A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. III, Part 113

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 660

USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. III > Part 113

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Mr. Hawk early gained prescience of the great future in store for Oklahoma City and he has been one of the most vigorous exploiters of its manifold attractions and advantages-ever ready to lend his influence and co- operation in the furtherance of all enterprises and measures projected for the civic and material welfare of the city. He was a liberal subscriber to the fund raised by citizens of Oklahoma City for the purpose of obtain- ing the location of extensive meat-packing plants, which have greatly conserved the industrial and commercial advancement of the city, and he has likewise given equally liberal financial aid in the development of other large and importaut business enterprises, besides those incidental to general municipal progress. The following pertinent estimate is well worthy of perpetuation in this connection : "With all of consistency it may be said that it is to such loyal and public-spirited citizens as James W. Hawk that Oklahoma City owes its phenomenal growth and the enviable position which it holds among the really great cities of the West. To him must tribute be paid not only for much of the city's modern archi- tectural upbuilding, but he is also one of those citizens whose initiative ability, confidence and courage have given a civic loyalty and inspiration that can not be impaired by years of adverse conditions. Mr. Hawk has unquali- fied faith in Oklahoma City and the State, and his enthu- siasm for the future is fully as insistent as it has been during the past years of his important and productive service. ''

In addition to his important work as an architect in Oklahoma City, Mr. Hawk has designed and constructed the buildings of practically all of the agricultural col-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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leges of the state, including those of the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater, and those at Clari- more, Weatherford and Goodwell, besides buildings for other important state institutions.

At Albany, Missouri, on the 24th of August, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hawk to Miss Har- riet E. Coffey, daughter of Rev. Jasper H. and Frances (Culp) Coffey, her father being at the present time one of the most venerable and honored clergymen of the Christian Church in the State of Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Hawk have one daughter, Mary Frances, who was born September 8, 1905.

EVANS AMBROSE NASH. Still a young man as age is counted in years, Evans Ambrose Nash has followed a career that has given him breadth of knowledge and vol- ume of experience that as a rule come to men only atter long years of contact with the affairs of the world. Until accepting his present position as deputy state examiner and inspector, at Oklahoma City, Mr. Nash was engaged in journalism, a field in which, at least on one occasion, he was the medium through which the read- ing public secured exclusive news. In his present capac- ity he is proving an energetic and reliable factor in the machinery of the state department.

Mr. Nash was born December 25, 1888, at St. Joseph, Missouri, and is a son of Robert M. and Amna (Con- nelly) Nash. His grandfather, John M. Nash, a native of Massachusetts, was a civil engineer of note both be- fore and during the Civil war, being the builder of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, the Nashville, Decatur & Alabama Railroad, and the bridge spanning the Ohio River at Louisville, Ky., and a contracting engineer with General Sherman during that famous Union soldier's "March to the Sea." Following the close ot hostilities between the North and the South he engaged in the wholesale lumber business, and continued to be occupied therein until his death, October 9, 1871. He married a Kentucky girl and they became the parents of six chil- dren: Robert M .; Harvey C., who is now retired and a resident of St. Joseph, Missouri; Edward II., who is de- ceased; Arthur E., county collector of Buchanan County, Missouri; Lizzie E., who is deceased; Anna E., who is the wife of Dr. J. M. Austin, a dentist of St. Joseph.

Robert M. Nash was born October 24, 1858, on a farm in Maury County, Tennessee, and in 1871, after the death of his father, his mother, with her six children, moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Mr. Nash engaged as apprentice in the drug business. Active in civic affairs, he was made chief clerk ot the money order department of the St. Joseph Postoffice in 1886, a posi- tion which he held four years, when he received the appointment of secretary to the State Hospital Board for Asylum No. 2, at that city, and from 1894 nntil 1902 was county clerk of Buchanan County, during which time he became the organizer of the original Missouri County Clerks' Association. In 1908 he came to Oklahoma City to accept his present position in the state examiner and inspector's department. He is one of the leading and influential democrats of the city. Mr. Nash was married at St. Joseph, January 11, 1888, to Miss Anna Connelly, who was born September 20, 1864, at that city, daughter of Michael and Katherine (Jordan) Connelly. Her father, a native of County Cork, Ireland, came to the United States in 1846 and eleven years later became a pioneer shoe merchant of St. Joseph, where he died August 1, 1906. Three children were born to Robert M. and Anna Nash, namely: Evans Ambrose; Thomas Murray, born August 23, 1893, and died October 27, 1894; and Kathryn Elizabeth, born November 4, 1899.

Evans A. Nash attended the public schools of St.

