USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume II > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
Each change Miss Yager has made in her professional connections has brought her a wider outlook and broader opportunities and she has met the various requirements with a skill and understanding that has grown with the passing years and her added experience. From Pennsylvania she went to Omaha, Nebraska, where she was superintendent of the Presbyterian Hospital and while there she took some special work at the University of Nebraska. Returning eastward, she became superintendent of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital at New London, Connecticut and in 1920 she accepted a call to Toledo as superintendent of the Women's and Children's Hospital, which has since been the field of her labors. She has raised its standards and introduced various modern and improved methods and the fact that she has remained at this institution for almost two decades is proof of her most satisfactory service.
Miss Yager belongs to the Genessee Hospital Alumni Association and the Ohio Hospital Association, of which she was president for several years. She is also a life member of the American Hospital Association and has
637
WOMEN OF OHIO
membership in the Ohio State Nurses Association, serving for two years as president of its ninth district, representing the Toledo group of the American Nurses Association. She is a Fellow of the American College of Hospital Administrators, which she joined on its organization and she became an American Red Cross nurse, when the work was organized in 1905, her number being 98. She is secretary of the Hospital Service Association of Toledo, which was organized in 1938, largely through her efforts and for a number of years she was a member of the Children's Bureau of Toledo.
Miss Yager belongs to the Zonta Club International and is a charter member of the Toledo branch and one of its past presidents, while at the present time she is district governor of district No. 6, which includes all of Ohio, western New York and a part of Canada.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Women in the Law
FLORENCE ALLEN
Judge of the Sixth Circuit, United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Cincinnati and Cleveland
CHAPTER TWELVE
WOMEN IN THE LAW
By FLORENCE E. ALLEN Judge of the Sixth Circuit, U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Women of the bench and bar can be glad that they live in Ohio, for this state has recognized women of our profession to a remarkable degree. Women have been elected and re-elected judge of the Probate Court, of the Municipal Court of Cleveland, and of the Supreme Court of Ohio.
A woman has been elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and County Prosecutor. A woman has been member of the State Industrial Commission. Women have been appointed Assistant County Prosecutor, and by appointment have held positions in the City Law Department. Women have acted as city solicitors in this state, and as attorneys for various state boards and agencies.
For the sympathy, understanding and support of our home state, women of the bench and bar are grateful. Their earnest desire is that by their industry, intelligence and character they may prove themselves worthy of the confidence of their clients and of their con- stituents.
FLORENCE ELLINWOOD ALLEN
FLORENCE ELLINWOOD ALLEN is, so far, the only woman in the world to sit on a judiciary bench of general jurisdiction. When she was appointed to the United States Circuit Court, Sixth Circuit, in 1934 the news- papers of the world, from Africa to Iceland, from the Argentine to Alaska, devoted whole pages to the life story of the jurist who is Professional Woman No. 1 of her state and nation. Magazines followed suit.
The stories varied naturally. They reflected the taste and tempo of the publication, even its nationality. British papers discovered pleasing British traits in the distinguished American, French found Gallie virtues, Japanese doubtless ditto. But one significant phrase, originating, it seems, in an article printed in the Youngstown Vindicator, October 28, 1938, constituted, none the less, the basic theme. It has been sounded, with variations, modulations
641
642
WOMEN OF OHIO
and elaborations, again and again-"An American woman, a woman as American as Indian corn." Simple as it sounds, it is doubtful if in sense in which it was used, there could have been worded a higher tribute, nor one in which Ohio in special can take more pride.
Judge Allen was not born in Ohio. But her ancestry is almost inseparable from Ohio history and her career is identified with the state that honors her as its ablest woman worker.
Her father's people, of famed "Ethan Allen" stock, came from Rhode Island and settled along Lake Erie before the war of 1812, in which all the able men of the family enlisted. They cleared land. They farmed. They taught school-Judge Allen herself was a teacher in Cleveland schools for several years. Their heritage of high intelligence often landed them on the faculties of colleges.
C. E. Allen, father of Florence, was professor of Latin and Greek at Western Reserve University, where as a student he won academic honors. He won other honors also. A bronze tablet installed 10 years or more ago at Western Reserve records the erstwhile flaming fact that during the year "Emir" Allen pitched the first curved ball, it is said, in Ohio college history, the university defeated all contestants.
