work and bridge construction on the Turner Turnpike. An economic downturn in the 1950s forced the closure and liquidation of all of Cotton's business interests. One of which, by that time, involved an ill-fated Edsel dealership. Ultimately, Cotton and his son, Richard, established a successful

Meeker-based operation that primarily served the road construction industry. Independent Industries, Inc. has grown over the years to include not only bridge construction and heavy equipment sales, but, with Richard's guidance, has expanded to include the sale of steel, pipe, and timber acquired through demolition of railroads, pipelines, and bridges.

Cotton's oldest son, Grant having grown up in the automobile business, was undeterred by the failure of his father's automobile ventures. He left Meeker and his father's employ for Western Oklahoma and the hope of owning his own dealership. Irwin negotiated a transaction to buy the Hydro Chevrolet franchise. Chevrolet questioned the future viability of a franchise in a community the size of Hydro and recommended another opportunity in Okeene , Oklahoma . Okeene had twice the population of Hydro, as well as a larger trade area. Chevrolet required a $60,000 capital investment for a franchise of this size. Grant, only twenty-nine years old, had managed to save $2,000. With the financial participation of several area investors, Irwin Chevrolet Company officially opened its doors on January 1, 1966.

The dealership prospered. With the help of one of the original investors, Albert Conley of Kingfisher, Grant gradually acquired ownership of the company. 1972 brought a

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Left: a national advertisement for 1939 Cheverolet, one of the first models sold by the Irwin Motor Company

Above: Cotton Irwin and Bertie Neer Irwin looking over one of the new automobiles.

Below: Grant and Richard Irwin excited about a ride in the new 1946 Ford convertible

dealer in the United States , with annual volume of over 600 units. The failure of Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma City began a sequence of events that brought an end to the largest oil and gas boom Western Oklahoma had ever experienced. This was the first major setback Grant had experienced since leaving Midland , Texas and the family's failed Edsel dealership in a blowing dust storm a quarter century earlier. The timing of the “oil bust” could not have been worse for Grant. At Chevrolet's insistence, and based on a sales rate established during the “boom” years, Grant had just completed construction of a million-dollar facility in Woodward. Consumer demand for automobiles decreased in Oklahoma as unemployment rates increased and interest rates soared to record highs. The company was in a precarious cash position as it was forced to assume financial responsibility for a record number of vehicles repossessions.

As the economic crisis continued to escalate in Western Oklahoma , automobile dealership closures and foreclosures became as commonplace as bank failures. Many of the automobile dealerships in the smaller communities surrounding Woodward went out of business. With the help of a lot of loyal employees and customers, the dealership survived this extremely weak economic climate.

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Above: Irwin Chevrolet Company after its relocation to Woodward in 1975

Below: Grant Irwin (center) leads the 1982 ribbon-cutting ceremonies at his new Chevrolet showroom and service center on U.S Highway 270. Irwin is flanked by Chevrolet Zone Manager R.X Sarvis, Assistance Manager Wally Albers, and Woorward Chambers of Commerce officials Dana Helizen, Sandi Bell, Bob Oeathier, Dow Dozier, Carl Bogslalm, Jack Stveer, Dwight Terry, and David Houston

rare occurrence: high market prices for grain coupled with a bumper wheat crop in the Okeene area. In anticipation of this agricultural boom, Grant rigged over one hundred medium duty trucks for the upcoming harvest. Demand for these units was so great that Grant launched a new company to customize and equip these units. These conditions prevailed throughout 1973 as Irwin Chevrolet became a regional truck center for the high Plains Region including Kansas , Colorado , Texas , Nebraska , and the Dakotas . The dealership became widely respected as a resource for dealers without medium duty truck inventory and expertise.

Realizing that the Okeene dealership had reached the pinnacle of its growth, Grant sold the Okeene franchise in 1975 and upon Chevrolet's recommendation, moved his dealership operations to Woodward , Oklahoma . Grant would later become the largest medium duty truck

Today, Woodward is the trade center for area vehicle buyers. Following national trends, Irwin has added additional franchises over the years, helping to support the tremendous size of the company's facilities. In 1984, the Oldsmobile and Cadillac franchises were acquired and several years later the Chrysler, Plymouth , Dodge, and Jeep franchises were added. Irwin Auto Company has just completed its twenty-fifth year of operation in Woodward and Grant Irwin will begin his thirty-fifth year in business in Western Oklahoma with the addition of Buick, Pontiac, and GMC franchises.

The future of the company appears secure as the third generation of Irwins has entered the automobile business. In 1991, Grant Irwin, Jr., at age twenty-seven, became General Motor's youngest multiple dealer operator with the acquisition of his second automobile dealership which is located in Perryton , Texas . Grant and Grant, Jr. have formed an alliance to operate their dealership holdings. Grant's daughter, Tamara Irwin Cain, is an attorney and serves as general counsel to the family businesses. Grant's other daughter, Melinda Jane Irwin, as a certified public accountant who operates Dealer Services, L.L.C., an accounts receivable outsourcing service for the family dealerships. To date, Irwin Auto Companies operates thirty-two dealership franchises from eight sales locations in Western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. The franchises employ over 100 persons.

With his family involved in the day-to-day operations of the automobile dealerships, Grant Irwin, Sr. has had additional time to devote to his manufacturing interests. While buying hoists to equip medium duty trucks, Irwin became acquainted with Dan Hill. In 1982, Hill and Irwin formed Dan Hill and Associates, Inc. and acquired the assets of a Norman trailer manufacturer with only eight employees. The company later acquired Mabar, Inc., a Fairview manufacturer originally formed in 1966 to build grain beds for agricultural trucks.

Dan Hill successfully managed the company until his death in 1987. Since that time the company has been managed by Hill's son, Terry Hill, David Griffis, and Vickie Hill. The company manufactures a horizontal discharge trailer designed

to transport and discharge road-building materials, primarily hot-mix asphalt. The company now employs 104 persons. In 1990, Irwin and other investors bought the assets of a bankrupt Marlow , Oklahoma machine shop and established Central Tank of Oklahoma, Inc. Central Tank successfully operates a coded shop with twenty-three employees.

Grant is quite modest about this entrepreneurial success and prefers to give all of the credit to the hundreds of Oklahomans who have been directly employed by his businesses over the past thirty-five years. In recent decades many young people have been forced to leave Western Oklahoma for employment in urban areas. Grant considers one of his greatest accomplishments to be the jobs his companies provide, thereby allowing over 300 families the opportunity to remain in Western Oklahoma and enjoy the quality of life that living in a rural setting brings. The Irwins continue to be motivated by a vision for business and a great love for rural Oklahoma -a land in which the Irwin entrepreneurial spirit was planted in the tall prairie grasslands over a century ago.

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Below: Flow Boy CB-4000 eight axle semitrailer with 32 tires capable of carrying 50 tons of hot asphalt

Bottom: Flow Boy CB-4000 horizontal discharge trailer designed to transport and discharge roa-building materials.