Joseph and St. Mary's College, of St. Mary's, Kansas, where he graduated as president and valedictorian of the class of 1907. At that time he entered upon his journalistic career as reporter on the staff of the St. Joseph Gazette, but one year later accompanied his par- ents to Oklahoma City, where he joined the staff of the Times. Later he was identified with The Daily Okla- homan in a reportorial capacity, subsequently succeeding to the city editorship of The Daily Pointer. In 1909 he gained country-wide reputation as the correspondent of the Oklahoman and for the Associated Press, who fur- nished exclusive stories during the Crazy Snake and Creek Indian war. In June, 1912, Mr. Nash was ap- pointed depnty state examiner and inspector, a position which he has still retained. Mr. Nash is a democrat. and is fraternally connected with the Knights of Columbus.

On August 24, 1910, Mr. Nash was married to Miss Nancy B. Offutt, who was born July 7, 1889, at Adair- ville, Kentucky, daughter of Ezra and Ida (Paisley) Offutt, and educated at the Ladies' College of Franklin, Kentucky. They have one child: Evans Grundy, born December 24, 1912.

KATE BARNARD. Oklahoma is still a young state, and few of its men or women have projected the influence of their character into the larger life of the nation. This is no disparagement of the worthy quality of Okla- homa's men and women for some of the noblest lives never reach recognition beyond the small circle in which they live and with all his scientific attainments man has not yet devised a method for measuring the light that gleams out from an individual character beyond a com- paratively short radius.

Without invidious discrimination it is possible to say that Oklahoma has produced one great woman. In fact, Kate Barnard is now one of America's great women. She has carned her niche of fame as a practical sociol- ogist and philanthropist. The adversities and hardships of early Oklahoma, reacting upon the heroic blood of seven generations of Irish ancestors, moulded her charac- ter into a soul of adamant determination and invincible courage to fight the battle for social justice and economic liberty, and whether the history of Oklahoma is written now or two centuries hence, her work, if not her name, must be marked in its pages. Without trying to measure absolutely the results of her life, it is only a matter of justice that the following paragraphs should be written now to indicate what service she rendered during the formative period of the state, the manner in which she accomplished her work, and some of those environments and influences which directed her own early growth and development.

Perhaps the best idea of the breadth and depth of her social experience is contained in the preface to the book which Miss Barnard is now writing on "Woman and Destiny." In this she says, "I know life from the liomes of Fifth avenue millionaires to the hovels of American slums, from receptions at the White House to gutter gatherings of homeless vagabonds and penniless tramps. Today, I hold membership in ditch diggers unions; and am an honorary member of the American Academy of Social and Political Science. I have studied men until I know from the shape of their hands and head, the gait of their walk, and the contour of their faces, much of their mode of life and the character of their thought. Men call me a good 'politician' but back of this is a large knowledge of human life on every round of the social ladder, a consuming sympathy for human sorrows a strong determination to rectify the

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

wrongs in American workshops and force a just relation- ship among men."'

"For seven years," the preface continues, "I led the state democratic ticket in Oklahoma, but I continued to go down with the 'people' and sit at crowded lunch counters and eat fifteen cent meals. I dressed plain, stayed out of 'society, ' continued my membership in labor unions, and thus preserved my comradeship and fellow- ship with the masses. I have shared my time and life with the intellect of Boston, the romance and idealism of Richmond, the hospitality of New Orleans, and the humanity of the Great West. I have been entertained in the homes of America's most brilliant statesmen, shared the hospitality of her most profound philosophers, the music and harmony of her great poets and dreamers, and came home to enjoy the intimate comradeship of Oklahoma's homeless vagabonds and tramps. I am at home from the palace to the gutter, from the hovel to the White House-and this is life."

Kate Barnard was born at Geneva, Nebraska, about 1878, daughter of John P. and Rachel (Shiell) Barnard. She is thus a young woman, one who has dedicated her life to a great and noble cause. Though she has fought an almost ceaseless battle with poverty first and with the sordid conditions of American social and industrial systems later, she is an optimist, and if anyone expects to find in her face the lines set by acrid experience he would be disappointed.

Few women have played the master hand in politics which she did in Oklahoma during that historic period when the territory was granted statehood. This was the most dramatic cycle of Oklahoma's history; and she was one of the strong characters who dominated public opinion and dictated policies of state at that time. A serious woman of tremendous fortitude, self reliance and deep sympathy, with a keen brain and great executive ability, she joined her efforts to the democratic party just then coming into power. She took the stump and helped shape and mould that public opinion which crystallized into provisions in Oklahoma's constitution that will protect the working masses after her time and generation are forgotten dust.

It was in 1906 that Congress handed down the enabling act which permitted Oklahoma to write her constitution, and Kate Barnard upon her own initiative undertook to secure ample provision for the care and protection of the children of the poor.

