James Hadden Lawhead

James Hadden Lawhead was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1834. He graduated from Marietta College in 1850 and moved to Syracuse, Ohio where he served as the president of Carleton College. He married in 1858 and joined the Union Army in 1861 during the American Civil War. He left the military in 1864 as a first lieutenant. In 1871 he moved to Bourbon County, Kansas, and was elected county superintendent of schools. In 1880, he was elected to represent the 37th district of the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1884, he was elected Kansas Superintendent of Public Instruction and he was reelected in 1886.^[1]

He joined the Land Run of 1889 and settled in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma Territory.^[2] Shortly afterward Territorial Governor George W. Steele appoint Lawhead as the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Oklahoma Territory and he was confirmed by the territorial legislature on December 9, 1890.^[2] He served in office until his death on August 15, 1892, in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory. He was succeed in office by Joseph Homer Parker.^[3]

• Stern, A. Kenneth (Fall 1999). "Laying Groundwork for the Future: The Oklahoma Territorial Superintendency and the Superintendents of Public Instruction" (PDF). Chronicles of Oklahoma. 77 (3): 300–321. Retrieved August 27, 2025.