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ROBERT H. WILSON
Vol. 3, p. 1106
Book has photo

That the honored citizen whose name initiates this paragraph is a
man of high intellectual attainments and marked executive ability
needs no further vouch than the statement that he is the valued and
efficient incumbent of the exacting and important office of State
Superintendent of Public Instruction for Oklahoma. This mere
statement does not, however, convey to the casual reader an idea of
the vigor and earnestness he brings to bear in his official service,
nor does it deal to an adequate objective conception of the basic
reasons for his enthusiasm in making strenuous efforts to afford to
the youth of Oklahoma the best possible educational advantages. This
desire has been primarily the result of the difficulties he
encountered in his own efforts to acquire a liberal education, for he
felt the lash of necessity in his youth, had to make opportunities
for himself and emerged triumphant only after a battle that proved
the true caliber of the man-invincible courage and determination and
steadfast and worthy purpose having been his animating motives in
this formative period of his character, even as they have been in his
later years of definite achievement for the benefit of himself and
his fellowmen.

Near Scottville, the judicial center of Allen County, Kentucky,
Robert H. Wilson was born on the 25th of August, 1873, and in the
same fine old Bluegrass State were born his parents, John A. and Mary
E. (BRILEY) Wilson, he being the eldest of a family of eight children-
five sons and three daughters.

In his native state Mr. Wilson was reared to the age of eighteen
years under the sturdy discipline of the farm, and in the meanwhile
he attended the country schools of the locality whenever opportunity
presented. The school terms in the vicinity, however, were very
short, and at no time did he attend more than three months in any one
year, the while the study work of the farm caused to wax strong in
physical power and to gain a lasting appreciation of the dignity and
value of honest toil. Early in life he determined to acquire the best
education within the compass of his ability and opportunities, and
this ambition was even then one of action, for he applied himself to
reading and study at home, his diligence in these lines having been
on a parity with the time and means afforded him.

When Mr. Wilson was eighteen years old he accompanied his parents
and his brothers and sisters on the removal of the family from
Kentucky to Texas, and settlement was made near Whitewright, Grayson
County. The financial resources of the family being very limited and
he being the eldest of the children, he gladly did his part in
assisting his father in the work and management of the new homestead
farm in the Lone Star State, and up to the time when he attained the
age of twenty years his entire scholastic discipline had been
confined to that received through his desultory attendance in the
rural schools of Kentucky and to the advancement he had been able to
make through individual application. As has often proved the case
with others trained under similar conditions and circumstances, what
he had learned he had learned well, and when finally there came to
him an a opportunity to enter Grayson College, at Whitewright, Texas,
he found himself sufficiently fortified to take up the studies of the
preparatory department. Boarding at home and riding four miles to the
college, he started his work when twenty years of age and with a
determination to finish his collegiate course. To meet his incidental
expenses while thus striving to attain his ambitious purpose he was
compelled to borrow money and to pay on the same interest at the rate
of ten per cent. This seeming handicap inured in fact to his
advantage, because he denied himself all of the privileges and
pleasures of school society and while his classmates were enjoying
themselves in the social amenities incidental to school life, he
could be found in his room digging away with no time for envy, but
resolute in his purpose to cover within the shortest possible time
the most extra school work, in order to get advanced standing as soon
as this could be compassed.

After three years in college, Mr. Wilson devoted one year to
teaching, and in the following autumn he re-entered college. During
the time he was teaching he worked as diligently at his college
studies as though he had been still attending regular sessions and
upon resuming his place at Grayson College he found himself
sufficiently advanced in his studies to become a member of the senior
class. He was compelled to leave the institution, however, before the
end of the term, owing principally to his limited financial
resources, and soon afterward he was offered and accepted the
position of teacher in a country school in his home community. From
that time forward until December, 1903, he continued as a successful
teacher in the rural schools of Texas during the winter terms and
during the intervening periods he gave his attention to farming, he
being the only member of his immediate family who ever became a
representative of the pedagogic profession. He is essentially and
thoroughly a type of the self-made man that true and loyal Americans
have ever delighted to honor, and it is doubtful if any man serving
in public capacity has worked his way forward under more difficult
conditions and circumstances than the present state superintendent of
public instruction in Oklahoma. He often has stated that his
enthusiasm for better school conditions is inspired more because of
the hardships which he had to overcome than by any other one agency.
He believes that no one can fully understand and appreciate the real
problems of rural life unless he himself has faced them in childhood
and youth. His spirit of helpfulness has been vitalized and
accentuated by his own struggles, and in aiding others he manifests a
high sense of stewardship as well as an inviolable determination to
spare to other aspiring young men and women the difficulties and
obstacles which he himself was compelled to overcome.

