USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume IV > Part 6
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AGNES BRYANT DICKINSON is one of the younger representa- tives of the Columbus bar and has the distinction of being the first woman to serve on the staff of Ohio's attorney general. She is also the only Columbus woman who has been admitted to practice at the bar of the United States Supreme Court. Born in Moline, Illinois, in 1899, she is a daughter of Robert Corwin and Ella (Carter) Bryant, the latter of English descent, while the father was a descendant of John Bryant, brother of William Cullen Bryant, distinguished American poet of the nineteenth century.
Mrs. Dickinson obtained her degree of Bachelor of Laws at Ohio State University on her graduation with the class of 1927. When she began practice her brother, William Cullen Bryant, who is now as- sistant prosecutor of Franklin County, was in the office with her. She took up her professional work immediately following her graduation and in 1930 closed her office to serve as special counsel to Gilbert Bett- man, attorney general of Ohio. In 1933 she again opened an office, this time in the Hartman Theatre building of Columbus, where she has won wide attention by her fearlessness in prosecuting cases that have resulted in bringing crime to punishment on many occasions.
On the 17th of August, 1920, Agnes Bryant became the wife of Dr. Charles B. Dickinson, from whom she secured a legal separation in 1929. Her daughter, Marian, now Mrs. Joseph L. Southern, is a student of voice and dramatics, to which she has given her attention since her graduation from high school in Columbus.
Active in both the Columbus Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Association, Mrs. Dickinson also devotes time to numerous other
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organizations in which she has membership. She is regional chairman of Zonta International and she belongs to the Columbus Business and Pro- fessional Women's Club and is a member of Delta Omicron, a national music sorority. She also served on the Woman's Participation Commit- tee of the New York World's Fair. She belongs to the First Congrega- tional Church and makes her home at 100 Flint Road, Worthington.
JOSEPHINE L. GUITTEAU
JOSEPHINE L. GUITTEAU, attorney at law, Toledo, Ohio, has been one of the active promoters of educational interests in this city, and also has exerted a widely felt influence over political thought and action. She gives most earnest consideration and study to any question which en- gages her attention and her support of a measure is the expression of her earnest belief in its worth.
Josephine L. Guitteau is the wife of Wm. B. Guitteau, who has served in many capacities in the City of Toledo and is well known. She is the daughter of Arthur J. and Anna B. Leach. After the early death of her father, her mother, Anna B. Leach, was in business at Oxford, Ohio, for more than twenty years.
Mrs. Guitteau received most of her education at Oxford, Ohio, being one of those who received her high school training in the old academy, at that time carried on by Miami University. She was gradu- ated from the Teachers College at Miami University, and then taught for a year in Urbana, Ohio, after which she went south to teach among the cotton mill people of North Carolina, where she remained for three years. She next went to Chicago and while there taught in the Francis Parker School as assistant instructor of geography, until in 1914 she received her Bachelor's degree in education from the University of Chicago.
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Following her graduation, Mrs. Guitteau was called to Toledo to become a member of the faculty of the Bowling Green Normal College even before the buildings were completed. She carried on this work for the Normal College in Toledo, and the following year did the same work under the direction of the University of Toledo and the Board of Education. During this time she had the title of assistant superin- tendant of schools in charge of teacher training.
She married Wm. B. Guitteau. They have two daughters, Joanne Patsy and Mary Jane, the former now a student at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Mary Jane, a student in Scott High School.
In 1930 Mrs. Guitteau was appointed by Governor White a mem- ber of the Ohio School Survey Commission and the findings of this commission resulted in the school foundation fund of Ohio. Mrs. Guit- teau also has been a potent political force in this state. In 1929 she became president of the independent Republication organization known as the Woman's Republican Club of Toledo and Lucas County, it being founded as an educational club. In 1930 she was made a life member, being the only person ever so honored. She also has served as head of the education and home economics department of the Women's Educational Club. In 1934, through mayoralty appointment, she became the only woman member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Toledo, and in the same year she was admitted to the Ohio bar, and has been actively engaged in the practice of law since that date. Her law work, her educational and political activities have largely claimed her attention.
