Hon. Word Cromwell. Among the men of Oklahoma who are aiding the cause of education by their stand for an elevation of standards in the public schools, one who has contributed materially by his services is Hon. Word Cromwell, county superintendent of schools of Garvin County, with headquarters at Pauls Valley. Mr. Cromwell is a man of decided talent and abilities and possesses also the necessary initiative and executive force so desirable in a position such as he occupies. He is a native of Mississippi, and was born in Lafayette County, February 24, 1885, a son of G. W. and Mattie (Ferrell) Cromwell.

The Cromwell family originated in England, from which country the great-grandfather of Mr. Cromwell emigrated to Virginia, where he became a wealthy and influential planter, but in later years moved to North Carolina. His son, John Cromwell, was born in Virginia, and became a pioneer farmer and stockman of Lafayette County, Mississippi. When the war between the states came on he enlisted in the Confederate army, and met a soldier’s death near Atlanta, Georgia, in 1865. G. W. Cromwell was born in Lafayette County, Mississippi, in 1850, and was still a youth when his father died. He remained in Mississippi until 1896, when he removed to the south central part of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma Territory, and in 1898 secured the farm of 120 acres eight miles northeast of Wanette, in that county, on which he now resides. There he carries on diversified farming as well as stockraisjng, in both of which directions his industry and good management have won him marked success. Mr. Cromwell is a democrat in his political views. He is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and at the present time a deacon. Mr. Cromwell married Miss Mattie Ferrell, who was born in Lafayette County, Mississippi, in 1853, and they have had seven children, namely: Sheldon, who is a rural mail carrier and resides at Wanette; Neva, who is employed in a dry goods store at that place; Lillie, who is engaged in teaching school in McClain County, Oklahoma; Flavel, a traveling salesman with headquarters at Oklahoma City; Word; Mary, who married Marion Hibbard, manager of a bottling works at Tulsa, Oklahoma ; and Lowrie, who is attending a public school at Asher, Oklahoma.

Word Cromwell was reared on his father’s farm, where he remained until he was twenty-one years of age. In 1906 he entered the State Normal School, at Edmond, where he studied for two years, and the school years of 1908-9 and 1909-10 he taught in the district school at McCarty, while these two summer terms he was a student at the State Normal School at Edmond. In the fall of 19f0 he again entered school at Edmond, remaining eleven months, and the school years of 1911-12 and 1912-13 acted as principal of the village school at Foster, Oklahoma. Mr. Cromwell spent the summer of 1912 at Edmond as a student and during the two years 1913-14 and 1914-15 held the principalship of the schools of Paoli, Oklahoma. In the summer of 1914 Mr. Cromwell entered politics and ran for the position of county superintendent of schools of Garvin County, to which he was elected November 16, 1914, taking charge of the office July 1, 1915. His offices are in the City Hall Building, Pauls Valley, and his term of office is two years.

Mr. Cromwell has continued to be a close and careful student, and in the summer of 1915 nearly completed the senior year’s work at the State Normal School. He is a democrat politically and belongs to a number of educational and other societies, including the Arena Debating Club, Edmond, the Lyceum Literary Society, the Garvin County Teachers’ Association and the Oklahoma State Teachers’ Association. He was married in 1910, at Wynnewood, Oklahoma, to Miss Eliza Vaughan, daughter of W. A. Vaughan, a merchant of Wynnewood. Mr. and Mrs. Cromwell have no children.