But presently "Emir" Allen decided, as did so many forward looking men and women of his age, to go west. He took his family to Utah. It was at Salt Lake City, March 23, 1884, that Florence Allen came into the world. Life was no bed of roses for any of the seven children of the Allen household. Their home was at first an adobe cabin. The community offered no adequate educational opportunities. So Emir Allen taught his children himself. He certainly knew how. When Florence was four years old she could read fluently and that same year she learned the Greek alphabet as surprise for her father.
She began to study Latin at seven, wrangled definitely with Greek at eight. About this time the famous Allen family orchestra got its start in life. This was Mrs. Allen's doing. Herself an accomplished musician, Mrs. Allen taught her children how to play-and really play-the piano, violin, cello. They still have the family song book. Its original compositions were written for amusement, for birthdays, for family reunions, neighborhood get togethers.
It takes more than one parent to account for the character energy and ability of a Florence Allen. Dr. Jacob Tuckerman, Judge Allen's maternal grandfather, was one of the earliest graduates of Oberlin College. For over 60 years he headed Ohio centers of higher education. He was president of Farmers College, Cincinnati, of Grand River Institute, of New Lynne Insti- tute. He was also one of the earliest advocates of higher education for women. So Corinne Tuckerman, Judge Allen's mother, went to Smith Col- lege the very first year that famous institution opened. Each of the first
643
WOMEN OF OHIO
three classes graduated from Smith carried at least one of the Tuckerman sisters on its roll. No wonder that, in 1926, Smith College conferred the honorary degree of LL.D. on Judge Allen.
Well, the Allen children grew up happily and healthily. Their father became the first congressman from the State of Utah. But their roots were in Ohio. Florence went from Salt Lake Academy to New Lynne Institute, Ashtablua County, Ohio, and then to Western Reserve University at Cleve- land, where she was graduated with honors in 1904.
But Western Reserve refused, sadly but firmly, despite the splendid record of Florence Allen, to admit a woman to its law school. That was something they just couldn't do. Refusal, they doubtless made clear, hurt them deeply. How true this was, however, could hardly have been realized until later, when New York University gave Florence Allen the first law degree-and afterward the first LL.D .- ever granted a woman.
Difficulties have always been, to Florence Allen, something to be sur- mounted. It was this gift of quiet but unlimited courage, combined with an equal endowment of good sense and good judgment, that have yielded her the success denied to many highly talented less sagacious women. Nothing illustrates this better than Judge Allen's deliberate change of career, when scarcely out of girlhood. At that time music was her choice of profession. She loved music with a devotion that spared no effort or outlay for proper training of her undoubtedly fine talent. Her intensive study of the piano, continued for two years in Berlin under the ablest masters, fitted her beyond question for the concert stage. Then fate showed its hand. Florence had seriously injured a nerve in her arm. The fact had to be faced. The injury, it had to be admitted, would make impossible the work of concert pianist. A less courageous woman might have given up hope for any professional career. One less wise might have persisted in trying to hold to the profession of music, might have clung obstinately, and hysterically, to her first love. But fate gave Florence Allen a judicial mind. She knew, even then, how to weigh circumstances and situations.
Life had other deep interests for her. Here was but a challenge to a new and perhaps better work.
To this day, Judge Allen plays Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schumann. Bach-the other masters-for diversion. She plays them masterfully-with- out a score. But she has never for a moment regretted taking, when the first road ended, a new road.
For awhile she was music critic on the staff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. For awhile she taught at Laurel School, Cleveland. In 1908 she took her A.M. degree in political science and constitutional law at Western Reserve University. In 1909-1910 she studied at Chicago University Law School, then entered New York University Law School, got her degree and in 1914 was admitted to the Ohio bar.
644
WOMEN OF OHIO
Since this milestone, Judge Allen has pursued a legal career thickly punctuated with firsts. In 1919 she was appointed assistant county prosecutor of Cuyahoga County, first Ohio woman to hold such a position. In 1920 she was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas by the greatest vote ever given any judicial candidate for that court. This made her the first woman to sit in a court of general jurisdiction, civil or criminal.