She secured a letter from Frank Frantz, then governor of Oklahoma, asking that courtesies be extended her from public officials of other states. Armed with the governor's letter she toured the slums, factories and work shops of the East, she consulted members of the National Child Labor Committee and leading sociologists and political economists, to learn what other common- wealths had done to protect child life. She enquired what legislation they had passed to decrease poverty, - disease and crime, and she examined the laws they had enacted for the protection of labor. Through the influence of the governor's letter she was deputized as a regular factory inspectors in Missouri and other states. This enabled her to see the actual conditions under which men, women and children work for their daily bread. She ascertaincd their wages, the hours of their toil; and studied the effect of modern factory life in promoting race efficiency (or race degeneracy) among the masses, and the relationship of such facts to national welfare.

Of this experience she writes: "No man can deal intelligently with life until he first understands how all classes of men live and under what conditions they make their daily bread. Books are tools with which to work

out human intelligence. How to apply this intelligenc can only be learned by knowledge of life itself. To ge this knowledge I spent months, touring factories an workshops. I have breathed coal dust with children i: American coal breakers; I have turned sick with the pal young girls who are slowly poisoning as they bottl arsenic in American drug houses; and I have breathe. the glass dust which was killing the child laborers at m. side. "

With this first hand information she returned to Okla homa and entered upon a systematic campaign to creat a demand for a child labor plank; a compulsory educa tion plank; and a department of charities plank in th Oklahoma constitution. Ambassador Bryce of England said of Oklahoma's constitution that it is "the fines document of human liberty written since the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of Switzerland,' and no little credit for making it such is due to the activities of a single woman-Kate Barnard. The hardest fight of her life grew out of her efforts to properly protect the children of the poor in the con stitution, a fight which lasted three years, during which she made 127 speeches, opened and carried on a press campaign, interviewed leading politicians, securec endorsements of big political organizations, and fought and defeated a speaker of the House of Representatives. In her press campaign she printed manuscript articles which she had solicited from Luther Burbank, Edwin Markham, Jacob Riis, John Spargo, Mrs. Philip N. Moore and scores of others of national note who plead that Oklahoma should protect her children in the con- stitution of the state. As evidence of the spirit of generosity which permeates American democracy, these great men and women contributed this service without recompense; in the interest of human progress in Okla- homa.

At this time the farmers and laborers held a state convention at Shawnee, Oklahoma, to consider means for protecting their own interests in Oklahoma's organic law. This body represented 65,000 votes. Kate Barnard attended this convention and pledged to support their measures if they would endorse her demands-for a child labor, a compulsory education and a department of charities plank in the constitution. She stayed at this convention two days and before she came away she had entered an agreement and thus secured the aid of this most powerful political organization.

She then conferred with the chairman of the State Democratic Campaign Committee, Hon. Jesse Dunn, and he agreed to include these demands in the democratic platform. Thus they became a part of the democratic policy in the state. This being done she took the stump for democratic success and helped elect a large majority of democrats in the convention which wrote the con- stitution.

She was invited to appear before the Constitutional Convention. She accepted the invitation and made a plea for three planks, with the result that her model child labor plank passed unanimously. It is known as "Proposition No. 388,"' and bears the inscription, "Introduced by Delegate W. C. Hughes at the request of Kate Barnard." Her proposition for the department of charities and corrections and the compulsory education proposition, introduced by Delegate Mitch, also passed.

Then came the task of founding upon these "planks" suitable laws. This was comparatively easy with regard to the compulsory education and department of charities laws, but Kate Barnard campaigned for three years and went before two legislatures and engaged in a desperate political battle with a house speaker before the passing of the child labor bill.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

The article in the constitution providing for a depart- ories anneut of charities contained reference to "his" or "her"' attbren inoffice, and it was but a logical outcome of her thorough the paleknowledge of social conditions and her profound interest y bottlein the welfare of the people at large that she was nom- breathedinated for the office of commissioner of charities.

As a democratic candidate she had the distinction of leading her ticket by 6,000 votes. "Of course," said A. J. McKelway of the National Child Labor Committee, "there were other reasons for the victory of the demo- y educa crats, but Kate Barnard was several reasons herself."

k in th Engla he finest laration rland,' L. The forts to he con- She was thoroughly trusted by the two largest classes of voters, the farmers and the labor union men, and she was the favorite speaker on the democratic side. Slender, graceful, petite, with dark hair and skin and flashing eyes, and with a rapid-fire articulation which was the to thedespair of the reporters, she painted pictures of the wrongs of childhood, of the suffering of minors without the protection of law, of the needs of the orphans, of the iniquity of sending juvenile criminals to jails, of which the cruelties practiced upon the insane and the necessity of scientific hospital care; of sweatshops and overwork and under-pay, thrilling her vast audiences with her earnest eloquence.

