About the Women's Bar Association of Illinois
History: Distinguished Members
Catherine McCulloch • Pearl Hart • Ada Cartwright • Mary Bartelme • Matilda Fenberg
Grace Hart • Elsa C. Beck • B. Fain Tucker • Katherine Nohelty • Jeanne Brown Gordon
Mary Avgerin Pappas • Ester Rosthein • Odas Nicholson
Former WBAI President (1916-1920), Catherine McCulloch was born on a farm near Ransomville, New York. When she was five the family moved to a farm near New Milford, Illinois, where she attended a village school. She was deeply influenced by her father, who, though untrained in the law often handled his neighbors' legal claims. Three years after her graduation from nearby Rockford Female Seminary, she enrolled in the Union College of Law in Chicago, forerunner of the Northwestern University Law School. Upon completing the law course the following year she was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1886. Her efforts to overcome the firm prejudice against women lawyers in Chicago were discouraging; however, she returned to Rockford to begin her practice there. She took further work at Rockford Seminary, and having written a thesis on "Woman's Wages," was awarded both a B.A. and a M.A. degree.
Most notably, McCulloch was a celebrated leader in the suffrage movement. She had become legislative superintendent of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association. The Equal Suffrage Association, under her leadership, held conventions throughout Illinois. With the adoption of the federal suffrage amendment, she joined the new League of Women Voters, serving as chairman of its Committee, on Uniform Laws Concerning Women. She belonged to a number of prohibition groups, including the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which she was legal adviser for many years.
In 1907, McCulloch became the first woman to serve in any judiciary capacity in Illinois, when she was elected Justice of the Peace in Evanston. On June 16, 1913, the Evanston Daily News headlined: "Suffrage demonstration was greatest in Evanston's History", saying "thousands gathered in Fountain Square Saturday night to take part in jubilee...Mrs. McCulloch's wit and clever comment on words of speakers kept the great crowd happy". The citizens turned out en masse to pay tribute to the victorious suffrage leaders and rejoice with them over their great victory of last week. The street was packed with thousands of men, women and children anxious to get a close glimpse of Mrs. McCulloch and other leaders.
McCulloch also worked closely with Esther Dunshee in her fight to introduce the first bill providing for service on juries by women into the Illinois legislature. In 1946, the WBAI and NU law school established a fund to purchase books for the law school as a memorial to McCulloch. Her major energies, however, were always reserved for her own city and state. She and her husband lived in Evanston from 1917 to 1925 and she served as Master in Chancery.
McCulllloch was also a noted club woman. In the 1930's, she was famous for hosting lavish buffet supper musicals for annual WBAI outings in her beautiful garden, which was considered “one of the showpieces of the Northshore.”
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A pioneer who opened doors for women wishing to enter the legal profession and former WBAI President (1924-1925), Pearl Hart, was a civil rights lawyer and social activist. She was once the only woman lawyer in Chicago specializing in criminal law. Hart graduated from John Marshall Law School in 1914 where she later taught for 25 years. She was the first public defender appointed in Chicago's Womens' Court and contributed to state statutes concerning the welfare of children. Her work involved challenges to the police and the courts on behalf of prostitutes. She legally protected the efforts of workers and unemployed people to improve working conditions and to unionize. Throughout the 1940-1950's, she defended the civil rights of many immigrants and appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In 1957, she argued and won the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, U.S. v. Witkovich, 53 U.S. 194, which upheld limitations on the scope of inquiry by the U.S. Attorney General in deportation cases.
Throughout the 1960-1970's, she represented women fighting against sexism and defended the legal rights of gay individuals as well as helped develop organizations to fight for their rights. In 1981, the Gerber/Hart Library was founded in Chicago to be a depository for the records of gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals and organizations with over 14,000 volumes. Furthermore, Hart practiced law in Chicago for 61 years during which time she founded the National Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, the National Lawyers Guild and the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights.
It was through former Assistant Attorney General of Illinois and former member of the WBAI Board of Directors (1925-1926), Ada Cartwright's influence and strategy that women lawyers were admitted to membership in the American Bar Association. It was Cartwright's early work in this organization which helped it attain the high position which it now occupies and which we are too prone to take as a matter of course.
Cartwright was admitted to the Illinois Bar on October 13, 1915 and appointed an Assistant Attorney General of Illinois in February of 1917. In 1925, it was Cartwright's idea to publish a book of the organization. Her zeal and enthusiasm were irresistible and the book was published. It was hoped to make the book an annual publication and in fact many colleges and universities which received complimentary copies wrote in requesting subsequent issues.
Former WBAI President (1927-1928) and protégé of Myra Bradwell, Mary M. Bartelme, was born in Chicago in 1866, and remembered seeing the Chicago fire. She began teaching school at the age of twenty and five years later defied the customs to the time by entering Northwestern University's law school. She graduated from Northwestern in 1894 and was admitted to the bar that same year. Three years later, she was appointed a public guardian and served in that post until 1913 when she was named assistant to a Juvenile Court Judge. She was elected to the bench in 1923, the first Illinois woman elected to a judgeship. She gave her home in the Austin district to provide a home for dependent girls. It was the first of three clubs that have since cared for more than 1,500 homeless girls. She presided over Juvenile Court and was given the nickname of "Suit case Mary" because she gave a suitcase full of clothes to each girl she sent to a foster home. She also kept a stack of clean white handkerchiefs on her desk to pass out to sobbing children and parents.
