Ella Knowles Haskell
| Ella Knowles Haskell | |
|---|---|
Ella Knowles Haskell
|
|
| Born |
Ella Lousie Knowles July 31, 1860 Northwood, New Hampshire. |
| Died | January 27, 1911 (aged 50) Butte, Montana |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Bates College |
| Occupation |
Lawyer Politician Suffragist |
| Known for | 1st woman lawyer in Montana 1st woman notary public 1st woman candidate for Montana Attorney General 1st women to argue in front of the United States Supreme Court |
| Movement | Women's suffrage in the United States |
Ella Knowles Haskell (July 31, 1860 - January 27, 1911) was an American lawyer, suffragist, and politician. Born in New Hampshire, she moved to Montana to improve her health following a bout of tuberculosis and there became the first woman to be licensed as a lawyer in Montana, the first female notary public, the first woman to run for Montana State Attorney General and the first woman to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as the President of the Montana Equal Suffrage Association and was widely known in Montana for her advancement of the suffrage movement, political feminism and social equity.
Haskell was born Ella Knowles on July 31, 1860 in Northwood, New Hampshire. She graduated from Northwood Academy at the age of 15 and then attended Plymouth Normal School for one year. She then taught in country schools for a few years to earn tuition for college.
She attended Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine where she edited the college's student magazine, and was active in the Debate Society. Bates was one of the few co-educational colleges in the Northeast at that time, and she graduated with honors in 1884.
Upon graduating from the college, she moved to Machester, New Hampshire, where she studied law with Henry E. Burnham, who was to later become a U.S. senator. In 1887, she fell ill with tuberculosis and was advised to move to the drier climate of the Montana Territory to improve her health. She taught rhetoric and elocution at Western Normal College in Iowa for a year. In 1888, she moved to Helena, Montana and was offered the job of principal at the West Side School. After a brief stint as a teacher in local schools, she lobbied against Montana statutes that governed admission to the bar and prohibited women from practicing. She successfully lobbied the legislature to permit women to be allowed to practice law, which subsequently resulted in the state bill permitting qualified people to practice law "without regard to sex". She was admitted to the bar in 1888, after reading law in the Helena office of Joseph Kinsley. In 1889, Knowles was the first woman allowed to practice law in Montana and became a partner with Kinsley. She also became the state's first woman notary public.
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