In 1922 Judge Allen was elected to the Supreme Court of Ohio for a six year term. First woman in the world to sit in a court of last resort. In 1928 she was re-elected to Ohio Supreme Court by 350,000 majority. In 1934 Judge Allen was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as United States Circuit Court Judge, Sixth Circuit-first woman to sit in a federal court of general jurisdiction.
Another first has been widely suggested, Judge Allen has been strongly recommended as excellent material for the Supreme Court of the United States. As a matter of fact, in 1936 the already world famous woman judge, was compelled to publish an emphatic refusal to become a women's party candidate for the presidency of the United States. Innumerable organiza- tions, men's as well as women's have honored her.
Well, what next? Quo vadis, Florence Allen ?
ELSIE P. AUSTIN
The first Negro woman graduated from the College of Law of the Uni- versity of Cincinnati has the added distinction of being the first Negro woman assistant to the Attorney-General of Ohio. This is ELSIE P. AUSTIN, appointed by the Attorney-General, Herbert S. Duffy.
Miss Austin was born at Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., where her mother, Mrs. Mary Louise Austin, now on the staff of the Stowe School, Cincinnati, was teaching in the Department of Household Sciences, and her father, the late Major George J. Austin, was Commandant, in charge of the men in the student body. Major Austin later entered the service of the United States Army, remained in the reserves after he came to Cincinnati to engage in the insurance business, and was commissioned a Major shortly before his death in 1930.
Miss Austin received the greater part of her education in the Cincinnati public schools. She was graduated from Walnut Hills High School in 1924, and received her A.B. degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1928. She took her first year of law at the Cincinnati school, studied for a year in the law school of the University of Colorado-where she was on the case review staff of the Rocky Mountain Law Review-and returned to Cincinnati to complete her legal education, receiving her LL.B. in 1930. She was one of the eight students appointed on the basis of scholarship and merit to the staff of the Cincinnati Law Review.
ELSIE AUSTIN
first woman of her race made Assistant Attorney-General of a state
647
WOMEN OF OHIO
Miss Austin was appointed in 1934 to the Board of Trustees of Wilber- force University, Negro college at Wilberforce, Ohio. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta, National Negro Sorority; member of the Columbus Branch, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
GRACE A. BERGER
GRACE A. BERGER, member of the Cleveland bar and now filling the position of bailiff in the court of domestic relations, is a native daughter of the city in which she makes her home and her parents, Albert C. and Florence A. (Beach) Berger, were also born in Ohio. Her father engaged in the commission business for some time and afterward turned his attention to the real estate business. He passed away in 1896 and his wife, surviving him for twenty years, died in 1916. They had a family of two sons and two daughters, but William, the eldest, died in childhood. Grace was born March 28, 1883. A. Raymond, born January 28, 1893, is a paving contractor of Cleveland and married Elma V. Rock, a daughter of Frederick and Helene Rock. Raymond and his wife have one son, Beach, who is now in college. Abigail, the youngest of the family, is the wife of Cyrus Bosworth, who is engaged in the engineering business in Cleveland, and they have one son, Cyrus Bosworth, Jr., who is now a student in Antioch College.
At the usual age Grace Berger entered the public schools of Cleveland and passed through consecutive grades to the high school from which she was graduated with the class of 1902. She then enrolled as a student in Oberlin College, where she remained for two years. She prepared for a professional career at the John Marshall Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1925. While still a law student she was appointed to her present position as bailiff in the department of domestic relations in the common pleas court, which office she has continuously filled for fourteen years, her particular work being the care of women who come before the court because of the failure of their husbands to support them. In the discharge of her duties she has proved most tactful, helpful and efficient and her work has received the strong endorsement of the general public as well as of the members of the bar.
Miss Berger is a member of the Portia Club, a league of women lawyers, and also belongs to the Woman's City Club, the Cleveland Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
MILDRED PACK BERGERON
MILDRED PACK BERGERON of Cleveland, is a practicing attorney who has won public recognition in civic work as well. She is president of Phi Delta Delta.
648
WOMEN OF OHIO
MRS. THOMAS VOGEL BEXLEY
MRS. THOMAS VOGEL BEXLEY of Columbus, Ohio, daughter of the late Timothy Hogan, former attorney-general of the state, was the first woman attorney to be appointed to the Industrial Commission at Columbus.
