The Oklahoma Historical Society recently dedicated a new historical marker honoring Catherine Ann “Kate” Barnard (1875–1930), Oklahoma’s first woman elected to state office, during a ceremony at Guthrie City Hall.
Guthrie is the historic site where she and other state officials were inaugurated on November 16, 1907, when Oklahoma was admitted to the Union as the 46th state.
Kate Barnard was the only woman invited to address the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention in Guthrie. “Kate’s planks,” as they were called, prohibited child labor, enacted a compulsory education law, and created the office of Commissioner of Charities and Corrections, to which she was elected in November 1907…