fPARA ^PAR@ ` fTEXT ` XBarnard, Kate1875╨1930political reformer and labor organizerBorn on May 23, 1875, in Geneva, Nebraska, Kate Barnard lived with relatives in Kansas until 1889, when she rejoined her widowed father in the newly opened Oklahoma Territory. After graduating from high school in Oklahoma City she worked as a teacher and stenographer, became a clerk for the Democratic minority in the territorial legislature, and in 1904 was given a post with the Oklahoma Commission at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. In the slums of that city she had her first view of the underside of industrialism and urbanization and determined to prevent such evils from befalling Oklahoma. Letters on these topics to the Daily Oklahoman led to her appointment as matron of the Provident Association of Oklahoma City in December 1905, and through that organization she directed the relief of hundreds of poor families and clothed and sent to school hundreds of their children. She also began campaigning for organized labor, forming the Federal Labor Union in the city and securing its affiliation with the American Federation of Labor. At a joint meeting of farmer and labor representatives in 1906╤the ╥Shawnee Convention╙╤called to hammer out a common platform to present to the upcoming state constitutional convention, she played a major organizing role and pushed through planks on compulsory education and child labor abolition. Her campaigning helped produce a friendly Democratic majority for the constitutional convention in November, which adopted her planks and established the office of state commissioner of charities and corrections, while it defeated a woman suffrage plank in which she took no interest. She relinquished her post with the Provident Association to run for commissioner, and in the election of 1907 she was elected, leading the Democratic ticket in most districts and winning majorities even in otherwise Republican districts. She was the first woman ever elected to a statewide office in any state. Reelected in 1910, she was for seven years a highly active and effective reform leader. Compulsory education and child labor laws were strengthened, progressive labor legislation was passed, and the care of mental patients and prisoners greatly improved. Her unannounced personal inspection of the Kansas state prison in Lansing exposed atrocious conditions and ended the system under which some 600 Oklahoma convicts were ╥contracted╙ out to Kansas institutions; reform in Kansas also resulted, and a similar campaign in Arizona followed in 1911╨1912. Barnard╒s successes made her a frequent speaker at reform and charity conventions. In 1911 she launched an investigation into widespread fraud in the state-court administered system of guardianship for Native American minors. Her efforts recovered nearly a million dollars for 1,361 Native American children defrauded of oil, gas, timber, and land rights but stirred up such heated opposition that the legislature turned on her. Her staff and budget cut, she declined to seek reelection in 1914. She lived in Oklahoma City until her death there on February 23, 1930. ╓styl `