GERTRUDE MARIE BONHOLZER
GERTRUDE MARIE BONHOLZER, attorney at law and public account- ant of Dayton, O., was born in that city, the daughter of Nicholas H. and Anna P. Bonholzer. She took her B.S.C. at the Dayton College of Commerce and Finance, her LL.B. at Dayton Law College and did graduate work at Columbia University and at Wittenberg College. Miss Bonholzer was ap- pointed deputy recorder of Montgomery County in 1930 and remained in this position four years. She is active in civic and professional organizations. Her residence is at 211 McClure St., Dayton.
ERNESTINE ELMA BREISCH
ERNESTINE ELMA BREISCH, a member of the Dayton bar who has engaged in general practice since 1931 and who had the honor to be the first woman to serve as acting judge in Dayton, was born in Moundsville, West Virginia, February 16, 1906, a daughter of Ernest Elmer and Belle (Wallace) Breisch. The father, who was born in April, 1868, was of German descent, and the mother, born September 2, 1878, was of Scotch, Irish and English lineage. Ernestine E. Breisch was very young when her parents removed from West Virginia to Bloomsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they remained for three years and then established the family home in Martins Ferry, Ohio, where she remained from 1910 to 1925 and during that time attended the public schools until graduated from the high school with the class of 1924. She was afterward a student in the Y. M. C. A. Law School of Dayton and was admitted to the bar in 1929. About that time she was employed as tax counsellor by Wall, Cassel & Eberyl, certified public accountants, with whom she remained until 1931, when she began the general practice of law, in which she has since continued, specializing however in corporation and trade asso- ciation work. She is now attorney for the Dayton Jobbers and Manufacturers Association and The Retail Grocery Association and is particularly well in- formed concerning the legal principles which apply thereto.
Ernestine E. Breisch belongs to the Dayton Women Lawyers' Club, of which she was the first president and she was temporarily acting judge in Dayton, having the distinction of being the first woman to occupy the bench in this city. She is the author of various syndicated articles, which have been published in the Tax Magazine and few lawyers are better informed on matters of taxation or can present the matter in as lucid and logical a manner. She belongs to the Ohio Bar Association, the National Woman's
1
1
649
WOMEN OF OHIO
party and was a former member of its state board, the Dayton Women's Press Club and the 99ers, a national women's flying organization.
In Toledo, Ohio, November 15, 1935, Ernestine E. Breisch and Roger K. Powell were married. He was born in Mount Gilead, Ohio, October 30, 1902, a son of Judge L. K. and Carrie (Dalrymple) Powell, the former judge of the probate court and common pleas court of Morrow County and also judge of the Ohio court of appeals. Mr. Powell was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1923, having won both the Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Laws degrees.
ESTHER HELENA BROCKER
ESTHER HELENA BROCKER, Lancaster, O., attorney, is the city solicitor of the city of Lancaster, O. She was born at Springfield, O., the daughter of James and Mary Light and took her LL.B at the Columbus College of Law.
Mrs. Brocker was formerly executive secretary of the Hermann Manu- facturing Company and was previously a member of the business administra- tion staff of U. S. Army Ordnance Department. She is active in the Y. W. C. A., the Fairfield County Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Asso- ciation. Her home is at 354 E. Chestnut St., Lancaster, O.
GENEVIEVE ROSE CLINE
GENEVIEVE ROSE CLINE, Judge of the U. S. Customs Court of New York City, is the first woman occupying this position, to which she was appointed in 1928 by President Coolidge.
She was born at Warren, Ohio, the daughter of Edward B. and Mary Fee Cline, attended Oberlin College and received her LL.B. from Baldwin-Wallace College in 1921. She was admitted to the bar the same year and practiced law at Cleveland in partnership with her brother, John M. Cline, for a suc- cessful period that was interrupted by her appointment to the position of U. S. Appraiser of Merchandise for the port of Cleveland.
Despite the responsibilities of this important service, Judge Cline has found time and energy to participate in civic and social welfare work. She was president for two years of the Cleveland Federation of Women's Clubs and for six years legislation chairman of the Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs. Her present residence is at 33 Washington Square, West, New York.