In the campaign of 1936 she was on the speakers division of the Republican National Committee, delivered many national addresses through southern Michigan, and was retained as a speaker in Chicago because of her knowledge of city organization work.
In 1938 she was appointed attorney of the State Tax Commission for District No. 1, and it was also in that year that she was appointed by the governor as the first woman member of the Board of Trustees of Miami, being the only woman to serve in that capacity since the
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establishment of the college more than 125 years ago. She not only has kept well informed on all vital questions and issues of the day, but has aided many to a clear and definite understanding of present day problems which must be settled by public opinion and upon which public welfare rests.
THEODORA THEE GUTHRIE
THEODORA THEE GUTHRIE believed that wives must grow with their husbands in intellect and background as well as in age, and because she so believed, she now finds herself a member of her husband's law firm-Guthrie and Guthrie.
They studied law together after their marriage, passed the Ohio State bar examination together, and stood side by side each other in May, 1937, when they were admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
When diplomas were handed out at John Marshall Law School, Cleveland, the husband, A. J. Guthrie, had to accept both, for the reason that Jack Guthrie, their first born, had arrived only a few weeks before. Jack is now seven and his brother Charles is four years old. In addition to her professional duties, Mrs. Guthrie finds time to preside over her home, to work with the League of Women Voters and the Catholic Col- legiate, the National Council of Catholic Women, of which group she is legislative chairman. She is second vice president in Cleveland Deanery.
MARGARET TROUGHTON LECHOWICZ
Among those who have passed far beyond the ranks of the many to stand among the successful few in their achievements and public service
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is numbered MARGARET TROUGHTON LECHOWICZ, a member of the Cleveland bar and a prominent social worker. She was born Septem- ber 18, 1907, in the city which is still her home, a daughter of Edward J. and Kathryn (McIntyre) Troughton. Her father was born in Ohio, the family having been among the early settlers of the state. He became the president of the candy manufacturing firm of Troughton & Trough- ton, which was established in Ohio in 1863, and after long connection with the business is now living retired, enjoying a rest which he has truly earned and richly merits. His wife, Mrs. Kathryn Troughton, was born in Ireland but was brought to Cleveland when only six months old.
Mrs. Lechowicz pursued her early education in Ursuline Academy and afterward attended Ursuline College, where she won the Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude degree at her graduation with the class of 1929. She next enrolled as a student in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Western Reserve University, where she completed her work for her Master of Social Sciences degree in 1931 and, having determined to be- come a member of the bar, she then entered the John Marshall Law School of Cleveland, where she won her Bachelor of Laws degree in 1935, being admitted to practice at the Ohio bar in February, 1936. She belongs to the Cleveland Bar Association and is making steady progress in her chosen profession.
Mrs. Lechowicz has done much active and valuable public service through connection with the child welfare board of Cuyahoga County for four and a half years, three years as a social case worker and a year and a half as director of public relations. For a year she conducted a weekly radio program on child welfare work, writing the stories and scripts and producing them on the air, thus winning a notable place as a social worker and youth leader, her work proving a potent factor in the attainment of valuable results.
On the 5th of June, 1937, Margaret Troughton, in Notre Dame, Indiana, became the wife of Stanley Joseph Lechowicz of Cleveland, a psychiatric social worker, and they now have one son, Thomas Aquinas Lechowicz. Mrs. Lechowicz belongs to St. Thomas Aquinas Roman
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Catholic Church and is a member of the executive board in charge of youth activities of the National Council of Catholic Women. She also belongs to the Catholic Collegiate Association, is a member of Kappa Beta Pi, an international legal sorority, and has membership in the League of Women Voters. Her views on political issues are in accord with the principles of the Democratic party and at all times she keeps well informed on the question of the day.
J. HELEN SLOUGH
Professional interests of Cleveland find a worthy representative in J. HELEN SLOUGH, who has not only been licensed to practice in the state and federal courts, but also as a patent attorney. Born in Elyria, Ohio, February 10, 1908, she is a daughter of Frank M. and Josephine C. (Herbert) Slough, both natives of this state and members of the Roman Catholic Church. Her father is a leading patent attorney of Cleveland, who has conducted an extensive practice in that branch of the profession.