It is indicative of her character that upon taking office she insisted upon a reduction of her salary-originally Edwin put at $2,500-to $1,500 a year. After four years of her service the Legislature again raised it to $2,500. During a year of drought she handed back the money to her poor renter, saying she "could not live on money rit of that would rob little children of the necessities of life." She seeured legislation embodying the most advanced sociological thought, such as prison laws prepared by Samuel J. Barrows, ex-president of the International Prison Congress; juvenile court laws drafted by Judge Ben Lindsay; child labor and compulsory education laws drafted by A. J. McKelway of the National Child Labor Committee; laws for the care and treatment of the insane and of the feeble minded drafted by Alexander Johnson and H. H. Hart of the Russell Sage Foundation.

In answer to Kate Barnard's appeal these leaders of public thought throughout the nation traveled to Okla- homa at their own expense, lectured without charge to the Oklahoma Legislature, and wrote laws to insure scientific care of the insane-to lift the burden from the backs of the children of the poor and insure their educa- tion-to prevent cruelty within prison walls-to remove children from the jails and place them in industrial schools-and to thoroughly introduce in Oklahoma modern care and scientific treatment for the deaf, mute and blind. This marks an epoch in statescraft as it is the first time in history that the nation's most eminent statesmen and sociologists were brought to write a whole body of laws for a state.

The result of this big endeavor was to place Oklahoma in the foremost ranks of those commonwealths which stand for human progress throughout the world.

Kate Barnard's activities extended throughout the nation. Her investigation in 1908 of the atrocious con- ditions prevailing in the Lansing (Kansas) penitentiary inspired the legal battle between Oklahoma and Kansas which resulted in the breaking of the contract which the latter had with Oklahoma for the care of its 600 prisoners; and the general overhauling of the Lansing penitentiary. She figured in a big and victorious prison reform fight in Arizona in the winter of 1911-12. At the request of Governor Hunt she addressed the Arizona Legislature in the interests of probation and parole laws for that state, and she assisted in securing better con- ditions for the Arizona insane.

She also went before the Texas Federation of Women's Vol. III-25

Clubs in the interest of juvenile legislation and a depart- ment of charities to protect the prisoners, orphans and insane of Texas. She helped organize the Southern Sociological Congress for the purpose of securing a uniform child labor law for the South.

In 1912 she succeeded in restoring $2,000,000 to the Indian orphans of Oklahoma and in prosecuting many of the men who were depriving them of their estates. She had to stop this prosecution when the Fourth Okla- homa Legislature cut off all appropriations for the continuance of this work. She permitted her department to be wrecked rather than allow the politicians to "dictate to her" whom she should employ as attorneys to continue the prosecution against this thievery and graft. This battle with the Fourth Legislature brought on nervous prostration and resulted iu wrecking her health.

Of this bleak period of her life she has this to say: "The dust collected in layers, and the spiders came and spun their webs in my silent, vacant department in which for years Christian men and women had devoted their whole time to raising standards of life for Okla- homa 's poor. But the Fourth Legislature cut off their salaries and one by one these hospital inspectors, attorneys, inspectors of poorhouses, prisons and jails departed-and left me alone. As I stood in the ehill and gloom of my wrecked department I looked out of the State House window and noted that winter was dropping dead petals from the trees in the State House yard, and I thought how like these are the dead hopes and dreams which, chilled in the bitter wind of destiny, drop lifeless at our feet. "'

But Kate Barnard did not give up when adversity swept her life. Her battle was for justice, and when the Legislature adjourned she went down into the home districts of these law makers, took the stump, defeated them, and retired them to private life. After this she went East and spoke in the biggest churches and halls of New York City, interested the New York Press, raised several thousand dollars from New York and Chicago, and continued her fight for justice for the Oklahoma Indians. She appeared before the Mohonk Conference, secured their support, returned to Oklahoma and defeated several bills in the Fifth Legislature which · would facilitate the separation of Indians from their lands.

During this fight with the Fifth Legislature she cir- cularized the voters of the state, organized separate fighting groups in forty-three counties of Oklahoma to help her, and when these failed she petitioned both houses of the Legislature for the right to be personally heard, and she made passionate appeals from the floor of the House and the floor of the Senate for laws which would enable the department of charities to properly protect the Indians of her state. Failing in this, she gave up all hope of accomplishing results in Oklahoma and she petitioned Congress to take back its jurisdiction over the Oklahoma Indians and their estates.

Warren K. Moorehead, scientific sociologist and entomologist of the University of Andover, Massachu- setts, a member of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners, one of the nation's highest authorities on Indian affairs, has recently written a book called "The Indian"' in which he pays Kate Barnard a high tribute for her heroic battle for justice for the 100,000 Indians in Oklahoma. Mr. Moorehead expresses the belief that the destiny of Oklahoma's Red Man is bound up in the success, or failure, of her effort to force Congress to take back its jurisdiction over these Indians and their estates.

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Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941 Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society Number of Pages: 660

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 660