Her clubs cared for emotionally disturbed girls referred by the Juvenile Court, other public agencies, private social agencies and private individuals. Their emphasis was on helping each girl adjust better in her day by day living. They tried to give each girl enough understanding of herself, her background, and her current problems to assure her of a happier present and a better future life. The club had three residences. They looked like and were run like homes under the direction of a senior housemother. It was believed the girls living there would be better homemakers and mothers. The goal was that they would lead happier lives through the help and understanding they received in the club during their adolescence. By 1933, approximately 2,000 young women had been helped through Bartelme's clubs. The WBAI has made numerous contributions to Bartelme's clubs.
In 1966, Governor Kerner declared July 26 to be Judge Mary Bartelme Day. On that day, the first recipient of the newly established Mary Bartelme WBAI Scholarship received her award.
Former Director of the WBAI (1929-1931), Matilda Fenberg entered the portals of Yale Law School in 1919 in fear and trembling, but after talking to the Dean's secretary she felt that she had come where she wanted to be. The secretary told her what subjects she would take, what books she needed, and she was duly registered. The secretary said there were no accommodations for women students in the building but that since Judge William Howard Taft, who taught constitutional law on Saturdays, came once a month only, it had been decided to let the women students use his office as their quarters. The late Ms. Fenberg was thrilled at the thought of being the first woman to enter the office of William Howard Taft, who came from her native state of Ohio, and she decided then and there to take his course as soon as she was permitted. Fenberg was the first woman to matriculate from Yale Law School. In 1963, Matilda Fenberg looked back at her first day at Yale Law School.
“Fellows, I am one of your sisters-in-law,' I said to the six men in the corridor of the Yale Law School. It was registration day in 1919, and no woman had in this century registered in the Law School. A sudden quiet seized the young men and they glanced down at me, for each of them was taller than I. A few seconds passed. Then smiles lighted up their faces and they began to laugh as they realized the significance of my introduction. When I arrived on campus at 9 o'clock that morning I got into a line of men who were waiting to register. I could not help hearing the remarks that were being made, softly at first, then louder and louder and soon they were shouting 'Fire, fire.' A campus policeman came along and said to me, 'Women do not attend Yale College.' 'I know that,' I replied, 'but I am going to register in the Yale Law School.' It looked as if the campus policeman at Yale might keep me from registering. I stubbornly held onto my overnight bag and moved up whenever the man ahead of me moved up and was becoming tired and only the excitement of the position in which I found myself kept me standing there, first on one foot and then on the other.” (WBAI 75)
Fenberg graduated from Yale in 1922 and went on to be a prominent Chicago attorney. Fifty one years later, in 1973, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (now Secretary of State) graduated from Yale Law School.
In 1923, Fenberg associated in the practice of law with Clarence Darrow in Chicago. In 1934, she became an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Chicago.
Former President of the WBAI (1932-1933) and Chair of the Jury Bill Committee, Grace Hart, worked tirelessly preparing and lobbying for the passage of the jury bill from 1936-1937. The Bill passed effective July 1, 1939 and the Illinois Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality. The WBAI held a Victory Dinner to celebrate. Hart was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1912. In the 1930s, Hart wrote a column in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, which no doubt burnished the WBAI's image.
Former WBAI President (1936-1937), Elsa C. Beck, was a lifetime member of NAWL and served as secretary, treasurer, regional director and assembly delegate. She brought energy and skill to all the duties assigned to her. Her consistent attendance at annual conventions and meetings of the Council of Delegates contributed to her wide acquaintanceship throughout the country. She was a graduate of Vassar College and the Northwestern University School of Law. She practiced law in Chicago for a time immediately following her admission to the Illinois Bar. She also became a member of the legal staff of the Public Housing Administration in its Chicago office. In the course of her duties, she made a substantial contribution to the nation's war effort. Shortly after the Chicago Land Clearance Commission was established to acquire title to slum property, clear it and offer it for sale, she was appointed its Chief Attorney. She built a sound legal staff and handled its complex affairs with rare skill and competence. Her work with the Commission made important contributions to the development of housing law, both locally and nationwide. She also worked to advance in the interests of the American Bar Association, particularly through its Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Laws. She was the first woman to be elected to membership on the Section's Council where she served with distinction. She was also an active member of both the Chicago and Illinois Bar Associations.
Beck also worked hard to get employment for women lawyers and as Chair of the WBAI Placement Committee from 1938-1940, had 764 individually typed letters sent to members of the Chicago Real Estate Board in an effort to gain employment for WBAI members and 558 letters sent to large business corporations, bankers, and law firms. Moreover, she helped numerous applicants find jobs. Also, as Chair of the Down State Meetings Committee she worked tirelessly to make the WBAI truly a state bar association.