His daughter, J. Helen Slough, attended the public schools of Cleve- land until she had completed the high school course and then, attracted to the profession in which her father was so successfully engaged, she enrolled as a student in the Cleveland Law School, which she attended from 1925 until 1929, and during the same period studied at Ursuline College, in order to broaden her general knowledge. Admitted to the bar in 1929, she at once began practice and in the following years she was admitted to practice as a patent attorney, while in 1932 she obtained her license to practice in the federal courts. For eleven years she has con- tinued active in her chosen calling in which she has made steady prog- ress, and she belongs to the Cuyahoga County Bar Association and the American Bar Association. She is also affiliated with Phi Delta Delta, a legal fraternity.
In 1930 in Cleveland J. Helen Slough was married to Harold H. Juergens of this city and they have one son, Robert Slough Juergens.
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She practices, however, under her maiden name as a partner of her father and has the distinction of being the only woman patent attorney of Cleveland. Aside from her professional connections, she is a member of the League of Women Voters, which indicates her active interest in vital civic and political affairs, and she also belongs to the Woman's City Club of Cleveland, while religiously she adheres to the faith in which she was reared.
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GENEVIEVE TAYLOR
GENEVIEVE TAYLOR, a member of the Columbus bar and now chief probation officer and referee of Franklin County, resides at 52 Preston Road. She was born in Kenton, Ohio, a daughter of Alexander R. and Eva May (Biggs) Taylor, the latter also a native of Ohio, while the father was born in Mount Victory, this state. Among her maternal ancestors were those who fought in the French and Indian Wars and in the American Revolution. Her grandfather in the maternal line lost two brothers in the Civil War and her mother's brother saw service in the Spanish-American War.
During her childhood Genevieve Taylor accompanied her parents on their removal to Findlay, Ohio, where she attended high school, and later the family home was established in Columbus. She was graduated from Ohio State University, receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in education there. Mentally reviewing the various avenues of activity open to women, she decided that she would become a member of the bar and gained her law degree at Franklin University in Columbus, which she attended in addition to teaching civics and American history in the Bexley High School of this city. Her first teaching experience was at Bexley and following the completion of her law course and her ad- mission to the bar in 1931 she opened an office for the practice of her profession. After engaging in private practice for four years she was made chief probation officer and referee of Franklin County in 1935 and still continues to fill this position. As referee she hears all cases pertaining to delinquency, to dependency, to crippled children and con- tributing cases, and she supervises all work in the Juvenile Court, having handled five thousand cases in 1939. She also devotes not a little of her time to public speaking, wherewith she acquaints the public with pro- bation work. She served as secretary of the Ohio Probation Association
GENEVIEVE TAYLOR
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in 1938-39 and she belongs to the Columbus Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Association.
Miss Taylor also has membership with the League of Women Voters and the Columbus Scholarship Society, which raises funds for scholar- ships at Ohio State University. She is a charter member of Quota Inter- national and is president of the Columbus Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, also state president 1940-1942. Music has al- ways been her chief interest outside her profession and she has studied in Chicago and in Paris, being a pupil in the former city of Oscar Saenger, a prominent music instructor, while in Paris she studied under Alf Amadei. She has sung in many of the Columbus churches and for five years was soloist at the Broad Street Methodist Church. She belongs to the Central Ohio Symphony Club and music is to her an absorbing interest. She also enjoys travel and has made extensive trips through Europe, the Near East and the Mediterranean country and has also spent time in Guatemala, Mexico, the West Indies and Canada. She is regarded as one of the most prominent of the young professional women of Columbus and her future seems bright with promise.
FLORENCE HARTMANN WELLS
FLORENCE HARTMANN WELLS, educator and attorney at law, moreover has the distinction of being the first woman in Ohio to be elected to both branches of the state legislature. She has filled various other offices, both within and outside of the legal profession, and her record is one of continuous progress and of constantly growing useful- ness. Today she is engaged in law practice and at the same time is a teacher of accounting and a law secretarial course in the Davis Business College, Toledo, Ohio.
