The first woman law student in the United States graduated from a school in Chicago, Illinois. The story of this woman’s life is unique and interesting, and it deserves to be told. Check it out:
Ada Kepley was born Ada Harriet Miser on February 11, 1847 in Somerset, Ohio. After her family moved to St. Louis, she met and married Henry B. Kepley who had a law practice in Effingham, Illinois.
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Henry encouraged his wife to attend school at the Old University of Chicago’s law department, which is today known as Northwestern. She graduated in 1870 as the first woman law student to graduate in the United States.
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Because Ada was a woman, she was not allowed entrance to the bar which would grant her the right to actually join or start a practice. Her husband drafted a law banning this sort of sexual discrimination and it was signed into law in 1872.
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Ada Kepley did not apply for her law license until 1881. She is known for paving the way for many other female lawyers in early history, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg who was one of only nine women to graduate out of a class of 500 Harvard law students in the 1950s.
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In addition to inspiring women through her scholarship, Kepley has motivated people through her activism. She was a passionate crusader for the women’s suffrage movement and was associated with Frances Willard and Susan B. Anthony.
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Kepley’s focus throughout her time with the women’s suffrage movement was on temperance, which eventually led to prohibition. She founded an organization that taught youth about the dangers of alcohol and published a paper that criticized saloons and those who frequented them.
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After the death of her husband, Kepley spent her final years on a farm in Effingham where she wrote her autobiography. Soon after, she fell into poverty and lost the farm. Forced to move into a small home, she ended up a charity case in the hospital where she died in June 1925.
Wikipedia/Gerald Roll She is buried next to her husband in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Effingham.
Have you ever been to the grave of the first woman law student in America? Share your experiences with us below in the comments.
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She is buried next to her husband in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Effingham.
For more like this, check out these nine historical events that took place in Illinois that everyone will remember.
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Address: Illinois, USA
