Andrew J. Hicks. When Professor Hicks first became identified with educational work in Oklahoma in 1910, he brought with him a long and extensive experience as a school man from his home State of Missouri, where he had been a teacher and superintendent for upwards of fifteen years.

He resigned as county superintendent in Missouri to come to Wayne, in McClain County, Oklahoma, in 1910, where for four years he was superintendent of the city schools. In 1914 he became superintendent of schools at Blanchard, his present position. Professor Hicks is well known among Oklahoma educators and teachers. In 1911 he was instructor of the joint normal school maintained by McClain and Garvin counties, and conducted that school in 1912. Each summer since 1912 he has been instructor in history and civil government in the State Normal School at Edmond, and during the past three years has taken a number of courses in the Edmond Normal School and has obtained a teacher’s life certificate in Oklahoma.

Andrew J. Hicks is a native of Georgia, born in Rock Springs, Walker County, April 15, 1807. His original American ancestor was a Scotchman, his great-greatgrandfather, who emigrated to the United States and located in Maryland just after the close of the Revolutionary war. A brother of this emigrant subsequently became governor of Maryland. Thomas J. Hicks, father of Professor Hicks, was born in Georgia in October, 1841, but spent most of his early life in Tennessee, where he married Sarah Phillips. She was born in that state in 1848 and died at McClurg, Missouri, in 1896. After their marriage Thomas J. Hicks returned to Walker County, Georgia, lived there a few years and in 1869 moved to a farm south of Springfield, Missouri, where he still lives. Along with farming he has for many years been an active minister of the Baptist Church. During the Civil war he was a Union soldier, served exactly three years and one day. He has been a republican ever since the war. By his marriage to Sarah Phillips were born the following children: George T., who is a county judge of Taney County, Missouri, living near Springfield; Andrew J.; James B., who is a prominent citizen of Forsyth, Missouri, where he served eight years as county clerk and is now a farmer, stockman and banker; Mary E., wife of David Johnson, a farmer and stockman at Brown Branch, in Southwest Missouri; Sarah E., wife of J. V. Brown, a farmer at Fairfax, Oklahoma; Albert, a farmer and stockman at Long Run, Missouri; Joseph, a farmer at Igo, Missouri. After the death of his first wife, Thomas J. Hicks married Mrs. Sarah (Johnson) Bishop, whose former home was in Kentucky. They have two young children, Della and Paul.

Professor Hicks attended school near Springfield, Missouri, and after finishing the high school course attended the Bradleyville Normal School and the Ava Academy. After leaving the latter institution in 1886 he at once engaged in his regular profession as a teacher and taught for a number of years in Southwest Missouri. He also spent two years as a student in the Missouri State University at Columbia. Wherever his work has been done Professor Hicks has been distinguished as an intensely alive educator, a man of great energy, of broad views, and one who is able to apply his knowledge and adapt his work to the changing conditions of modern life. While, in Missouri he was elected county superintendent of schools of Taney County and served three terms, six years. He resigned from that position to come to Oklahoma in 1910.

At Blanchard he has under his supervision a corps of six teachers and 419 scholars enrolled. The Blanchard public schools are very thoroughly equipped, and he is doing a very successful work there. He is active in the County and State Teachers’ Association, is a democrat in politics, is superintendent of the Sunday school of the Baptist Church at Blanchard, and is active as a fraternal man, having affiliation with Forsyth Lodge No. 254, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in Missouri; with Purcell Chapter No. 10, Royal Arch Masons; with Forsyth Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America; with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Wayne, Oklahoma, and belongs to the Encampment degree and the Order of Rebekahs.

At Bradleyville, Missouri, in 1892, Professor Hicks married Miss Mahala Johnson. Her father, Dr. J. C. Johnson, now deceased, was a very prominent citizen of Taney County, Missouri, where he served as sheriff, tax collector and circuit clerk and also represented the county in the State Legislature. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks are the parents of three children: Cuma O., who has completed the senior courses in the normal schools at Springfield, Missouri, and Edmond, Oklahoma, is now teacher of the second grade in the public schools at Blanchard and is also supervisor of music and drawing; Troy J. is a senior in the Blanchard High School; and Victor is a junior in the local high school.