Myra Willey (Colby) Bradwell (1831 - 1894)

Born 12 Feb 1831 in Manchester, Vermont, United States

Ancestors

Died 14 Feb 1894 at age 63 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

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Biography

Myra (Colby) Bradwell is Notable.

Myra is known as "America's first woman lawyer". She passed the Illinois Bar in 1869.

Myra Colby was born in Manchester, Vermont but grew up in Schaumberg, Illinois. She also attended school in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Elgin, Illinois.

In 1855, she moved with her husband James Bradwell to Chicago, where he became a successful lawyer and judge. Her legal education was self-taught through her legal research and writing in her husband's office. He was later elected to the Illinois General Assembly.

Bradwell began her legal career with the 1868 establishment of the Chicago Legal News, which carried information about laws, ordinances and court opinions admissible as evidence in court. Bradwell, publisher and editor, also advocated for women’s rights, speaking out for women’s suffrage, and against coverture law which prohibited married women from owning property or entering into legal contracts independently. The paper was also involved in muckracking by criticizing local corruption and urging railroad regulation.

In 1869, Bradwell helped created Chicago’s first women’s suffrage convention, and passed the Illinois Bar. Despite an appeal to the state Supreme Court, she was refused admission because of her gender. She took it to the Supreme Court of the U.S. in Bradwell vs Illinois (1873) but lost her case. She continued managing, editing, and publishing the Chicago Legal News. Bradwell was admitted to the and Illinois Supreme Court in 1890, and to the United States Supreme Court in 1892, symbolically backdated to her initial application in 1869 ^[1].

She had at least four children: 2 that died young, plus Thomas and Bessie. Both adult children entered the legal profession. Her husband, and later their daughter Bessie, continued editing and publishing the Chicago Legal News for another 30 years.

She died in Chicago and was buried at Rose Hill cemetery ^[2].

In 1994, she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame ^[3].

Sources

1. ↑ Supreme Court of the United States - In Re Lady Lawyers: The Rise of Women Attorneys and the Supreme Court - "Myra Bradwell and the Chicago Legal News"
2. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #92728825
3. ↑ National Women's Hall of Fame

• Biographical sketch in The Daily Inter Ocean, Chicago, IL, 17 Sep 1881

• Obituary in The Daily Inter Ocean, Chicago, IL, 15 Feb 1894

• "Myra Bradwell: America's first woman lawyer", PageWise Inc.

• 1860 census, Chicago, IL, James 31 yrs, lawyer, b England, wife Myra 29 yrs b Vermont, Myra 6 yrs b Tennesee, Thomas 3 yrs, b Illinois, Elizabeth 1 yr b Illinois

• "United States Census, 1870," index and images, FamilySearch : accessed 06 Aug 2014), Illinois > Cook > Chicago, ward 01 > image 74 of 166; citing NARA microfilm publication M593.
  • 1870 census, Chicago, IL, James 42 yrs, lawyer, b England, wife Myra 39 yrs b Vermont, daug Bessie 10 yrs, son Thomas 13 yrs

• "United States Census, 1880," index and images,FamilySearch : accessed 06 Aug 2014), 004240462 > image 112 of 492; citing NARA microfilm publication T9.

• Rebels at the Bar by Jill Norgren, 2013, NY University Press
  • "1843 resided in Illinois with parents & 4 older siblings " -- Norgren, p 26

• "The first woman who applied for admittance to the bar in the United States ... " -- The Washington Post, 15 Feb 1894 see also Milwaukee Sentinel, 15 Feb 1894

• Wikipedia: Myra Bradwell