Kate Barnard
American Philanthropist and Social Reformer
1875 – 1930 A.D.

Kate Barnard, an American philanthropist and social reformer. She came to Oklahoma when she was a girl of twelve, later taught school, and then became a political reporter. She soon became candidate for the position of Commissioner of Charities and Corrections, she was elected by a large majority. Among her many duties she included the charge of three hundred and twenty-five jails, poor-houses, orphanages, rescue homes and institutions caring for children, the deaf, the blind and the insane.

During her first three years she took five hundred children out of the mines and placed them in school despite the efforts of the mine workers to keep them at work. She joined the American Federation of Labor and organized the unskilled workmen of Oklahoma City into a union of their own. She has fought corrupt politicians, and has brought about vast improvements in public institutions, and in the social conditions of the poor and the unfortunate.

~*~

Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.