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Oklahoma’s "Good Angel Kate"

Kate Barnard, whose mother died when Kate was only two years old, was one of the notable heroines in the early statehood era. Born in Nebraska, she came to Oklahoma City with her father shortly after the run of 1889. The Barnards lived near a poor neighborhood. Kate saw poverty everyday. She saw poor people, including children, who had no hope. She wanted to help them. She became a teacher and hoped that she could teach poor children how to rise out of poverty. She also joined a volunteer group that gathered food and clothes from the well-to-do to give to the poor.

When Oklahoma’s Constitutional Convention met, Kate was there as an observer. Women were not allowed to vote at the convention. They could not be official delegates, either. But everyone knew Kate. The men allowed her to address the convention. She spoke forcefully about the harm of child labor and the benefits of education. Then, when the delegates finished their work, the constitution gave women the right to vote in school board elections only. It also named one, and only one, elected office that a woman could fill. It was the office of Commissioner of Charities and Corrections. The delegates had made a job with Kate in mind!

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Kate Barnard, 1907 (Photo courtesy of the Arcives & Manuscripts Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society)

She ran for the office and won by a large majority even though only men could vote. She made United States history. She was the first woman in the country to hold an elected statewide office. As leader of the Office of Charities and Corrections, Kate enacted many reforms. She set up a state employment bureau to help out-of-work people find jobs. She implemented prison reforms that called for better treatment of prisoners. They had been abused in the past. She helped establish juvenile courts because she believed there was a difference between children who committed crimes and the more hardened adult prisoners. In most cases, adults committed far more serious crimes than children. Kate also worked to get better facilities and treatment for the physically and mentally handicapped.

Because she did so much to help people, many Oklahomans began referring to Barnard as "Our Good Angel, Kate." Although Kate was re-elected for a second term, she ran up against a problem that she could not solve. When she learned that hundreds of Indian children had been cheated out of oil royalties, she tried to help them. At one point she went to Muskogee and found three "wild" Indian children all sleeping in the same tree. They dug in garbage piles, looking for food when they should have been rich. White adults had cheated them out of their oil money. Kate investigated and wanted something done to protect the children. But many powerful state and local politicians were involved in the cheating. They would not give up the money that they had stolen. They tried to ruin Kate by their constant harassment. They also cut all of the funds to her Department of Charities and Corrections. Always frail and sickly, Kate was broken by her opponents. She decided not to seek a third term in 1915. Kate lived on until 1930 and continued to perform charity work as a private citizen.

Study Guide Questions:

  1. Where was Kate Barnard born and when did she come to Oklahoma?
  2. What role did Kate have at the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention?
  3. List four reforms that Kate made as the Commissioner for Charities and Corrections.
  4. Why was Kate called Oklahoma’s "Good Angel"?
  5. Why did Kate’s enemies destroy her public career?

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