Ruth Monro Augur

Ruth Monro Augur (1886-1967) was an artist of the American West, a journalist, educator, and a leader of the women's suffrage movement in Texas. Augur is best known for a series of murals depicting the Cherokee Strip Run that she painted from 1934 to 1937 at the Garfield County Courthouse in Enid, Oklahoma. Today, Augur is recognized for her depictions of horse studies, mountain landscapes, Army officers, cowboys, and Native American life that continue to sell at public auctions.

Early life and education Ruth Monro Augur, was born in Austin, Texas on November 14, 1886 and grew up in Denver, Colorado. Her parents were Charles Manwaring Augur, an U.S. Army officer, and Cecilia Hall Augur. Beginning in 1911, Augur worked as the Society and Sports Reporter for the El Paso Herald. Augur served as the registrar at the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy until 1929. The origins of the EPEFL were among a group of young women at Fort Bliss with Augur serving as an important link between women at Fort Bliss and like-minded women in El Paso who supported women's suffrage. Augur remained active in the EPEFL from 1915 to 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified that granted women the right to vote. In 1925, Ruth Augur was elected an honorary member of the El Paso League of Women Voters in recognition of her role as the organizer of the suffrage movement in El Paso.

California, 1929-1934 Augur left El Paso in 1929 after the death of her father and moved to California. The courthouse is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The murals cover 1,136 square feet and depict the history of the Cherokee Strip Run of 1893 that opened the state to White settlement. When Augur completed the murals in 1937, they were the largest of their type in the United States. She left the center two years later to become the staff artist for Harlow Publishing Company where she worked until she retired in 1965. For 25 years she served as staff artist for Harlow Publishing Company. Ruth Augur died on March 10, 1967 in Oklahoma City at the age of 80 and is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery.