Clarence McCASLAND
"A superficial knowledge of educational conditions in the Nations of the Five Tribes before the attainment of Oklahoma statehood, among men who discussed these conditions, led to the general impression that illiteracy thrived as did wild animals of the forest before white men overran the Indian country. This idea was true to a degree in so far as it related to white settlers in some remote parts of the Indian country, and it is true also that the education of Indians was neglected to some extent. These statements are preliminary to the general assertion that neither the United States Government nor the government of the Five Tribes grossly neglected the dissemination of knowledge among the young of the tribes. Not only were competent educators employed to conduct the tribal academies and colleges, but district schools were organized and men and women placed in charge of them who had the proper sort of literary and pedagogical training. There teachers were paid moderately fair salaries. The plan of distributing them required frequent changes of station, and it was not unlike the plan of "sending" in vogue in the Methodist Church, changes being considered necessary to the welfare of the communities and the general educational organization. Rural schoolhouses usually were built and equipped by subscription, but they were neither too remote nor too meagerly built and equipped for the government to place teachers in charge of them. This work drew from adjoining states some of the best teaching talent and its importance led to the development of Jones Academy, near Hartshorne, into a normal training school during a part of each year. The general superintendent of education had the privilege of granting a temporary certificate to a teacher of good grade from an adjoining state, but later that teacher was required to complete a normal training course under direction of the government.
After having graduated from the Texas State Normal College at Huntsville and taught three years in the public schools of Texas, five years in the public schools of Louisiana (during which time he was president of the Caddo Parish Teachers Association), and one year in the public schools of Arkansas, Clarence McCASLAND entered the teaching service of the United States Government in Indian Territory, and he is a type of the educational missionary of training who did much to prepare the eastern part of Oklahoma for the advantages of statehood. Under Superintendent of Education BALLARD, Mr. McCASLAND began his service in 1905, near Grant, in what is now Choctaw county. The next year he was transferred to Hoyt, in what is now Haskell County, and the third year was stationed at Boggy Depot, in what is now Atoka County. His special training for this work was acquired in the normal department of Jones Academy, the superintendent of which institution at that time was Samuel J. MORLEY, who later was a banker at Hartshorne and under the administration of Governor WILLIAMS a member of the State Board of Public Affairs. The advent of statehood was destined to put an end to the Federal School System of Indian Territory, and Mr. McCASLAND resigned shortly after statehood and became the first county court clerk of Atoka County, serving under Judge J. H. LINEBAUGH, who afterwards became judge of the District Court.
Clarence McCASLAND was born in Miller County, Arkansas, August 22, 1875, and is a son of Andrew C. and Mattie J. (McLEMORE) McCASLAND. Andrew C. McCASLAND was a native of Texas and before acquiring the education necessary to the practice of medicine was foreman of the Kelly Foundry at Jefferson, Texas, but during the greater number of his manhood years was a physician and surgeon in Arkansas. The paternal grandfather of Mr. McCASLAND was a native of Tennessee and a soldier in the Confederate army during the Civil war, being killed at the bloody battle of Gettysburg. Mr. McCASLAND's maternal grandfather, Y. L. McLEMORE, was for many years one of the best known Cumberland Presbyterian ministers in Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. He was also one of those who went to California in search of gold in "the days of old, the days of gold," but returned to his ministerial duties and rounded out a long and useful life, passing away at the age of ninety years. Mr. McCASLAND has one sister living, Mrs. Maude BICKHAM, of Vivian, Louisiana.
During his residence in Arkansas, Mr. McCASLAND was for five years deputy clerk of the District Court of Miller County, and while serving in that capacity studied law and was admitted to the bar. He did not begin the practice, however, until 1911, in June of which year he was admitted to the bar in Oklahoma. He practiced alone at Atoka until January 1, 1913, when he became junior member of the firm of Jones and McCasland, which firm has continued since that date. Before entering the practice of law he had organized the LeFlore-McCasland Abstract and Realty Company, which a few months later was absorbed by the Atoka Abstract Company. Mr. McCasland is serving his second term as city attorney of Atoka, a capacity in which he has given an excellent account of himself. He belongs to the Atoka County Bar Association and the Oklahoma Bar Association, as well as to the Atoka Club and the local lodges of the Masons and Knights of the Maccabees. His religious membership is with the Christian Church.
On August 5, 1900, at Rodessa, Louisiana, Mr. McCASLAND was united in marriage with Miss Antoinette WESTBROOK, and they have seven children: Clarence, born in 1901; Sybil, born in 1903; Stanton, born in 1905; D. Hayden, born in 1907; John Hickman, born in 1909; Lahoma, born in 1911; Ney Antoinette, born in 1913."