In December, 1903, Mr. Wilson established his residence at
Chickasha, Indian Territory, and later he became a teacher in the
public schools of that city, where he continued his efficient
services in this capacity until November, 1907, when assumed the
duties of county superintendent of public schools. Upon the
organization of the state government he was elected without
opposition to the office of county superintendent of public
instruction in Grady County, of which Chickasha is the judicial
center, and of this position he continued the incumbent until
January, 1911. Mr. Wilson entered upon his first race for the office
of county superintendent of public instruction very much against his
own wishes. He has never placed other than unduly modest estimate
upon his own ability and it never had occurred to him that it would
be possible for him to secure the position to which he was elected at
that time. As County superintendent of Grady County he effected the
organization of seventy-one new school districts and the erection of
an equal number of new school buildings. He was one of the first
county superintendents in Oklahoma to organize and establish
consolidated and graded schools for children living in rural
districts. When he assumed the office of superintendent Grady County,
as a county, had no definite corps of teachers, and he forthwith
applied himself to securing for the county the best possible coterie
of teachers, his selections having been carefully made and his
enthusiasm having inspired earnest co-operation on the part of those
whose services were thus enlisted. When he let the office of county
superintendent there were only three counties in Oklahoma that could
claim a greater number of first-grade teachers employed within their
limits than could Grady County, and those other three counties had
been somewhat favored through being situated in the former Oklahoma
Territory, while Grady County had been within the limits of Indian
Territory.

In 1908 Mr. Wilson was elected president of the Oklahoma School
Officers' Association, and in the following year he was elected
chairman of the executive committee of the Oklahoma State Teachers'
Association. While the incumbent of the office of county
superintendent of public instruction in Grady County he also served 2
l/2 years as a member of the board of education of the City of
Chickasha.
In his first campaign for the office of state superintendent of
public instruction Mr. Wilson was nominated by a majority of 15,000
in the primary election, an in the ensuing general election, in
November, 1912, he was one of only four on the state ticket who
received a majority of all the votes cast, the result being that he
defeated his leading opponent by a plurality of 25,000 votes. In
August, 1914, Mr. Wilson was renominated for the office of state
superintendent of public instruction by a majority of 28,000, after
having made an active campaign of only seven days' duration. On the
3d of November, after having given but one day's time to the general
campaign, he was re-elected, being one of the three at the head of
the ticket. On the 6th of the same month further distinction was
conferred upon him, in that he was elected president of the Oklahoma
State Teachers' Association by an overwhelming majority,
notwithstanding his previous declaration that he did not wish his
name to be presented to the association in connection with such
official preferment.

Within the period of his administration as state superintendent Mr.
Wilson has endeavored to have the laws of the state so revised as to
improve the rural school conditions and to assure for the rural
schools a better qualified class of teachers. Through his efforts
laws have been passed which have put teachers' warrants at par-a
condition never previously existent in the state. He has sought to
take the state educational institutions from the domination and
influence of the cities in which they are situated and to make them
in fact as well as in name institutions of the state at large. He has
established the rule that no teacher shall be elected without first
being nominated by the president or superintendent under whose
administration such teacher must work. He has raised the standard of
state certificates for teachers and also the requirements for county
certificates. He was the first to advocate the millage tax for state
institutions, and recommended this measure to the Fourth Legislature.
He was the first to take the stand for a cleaner class of moving-
picture shows, which as properly conducted he believes maybe made a
valuable educational agency. Superintendent Wilson is a strong
believer in the county-unit plan of school government, as he realized
that justice demands that the country child shall have an equal
opportunity with the child residing in the town or city. He maintains
that teachers' certificates should be issued on the basis of breadth
and thoroughness of scholarship instead of on technical examinations,
which are often abortive and have slight specific significance, and
he has given the assertion that during the four years of his second
term as state superintendent he will give his time largely to the
improving of rural-school conditions throughout the state. He greatly
favors the so-called moonlight schools and believes that the state
owes to the people who have been denied early educational advantages
the opportunity to make good this handicap.

In politics Mr. Wilson is a staunch advocate of the principles and
policies for which the democratic party has ever stood sponsor in a
basic way, and though none of his immediate family has ever taken any
active part in politics other than to exercise the franchise, the
family name has stood for simon-pure democratic allegiance in past as
well as the present generation and he is the only representative who
has ever become an aspirant for public office. It may consistently be
said that no public officer puts in a greater number of hours of hard
work than does Mr. Wilson. He and his family hold membership in the
Baptist Church. He is loyal to his friends, considerate and tolerant
in his judgment, with naught of intellectual bigotry, and while he
never shrinks from opposition and has the courage of his convictions
he is in no sense a man of bellicose tendencies but openly and firmly
stands for the principles which he believes to be right, so that
opposition cannot daunt or flattery cajole him, nor will he sacrifice
conviction for the sake of personal expediency. What Mr. Wilson has
done and shall do for the advancement of the educational interests of
Oklahoma will become an integral part of the history of this favored
common wealth, which shall ever owe to him and his memory a tribute
of honor. Under such conditions, together with the consideration of
his courtesy in acting as one of the advisory board of this History
of Oklahoma, it is most gratifying to the publisher of the work to be
able to incorporate within its pages this review of his career and to
mark their appreciation of his services.

On the 17th of September, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Wilson to Miss Grace WOMACK, daughter of William M. and Maggie
(BLANTON) Womack of Whitewright, Texas, and they have two children-
Robert Lee who was born January 6, 1901, and Mary Grace, who was born
October 16, 1909.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, November 24, 1998.