Charles W. Rasure, now serving as county superintendent of the schools of Caddo County, is gaining much distinction as an educator in this section of the state and during his long connection with the schools of Oklahoma and Texas has succeeded in greatly raising the intellectual standard and promoting the efficiency of the system as a preparation for the responsible duties of life. Indeed, the constant aim and general character of Professor Rasure’s life work are summed up in the famous dictum of Sidney Smith,–that “Die real object of education is to give children resources that will endure as long as life endures; habits that time will ameliorate, not destroy; occupation that will render sickness tolerable, solitude pleasant, age venerable, life more dignified and useful, and death less terrible.”

A son of George A. and Mary (Ford) Rasure, Professor Rasure was born at Booneville, Indiana, February 6, 1870. His ancestry is traced to fine old Pennsylvania Dutch stock and his grandfather, Paul Rasure, born in 1793, removed from the Keystone state to Kentucky and thence to the vicinity of Booneville, Indiana, where his demise occurred in 1877. George A. Rasure was born near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1824, and he was summoned to the life eternal at Booneville, Indiana, July 5, 1897. He was engaged in the great basic industry of agriculture during the greater part of his active career and his religious faith coincided with the teachings of the Christian Church, in which he was an elder. He married Rachel Thompson, who died at Booneville, and to them were born six children, three of whom are living; Mary E., wife of Louis Hall, resides near Sulphur Springs, Texas; William T., a farmer on the old homestead in Indiana; and John L., a farmer near Sulphur Springs, Texas. For his second wife Mr. Rasure married Mary Ford Floyd, widow of B. B. Floyd; she was born in Indiana, in 1827, and died in 1880. To this union were born two children: Jesse A., a merchant at Sulphur Springs, Texas; and Charles W., the immediate subject of this review.

Professor Rasure resided in his native state until 1890 and received his preliminary educational training in the public schools of Folsomville, Indiana. In that year he removed to Sulphur Springs, Texas, and engaged in farming for the ensuing two years. He then taught school in Fannin County, Texas, for two years, at the end of which he located at Throckmorton, Texas, there attending high school through the junior year. He then attended the North Texas Normal School for a time and subsequently was a student in the East Texas Normal School. For nineteen years he taught school in the Lone Star state and during four of those years was principal of schools at Graham, Texas. September 10, 1910, marks his advent in Oklahoma and on that date he located at Binger, where he was principal of schools from 1912 to 1914. November 6, 1914, he was honored by his fellow men with election to the office of county superintendent of schools, an incumbency he is filling with the utmost distinction. Professor Rasure cooperates with the teachers under his jurisdiction and under his able management a splendid educational system is being built up.

In politics Professor Rasure is a stalwart democrat and in religious matters he is a devout member of the Christian Church. He affiliates with the Knights of Pythias at Graham, Texas, and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Anadarko, Oklahoma. He gives an earnest support to all matters tending to improve the general welfare of his home community and commands the unalloyed confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens at Anadarko.

Professor Rasure has been twice married. December 26, 1894, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Maggie Bludworth, a daughter of Rev. W. H. Bludworth, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Sulphur Springs, Texas. She died at Graham, Texas, in 1902, and is survived by two children: Odessa, born May 1, 1897, resides at the paternal home; and Willard, born October 15, 1902, is a pupil in the public schools at Anadarko. For his second wife Professor Rasure married Miss Florence Brazleton, a daughter of Frank P. Brazleton, a farmer and cotton-ginner in Texas. This union has been prolific of one child, Modena, whose nativity occurred January 16, 1908.