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Mrs. Wells was born in Archbold, Ohio, where her grandfather, Frederick Stotzer, was the first business man of the town and, in fact, he was one of the founders of Archbold in association with others. He also served as the first mayor there and he opened a harness shop which was the first commercial enterprise of that community before the organi- zation of the municipality. Today his grandson, Harold Stotzer, occu- pies the same building, in which he, too, is conducting a harness shop in connection with a hardware store. The parents of Mrs. Wells were Dr. George W. and Emma Elizabeth (Stotzer) Hartmann, the former being a country physician at a time when all calls were made with horse and buggy and often over poorly improved roads. The Doctor died in 1925, while his wife passed away in 1924. They were the parents of six children: Dr. C. F. Hartmann, now living at the old homestead at Wauseon, Ohio, and successfully practicing medicine; Mrs. Wells; Donald, who died in infancy; Ruth, who died in early childhood; Helen E., who is music supervisor in the grade schools of Mansfield, Ohio; and Clarence, who died in infancy.
Mrs. Wells attended the public schools of Wauseon until gradu- ated from high school there and soon after she was married to Ray Wells. Of their two children, one died in infancy and the other, Audrey Wells, was graduated from the same school at Wauseon which her mother had attended. She afterward became a student in the University of Michigan, where she met Dr. Frank I. Terrill and they were married. Her husband is an able surgeon and is now superintendent of the Mon- tana State Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Galen, Deer Lodge, Montana. Mrs. Wells has been a widow since her daughter was four years of age.
Mrs. Wells' first business experience came to her when she accepted a position as telephone operator at Wauseon, Ohio, there serving for six weeks. She also devoted ten years to music at home. In 1913 she became a student in the Davis Business College where she is now teaching although some years passed before she became one of the instructors there. After completing her business course, she became associated with the Aetna Life Insurance Company with which she
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remained for five years, and later she was with the insurance firm of Wright, Russell & Bay of Toledo and afterward with Geer & Lane, Toledo attorneys, for whom she did bookkeeping and briefing. In order to acquire the legal vocabulary she attended the University of Toledo and later entered night school for the study of law. She passed the Ohio State Bar examination and was admitted to practice in Ohio in December, 1922, and was graduated in 1923 with the Bachelor of Laws degree. When women were granted the right of franchise she was taken into the municipal court of Toledo, being the first woman to occupy the position of deputy clerk, and it was while she was filling that office that she pursued her law studies and was admitted to the bar. She then took up the work of the profession in association with the firm of Kirkbride, McCabe & Boesel and while thus practicing she was made a delegate to a Republican pre-primary convention at Columbus. In the fall of 1924 she was prevailed upon by a group of club women to become the Republican candidate for the legislature and won in the election, being the second woman elected to the Ohio general assembly but the first one to actively serve. She led the ticket when making the contest and served for one session in the Ohio House of Representatives.
In 1927 Mrs. Wells was nominated for the senate and was again the victorious candidate. She served that year as secretary of the finance committee and was a member of the committee on committees. While serving in the senate, she learned that there was an opening in the prosecutor's office in Toledo and in July, 1927, became assistant prosecutor of Lucas County. While serving in the position in 1928 she was the only woman elected to the Toledo charter commission and she was the first woman in Ohio to be elected to both legislative bodies, the house of representatives and the senate. She also served as state central committeeman for two terms.
On leaving the prosecutor's office Mrs. Wells became a partner in the law firm of Hunt, Stickney & Wells and after a few months she was offered the position of assistant trust officer in the Ohio Savings Bank & Trust Company, where she spent one year. During all of this
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time Mrs. Wells was keeping up her studies by attendance at night schools. In 1932 she became a candidate for clerk of the courts of Lucas County and in the primary she won by the largest majority received by an independent candidate in thirty years in Lucas County. She was the first Republican woman to be nominated for a county office in Lucas County. She also became interested in welfare work, with which she was actively connected for a year when the Democrats took it over. For about two months thereafter she engaged in lecturing and then took a position in the county auditor's office. While thus employed she again ran for clerk of the courts in 1934 and again won in the pri- maries, but again went down in the Democratic landslide of that year.
