OCR Text |
Show "Aunty Rose" Barrett, Warrenton, Oregon, Is the First Woman City Manager h in the United States and ' ' ' ', t There's a Big Secret Back mr- "-: of Her Success as Mayor -- -v v.;; ' '''-'Y Warrenton, Oregon, Is the ' 4vSV f ' V V 1 -5. There's a Big :. - CPtr : ' -of Her rT ACCEPTING the office ef msnsger ' tUX cf ef the city of Warrenton, e'tbrlving j X Q x )A municipality at tba month of the Colum- J VlJ , AsiTVv'f' - V ' Ma Elvar, Oregon, Mra. R. E. Barrett j VC''riV became the first woman city manager j CJ- In the United States. ' Thla woman of nnuaual business sbll-'. sbll-'. lty hat more clalma to distinction. She ' la the firit white person born in Spink . County, Sooth Dakota, and aha i the one , She began at birth to acquire distinction, dis-tinction, and her baby warwhoop wae the firat from the lungs of a white child to awaken the echoea of Spink County, South Dakota, and now, aa Mrs. R. EL. Barrett, , ahe runa Warrenton, Oregon In Happyvlllc IT WAS Theodore Roosevelt I who laid tiiit World Would not be fit place for any of ut fo live in until il Wat e fit place for all of ui (a live in. At the foci ah out hr butinea of being ci'y manager of , Warrenton, Ore., Ars. R. E. Barrett Bar-rett goet on the principle "thai tl.it it to be t happy town, a nice tct n to live in and a place where people get along and like eacA other." ' And if you Want to know how it W0ll out, juit lake a jaunt out la Warrenton for a little talmon filling trip and the home fo'k in llial pretty Utile Oregon city. She) runa the police departmentand all the "cope" love hei. She boaaea the fire department and all the Uddiea are for her. She aupenriaee the street-cleaning and the atreeta are dean. She laya . out new parka and Sa for a city beautiful and happy. ,She builda up the home port and aeea that Pacific coaat porta get the weatern grain ahipmenta. She ia interested in fisheries of her home State ,lonf lurked in her head. Bha knaw the Columbia River needed wheat cargon te realite its poaiibilltiaa. Eha wanted te see warehouses at Warrenton filled, te see ship from the east coast unload-Inf unload-Inf In her capacious docking facilities the products of the Atlantis aide of the continent con-tinent and returning whence they came with the wheat brought down from Montana Mon-tana and the great inland empire. IT WAS a hard right, Mrs. Barrett recalls. re-calls. People liked her. They'd lend her money and take her to dinner, but they wouldn't take her seriously. But now they do. ! Mrs. Barrett's attention now is de- lent end all the "cops" love hei. She bosses the fire department and . 'Nv She supervises the street-cleaning and the atreeta ere clean. She lays ' i city beautiful and happy. , She builds up the home port end sees that v - , astern grain ahipmenta. She ia interested in fisheries of her home State - A C1- riT ACCEPTINQ the office of manager of the city of Warrenton, a 'thriving . aBonicipality at tba mouth of the Colum- Ma Elver, Oregon, Mra.. B. E. Barrett became the first woman city manager In the United States. This woman of unusual business abil-'. abil-'. lty has more claims to distinction. Shs ' If the first white person born in Spink County, South Dakota, and she is the one who conceived and carried into effect the proposal to move Montana wheat by railroad to Columbia River ports for ex port instead of to Minneapolis and St. PauL . ' , Under the Oregon Constitution, municipal munic-ipal corporations may be formed by vote of the people without consent of the Legislature, Leg-islature, and city chanters may be ' amended by such vote. It is by refcon of every voter in Oregon being his or her own lawmaker that Mrs. Barrett was eligible to become manager of Warrenton, Warren-ton, which has commission form of government, with one person as the business busi-ness executive. ' Mrs. Barrett fully comprehended what ft would mean te run the police department, depart-ment, boas the fire department, direct the ears of the streets and to supervise the many responsible duties pertaining to the improvement and welfare of the city. It is a task of magnitude when considered with the growth of the city ' coming with development of its coast wise and overseas shipping business. - Bat Mrs. Barrett is making good in her new office and no one is withholding from her due credit for laying out a i consistent and progressive program for ' the city's future. Already shs has de- r V vised a scheme for city parks and dvie beautifleation which has met with popular popu-lar approval. Her plan ts to combine the esthetic with the utility of things; te proceed along approved business lines; to raise the municipal standard In all ways and to keep expenditures within conservative limits. r' WAS the wartime enthusiasm In the sals of Liberty bonds that turned Mrs. Barrett's attention