Description:
Otto Arthur Cargill was born February 26, 1885 in Viola, Arkansas. He went to school at Mountain Home College and was admitted to the bar in 1916. Prior to his ascension to the office of mayor, Cargill served as county attorney in Oklahoma County. His first job with the city however, was as a street car motorman and conductor. On the day of his mayoral inauguration Cargill drove a streetcar from Broadway Circle to Main Street and Robinson with the outgoing mayor riding along. A banner on the street car read, "From Trainman to Mayor."
An admitted past member of the Ku Klux Klan, Cargill helped in “purging the police department of overt Klan affiliations” at a time when as much as half of the department had been rumored to have been a part of the organization, and even helped integrate the police department. During his tenure as mayor he was also chosen as a delegate to the 1924 National Democratic Convention. Cargill ran for governor in 1926, but came in third. Later in his life Cargill became involved with a bribery scandal involving the Oklahoma Supreme Court and was convicted of perjury. He died on March 20, 1973 and is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Oklahoma City.