Mrs. Wells has had a wide and varied business experience and, in addition to her other work, has done some court reporting. She attended Bowling Green (Ohio) College, where she secured part of her credits in education, and in 1935 she came to the Davis Business College as an instructor. In 1938 she was granted her Bachelor's degree in business administration, with all of her teaching credits in education included. She is now seeking her Master's degree in the University of Michigan. At the primary of 1938 she headed the woman's organization in favor of Robert A. Taft, who was a successful candidate for the United States Senate. While she is now teaching she also practices law and she is a member of the Lucas County and Toledo Bar Associations. She has membership in the Eastern Star, of which she is a past worthy matron and a past deputy grand matron. She was the first mother advisor for the Order of Rainbow for Girls in Ohio and is a past president of the Zonta Club and of the Business & Professional Women's Clubs, of which she was in 1939 state finance chairman. She is also a past presi- dent of the P. E. O. and she belongs to the Collingwood Avenue Presby- terian Church. She is a member of the Toledo Firemen's Pension Board and the Board of the Florence Crittenton Home. All activities for the promition of civic, political, educational or moral progress receive her endorsement and her own record is one of steady advancement since she started out in the business world. She is constantly raising her standards as her experience and knowledge of affairs broaden and she never stops short of the attainment of her goal.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Women In Business, Industry And Library Service (Continued from Page 743)
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MRS. WILL BIRKENKAMP
MRS. WILL BIRKENKAMP, conducting an undertaking busi- ness at 401 Jarvis Street in Toledo, was born in Monroe, Michigan, a daughter of Harry and Jennie (MacArthur) Clark. The mother, a native of Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, died at the comparatively early age of thirty-seven years. The father, a native of Washington, D. C., engaged in the grocery business in Toledo for a time and after- ward took up the occupation of farming near this city. He reached the advanced age of eighty-nine years. The Clark family have been residents of the United States for many generations. They are of German descent and lived in and near Washington, D. C., for an ex- tended period.
Minnie Clark was reared in Toledo, pursued her education in the city schools and in 1903 she became the wife of Will Birkenkamp, of Toledo, who was an undertaker and conducted business here until his death when he was fifty years of age. Mrs. Birkenkamp then took up the business, which she has since carried on in an able and successful manner, fully meeting the various requirements of this line of activity. She is also well known through other connections. She belongs to the Westminster Presbyterian Church and has membership with the Daugh- ters of Veterans and Forsythe Relief Corps, the auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Repubic. Much interested in the political situation, con- cerning which she keeps thoroughly informed, she is now president of the League of City Mothers. She also belongs to the Women's Benefit Association and to Pocahontas, an auxiliary of the Improved Order of Red Men, and to the Rebekahs.
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MARY CLAIRE MAHER
MARY CLAIRE MAHER was appointed November 16, 1936, by the Public Works Administration to the position of resident housing man- ager of Lakeview Terrace of Cleveland, a government housing project, and has the distinction of being the first woman in the country to hold a position of this kind. Her previous business experience well qualified her for the duties which she assumed and which she has most ably dis- charged. She was born in Cleveland, a daughter of Michael J. and Annie (Fleming) Maher and she spent her girlhood days as a pupil in the Cleveland schools and in St. Joseph's Academy of this city. She then entered business circles and for more than twenty years has engaged in the real estate business and in property management. She was chosen from among Cleveland's realtors to attend the National Association of Housing Officials' School in Washington, D. C., and then came her appointment as resident housing manager of Lakeview Terrace, a re- cently planned government housing project, promoted by the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority. The project includes six hundred and twenty suites, housing twelve hundred adults and a thousand children. This is one of the few projects in the country having a community house and nursery school and it has been planned to meet all the requirements of home life.
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