from the sale of real . estate, in which she was engaged in BirU, Mont, to more patriotic work, and she attributes the opportunity to ' ' take the city managership to the war's activities, which have been given the blame for almost everything else to data, "I did not think. I should be urging people to invest in real estate when fhsy should be putting their money in Liberty bonds," said Mrs. Barrett, and about this time she turned attention to the -possibilities in building up the Pacific Coast porta by diverting wheaj from Montana to the Columbia River. Port-land. Port-land. Seattle, Tacoma, Astoria and the .' ; - entire North Pacific coast have reaped the benefits of her work. Mrs. Barrett, who is thirty-nine, has maintained a legal residence in Oregon, although her business interests have kept her away from the State for eome protracted periods. There are those in Oregon who have known her and there are States where her name is known in almost every home, but in Oregon she has jumped into fame by accepting the unique post of a city manager unique for one of her sex. When Mrs. Barrett looks at wheat , and at many other things, too she seems to call Into play a vision of a vital stream. Where it flows is life. Where it recedes are exhaustion and decay. Mrs. Barrett saw the stream of wheat flowing from its source in Montana and the Dakotas eastward to Minneapolis and St Paul and Duluth, but by careful effort she coaxed it westward. 'TS SHE handsome?" one ssks. Tea, A possessed as she is of a full blown and sturdy charm that is nothing if not American, She ia the composite American Amer-ican type, a blending of Scotch, Irish and English many years back. ' Hsr eyes are very calm. They sometimes some-times seem te smile even when her lips are etilL a very mature sort of smile that bespeaks a deep humor rather than gyety. Their level gaze seems to be ' synchronised with the level head behind them. And her voice T It is rich and power. ' ful and it can be most convincing. It ia like her eyes and her head level. And her dreaeT Modish It . ia and straight; simple and crisp, suggesting nothing of tliat Tm-e-woman-of-buai-nesa" air that men most times shy away ' rom in terror. At her home at Seaside, a few miles away from Warrenton, shs is a model housewife, if ever a model housewife works like Mrs. Barrett In 1920 visitors visi-tors numbering iOT, ever and above bar Mrs. Barrett brought Montana wheat westward to the Columbia River fcaibor for shipment diverting it from Minneapolis and St Paul : ' The development of the fisheries of Oregon has received considerable attention from the . business woman, whose vision carries her beyond the boundaries bound-aries of her job of bossing town to the wider fields of State and national inter eata - own circle of friends, ate and slept at her home. They were folk from the eastward, from Montana and from Hew York, who bad coma west to see the Columbia River as a commerce carrier . and the water-grade route from the crest . of the Rocky Mountains, and who were anxious to see her vision of the wheat from east of the mountains move west become a reality. She ia a daughter of Americaa stock of which none is older. Her mother's people set foot ea this continent in 1620 and her father's forebears in 1640, in Virginia. Her mother, a girl of seventeen, forged westward with hsr boy-husband of nineteen nine-teen into the gray plains of the Dakotas and set out for a new home in that bleak country It was is -that borne, such as it was, of sod tamed up from the prairie, that Rose Tyler, who later became Mrs. Barrett, Bar-rett, was born, the first white child la , Spink County, And there en the plains shs lived for sixteen years in an environment strikingly strik-ingly different from that In which the modern girl is nurtured.. A wide horixoa and prairie and nothing else. She had only a oommoa -school education, edu-cation, but she has said many times te her intimate friends, those who have known such rare person and hare kept her to themselves, "I'd give snythlng ia " the world if I eould have gone through college or a university, and I want every boy and girl I know to get what I have missed." Then followed some Tears that serve for little in this' story. Ross E. Tyler became Mrs. Barrett Then a period of sadness and she was free again to seek her destiny alone. Balked ia her wish to go te France, shs sat back and did a little thinking, hrinejTJt to the front an idea that had voted to the development of Warrenton, - "I believe Warrenton has a great fu-- fu-- ture," shs ssys. "It isn't just a snail . village aet down anywhere. It is st the outlet of (he second largest river in the United States. Salesmanship is my line and if I can sell Warrenton to the world " One sees that she has not run out ol visions. Cavrrcvfcfc llelTkv ru I Hum Ommmmw . ' |