Background
Barrett was born on November 10, 1892, in Omaha, Nebraska, to a family of eight. Both parents were schoolteachers, and Patrick Barrett also worked as a mortician and court bailiff.
( Reviewers hailed the original edition of T.A. Larson’s ...)
Reviewers hailed the original edition of T.A. Larson’s History of Wyoming (Winner of an Award of Merit of the American Association for State and Local History) as “a refreshing new look at the most western of the Western States,” “an excellent model of what a state history should be.” In that first comprehensive, critical history of Wyoming, the author was not concerned to recapitulate the familiar tales of fast guns and renegades associated with the pre-territorial years; his focus was on the men, women, and events which have shaped the state’s history since 18965, when the name Wyoming was first applied to the area. Although dramatic incidents and changes occurred in Wyoming from time to time during its territorial and statehood years into the 1960’s, the state remained preeminently a cattlemen’s domain and tourist mecca. Then the world energy crisis greatly enhanced the value of these state’s vast reserves of oil, gas, uranium, and coal. Unprecedented growth resulted (the state was losing population in 1965, when the first edition of this book was published), bringing expanded payrolls and wealth on the one hand and serious problems on the other as developers and environmentalists competed for control of Wyoming’s future. Incorporating new chapters on the state’s abrupt turnaround from “the lonesome land” to an important national center of energy development, this edition continues to emphasize political, economic, and social history and to offer new interpretations and information. Examining the great changes of the 1970’s, Larson concludes that trade-offs and compromises are inevitable, major decisions lie ahead, and it’s an exciting and challenging era for Wyoming citizens.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Wyoming-Second-T-Larson/dp/0803279361?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0803279361
Barrett was born on November 10, 1892, in Omaha, Nebraska, to a family of eight. Both parents were schoolteachers, and Patrick Barrett also worked as a mortician and court bailiff.
Barrett attended public schools and Creighton University, Omaha, earning an A. B. in 1913 and an LL. B. in 1916.
During World War I he served seventeen months in the Army Balloon Corps. Barrett then moved to the eastern Wyoming oil boom town of Lusk, where he established his legal practice. As his practice thrived, Barrett, a Catholic, joined a variety of civic organizations and developed an interest in business and in Republican politics. In 1924 he acquired a substantial sheep and cattle ranch near Lusk and became active in the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, the Wyoming Wool Growers Association, and the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association - all organizations of significant influence in the state.
He served as Niobrara County attorney (1923 - 1932), as state senator (1933 - 1935), and as a trustee of the University of Wyoming (1939 - 1943). Barrett lost his initial race for the United States Congress in 1936, but in 1942 he was elected. A folksy, energetic politician and campaigner, he paid exceptional attention to constituent concerns during his eight years in the House. He opposed proposals to deepen the Missouri River channel for fear that it would endanger the water supply of the upper Missouri basin states. He called for higher wool tariffs and for protection of the western livestock industry. In 1943 President Franklin Roosevelt created Jackson Hole National Monument in northwestern Wyoming by executive order; and Barrett, like most Wyoming politicians of both parties, strenuously objected on the grounds that the move threatened existing grazing, hunting, and fishing privileges and violated states' rights. Barrett drafted a bill to abolish the controversial monument that passed Congress in 1944 only to be pocket vetoed by the president.
After the war, Congressman Barrett emerged as a leader of western interests, demanding greater local control over grazing and mineral rights on the public domain. Appealing to a general antagonism among stockmen toward tightened federal grazing regulations, he chaired a series of highly publicized hearings in 1947 condemning the Forest Service and other federal agencies. The hearings brought down on Barrett the wrath of conservationist groups but probably strengthened him at home. On the national level, the conservative Barrett voted to override President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act and supported the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Mundt-Nixon Communist-control bill of 1948.
In 1950 Barrett was elected governor of Wyoming. There he sidetracked proposals for a severance tax on the oil industry and imposed stringent economies on the state government. Again responsive to local economic interests, he advocated higher price supports for the Wyoming dairy and sugar beet industries, pushed for industrial and mineral development, and solicited defense installations for the state. Barrett capitalized on Dwight D. Eisenhower's popularity, growing public frustration with the Korean War, and discontent over scandals and alleged Communist influence in the Truman administration to unseat veteran Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney in the 1952 election.
As a member of the Armed Services Committee, he worked to expand Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne. But he devoted most of his energies to the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, laboring to promote Wyoming economic growth and curtail federal regulation over the extensive public lands in the state. Following the passage of the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, which gave the states control over offshore oil, Barrett pushed for legislation that would transfer control over federal grazing lands to the states and private ranchers. Conservation forces labeled his proposal a "land grab, " and the administration rejected it as excessive. Undeterred, Barrett offered legislation to vest control of water rights in the West in the states, to return 90 percent of oil royalties from the public domain to the western states, and to permit Wyoming to levy property taxes on the large federal parks in its boundaries. None of these proposals was accepted.
He encouraged exploitation of oil, gas, and uranium deposits on the federal domain and the development of reclamation and hydroelectric projects in the region--including a proposed dam at Echo Park in Colorado that many believed would endanger Dinosaur National Monument. While opposing high farm price supports, he urged import tariffs on foreign wools and expanded exports and school lunch programs to aid the livestock industry. Barrett's political career reflected the West's hunger for economic development, frequently through federal stimulation, and simultaneously its hostility to federal control and regulation. A liberal Democratic trend, the recession, and charges (later retracted) by columnist Drew Pearson that Barrett had improperly interceded in a tax case for another Wyoming Republican contributed to his defeat by Gale McGee in 1958. President Eisenhower named him general counsel for the Department of Agriculture and member of the board of directors of the Commodity Credit Corporation in 1959. But in 1960 Barrett resigned both positions in an unsuccessful attempt to regain a United States Senate seat.
( Reviewers hailed the original edition of T.A. Larson’s ...)
Barrett was a devout Catholic, and a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Barrett was identified with the Republican right wing, voting for balanced budgets, the Bricker Amendment (intended to curtail presidential power to conclude international agreements), and the exemption of interstate natural-gas pipelines from federal regulation. He voted against the censure of Joseph R. McCarthy (who had campaigned for him in 1952).
He married Alice Catherine Donoghue in Omaha on May 21 of that year. They had three children. Barrett's wife died in 1956. On April 4, 1959, he married Augusta K. Hogan.