REGINA B. CLOSS
REGINA B. CLOSS, one of the successful women attorneys of Cincinnati, daughter of Frederick and Estella Franz Closs, was admitted to the bar. as an honor graduate of the Cincinnati Law School and the University of Cineinnati, in 1922.
650
WOMEN OF OHIO
A former Republican State Committee woman, and notarial examiner for Hamilton County, she is now engaged in general practice, specializing in the law of estates and real property.
MARY LOVE COLLINS
MARY LOVE COLLINS, Cincinnati attorney and national president of the Chi Omega, a fraternity of college women devoted to progress and fellowship, decided, nearly 15 years ago, that there are aspects of charac- teristic human conduct badly in need of formulation and clarification.
Especially about human conduct in its relation to the law. Fortunately the fraternity she heads agreed with her. As result of this co-operation, "Human Conduct and the Law" written by Mary Love, was published in 1925.
Unusual significance of the book, its clarity, logic and philosophy, have challenged attention of many who agree with the author that-
"Life is a baffling scene if we see it only as innumerable and separate facts. It is simplified only as we realize that the most zigzag routes and carefully draped devices have their starting point in some human impulse. In order to free ourselves of the confusion incident to possessing only scattered facts it is wise that human conduct be divested of its disguises."
Mary Love received her A.B. and M.A. degrees at Dickinson College, her LL.B. at the University of Kentucky, did graduate work at the Uni- versity of Chicago. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, of the American Bar Association, the American Academy of Political Science and of Cin- cinnati Chapter, D. A. R. In addition to her book on human conduct she has had published authoritative articles on similar subjects.
AGNES BRYANT DICKINSON
AGNES BRYANT DICKINSON, first woman to be appointed to the staff of the attorney general of Ohio, is at present in private practice at Columbus. She was born at Moline, Ill., the daughter of Rev. Carter C. and Ella Bryant and received her LL.D. from Ohio State University in 1927. She is deeply interested in civic, political and international affairs and is a former board member of the advisory council of the Columbus Foreign Policy Association. She resides at 564 Oak St., Columbus.
ETHEL ELDER
ETHEL ELDER, formerly probate judge in Morrow County, is a southerner by birth and attended Athens University at Athens, Ga. She came to Mt. Gilead, O., her mother's native town, on a visit and deciding to stay in the north, she did secretarial work in the office of Judge L. K.
651
WOMEN OF OHIO
Powell, at that time registering for the state bar. After a year she obtained appointment as deputy in the office of the Clerk of Courts and some time later was elected probate and juvenile judge for Morrow County, serving ten years in this position.
Ethel Elder has the distinction of having been the first woman probate judge of the State of Ohio. She was also the first woman official of Morrow County. During her tenure of office she read law assiduously and familiarized herself thoroughly in court procedure covering the administration of estates and in numerous technicalities.
While serving as probate judge Miss Elder was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio and since retiring from the bench she has been actively engaged as an attorney in Mt. Gilead.
LEONA M. ESCH
LEONA M. ESCH, Cleveland attorney, is the operating director of the Cleveland Association for Criminal Justice, the second oldest organization for systematized study of conditions that make for criminality in the United States.
She was born in Cleveland, the daughter of Dr. William J. and Frances Esch and received her LL.B. at Baldwin-Wallace College in 1923. She is the author of many widely published articles on law, crime, criminals and prisons and lectures on basic phases of law enforcement.
Miss Esch is not only the only woman director of a crime commission in this country but is also the only woman ever appointed by the American Bar Association to the prison committee of the Criminal Law section of that great organization.
ENID WARE FOSTER
ENID WARE FOSTER (Mrs. Owen L. Foster), Mechanicsburg, O., attorney and director of the Mechanicsburg Public Library, was born at Mechanicsburg, the daughter of Joseph and Sarah Jones. She was educated at Adrian College, married Owen Lovejoy Foster, attorney and was for a period member of the law firm of Foster and Foster, of Toledo, O. She is an active member of the Toledo Women Lawyers Club and was first president of the Toledo Federation of Women's Clubs. Her home is at Mechanicsburg.
MRS. VASHTI JONES FUNK
MRS. VASHTI JONES FUNK, of the firm of Jones and Jones, Zanesville, is secretary of the Farm Loan Bank of that community and well known in legal circles.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.