James Henry Hayes. The many capable and able members of such professions as medicine and the law in Oklahoma are performing a valuable service to the present generation, but it remains for the educator to train and develop the characters and resources of those young men and women who in the course of a few years will assume the chief responsibilities in the life and progress of the state. While bestowing special recognition upon the many prominent educators in Oklahoma, some space should be granted to James Henry Hayes, now superintendent of the public schools at Fletcher.

Professor Hayes was born at Wisner, Cuming County, Nebraska, January 9, 1888. His father, Henry B. Hayes, was born in Iowa in 1853, removed from his native state to Wisner, Nebraska, in 1902, settled at Tekamah, Nebraska, and in 1906 came to Oklahoma and has since been a farmer and stockman at Guymon. He is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and also has insurance protection with the Bankers Life. Henry B. Hayes married Lena Hutt, who was born in Germany in 1863, and at the age of seventeen came to America with her parents, who settled in Stanton County, Nebraska. She died at Wisner, Nebraska, in 1896. Her father was a farmer in Stanton County and died there. The Hayes family came to America from Scotland about the time Lord Baltimore established his colony in Maryland. James H. Hayes is the oldest of his parents’ children. His brother Harney is a ranchman in Colorado; Roy is a farmer in Texas County, Oklahoma; Emma is the wife of Ralph Bangs, a farmer at Liberal, Kansas; and Lloyd lives at Guymon, Oklahoma.

James H. Hayes was educated in the public schools of Cuning County Nebraska, and in 1904 graduated from the high school at Tekamah in that state. For one year he was a student in Grand Island College. A resident of Oklahoma since 1906, he has been almost continuously identified with school work since coming to the territory. For a time he was principal of schools at Granite, Oklahoma, and was superintendent at Olustee in 1909-10-11, and in the meantime attended normal school during the summer months. In 1911-12-13 he was superintendent of schools at Ryan, where he had under his supervision fifteen teachers and six hundred scholars. In 1913 Mr. Hayes was graduated from the Central State Normal School at Edmond. His work at Fletcher began in the fall of 1914, and he has done much to build up and extend the course of study and improve the general facilities of the local schools. Mr. Hayes is a member of the Baptist Church, and affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Fletcher.

In 1909 at Edmond, Oklahoma, he married Miss Mattie Adkison, who is also an Oklahoma educator of considerable experience. The Adkison family came from England to Virginia during colonial times. Mrs. Hayes was born in Montgomery County, Kansas, but has spent most of her life in Oklahoma. Her father moved to Edmond in 1891, among the pioneers, and the family followed him in 1893. She attended normal school at Edmond, and for five years before her marriage was a teacher in the Oklahoma County schools. Her father, Andrew Adkison, was born in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, and during the Civil war served throughout the struggle on the Union side with a West Virginia regiment, and was once wounded. He was born in 1836, has been a farmer all his active career, and since 1906 has lived retired at Marlington, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Andrew Adkison married Martha Auldridge, who was born in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, in 1841, and died at Edmond, Oklahoma, in 1905. Their children were: Susan, who died at Sycamore, Kansas, the wife of R. W. Ogle, who is still living in Sycamore; Rebecca, who lives at Fletcher, the widow of E. O. Colo, who was a stockman and prominent in the democratic party, having served as chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee; Olive, wife of L. Elson, a banker and capitalist at Luther, Oklahoma; Lillian, who lives in Oklahoma City; Beatrice, wife of A. Lynch, a blacksmith at Edmond; and Mrs. Hayes. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have special reason to be proud of their only child, Dorothy Gail, who was born February 9, 1913, and who was awarded the first prize at the baby show at the State Fair in Oklahoma City in 1914.