Former WBAI President, (1941-1942) B. Fain Tucker was born in Greencastle, Indiana, reared amid a closely knit family, and imbued with a philosophy valuing knowledge, democracy, service and the dignity of the individual. Her scholastic excellence and literary skills at De Pauw University earned her admission to Beta Kappa, and Theta Sigma Phi, honorary Journalism society, and later, she was awarded a Citation from De Pauw University "in recognition of outstanding achievements and services which reflect honor on the University." She actively practiced law with the esteemed firm of Pope and Ballard, and at the same time served as Lecturer on Family Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Her devotion to the law held the highest priority in her life; consequently, as the most qualified of all women lawyers in the area she was selected to run for Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and was elected after a vigorously contested election, becoming the second woman in the history of the County to be a Judge. Tucker credits the WBAI for her 1953 victory in the election to judge. Members had distributed thousands of cards to commuters and shoppers, wore sandwich boards urging her election, and went door to door campaigning. As Tucker said, the WBAI “deluged the community with postcards and letters and released an avalanche of press releases.” (WBAI 75) Tucker was the second woman in the history of the country to win a Chicago area election to be a judge since Mary Bartelme who had been elected to Juvenile Court 30 years before.
Tucker was given the most challenging assignment - to serve as the first Judge of the Criminal Court in the State of Illinois to preside in that Court. She also was assigned to the Common Law Division and the Chancery Division and heard cases in all fields of law.
Former WBAI President (1945-1946), Katherine Nohelty, was Chicago's first woman Municipal Court Judge. In November of 1956, Nohelty felt that being elected wasn't just her victory. "I think it's the culmination of the work of all women who have been active in politics since women were given the right to vote." (WBAI 75) On her behalf, WBAI members addressed and mailed 16,000 cards, sponsored radio and TV publicity, and on election eve wore sandwich signs and distributed 5,000 cards to the public.
A referee in Traffic court since 1953 and an attorney since 1937, she once thought social service was her field. "But I went to work for a firm of lawyers, first as a receptionist, then as a secretary, and finally as a court reporter," she said. "I found the work so fascinating I decided to become an attorney." (WBAI 75) It wasn't easy. She took both her pre-law and law work at Loyola University, graduating in 1937 after ten years of night school work. Nohelty believed that a woman judge makes a special contribution in that she believes a woman is concerned with humanitarian values in every case. "I believe in considering a case where she may find a defendant guilty, she is aware of rehabilitation as well as punishment.” (WBAI 75)
When elected in 1956, she said: "I hope my election is an encouragement to other women to participate actively in their political parties. And as more women lawyers become more active in politics, there will be more women judges." (WBAI 75) Judge Nohelty's debut in politics began in the 1930s when she joined the Federation of Illinois Women's Democratic clubs. She became active in the 50th ward Democratic organization. For four and a half years she was captain in the ward's 1st precinct. She celebrated her 90th birthday on December 3, 1991; that same day in 1956, she was sworn in as the first woman elected Municipal Court Judge in Chicago.
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Former WBAI President (1949-1950), Jeanne Brown Gordon was a graduate of the John Marshall Law School with degrees of LL.B.; J.D. with honors; and LL.M; she later served on the John Marshall Law School's Board of Trustees for many years. She was admitted to the Illinois Courts in 1936. She was an Assistant State's Attorney, Legal Technical Advisor and Hearing Officer in State License Violations, Illinois Department of Registration and Education, (first woman in said department). She also practiced within the Central Division Insurance Department of the American Can Company, which Division encompassed twenty states and was a self-insurer, in Worker's Compensation cases. As President, Gordon advised the President of the United States of the WBAI's recommendation that Judge Frances Allen be appointed to the US Supreme Court. She also notably founded the WBAI newsletter.
Former WBAI President (1965-1966), Mary Avgerin Pappas acted as the Chief Administrative Judge for Federal Sector Hearings,' Chicago District Office, U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she conducted administrative hearings on complaints of discrimination against Federal agencies by Federal employees or applicants for Federal employment. As she wrote in her biography for the WBAI 75, “It has been a most rewarding experience helping eradicate discrimination.”
She graduated from Loyola University School of Law in 1950 and was admitted to the Illinois Bar that same year. In contrast to the high percentage of female law students today, she was the only female in a class of 83 back then. Until entering federal service, she was in the general practice of law for many years.
Shortly after graduation from law school, in 1950, she became a WBAI member and worked on many of its activities. Again, as she wrote in her biography for the WBAI 75, “I recall that one of the most gratifying experiences was to chair the Paternity Act Committee.” That committee drafted and lobbied into law, the 1957 Illinois Paternity Act which provided children born out of wedlock more adequate financial support than its predecessor did. In the fall of 1955, Pappas began her work as Chair of the WBAI Paternity Act Committee. It wrote hundreds of letters, made numerous trips to Springfield and many appearances at legislative hearings. The committee's goal was to replace the “Bastardy Act” with a more enlightened Paternity Act. The Paternity Act would more adequately provide for the needs of unfortunate illegitimate children and place the burden of support where it belonged: on the natural parent and not the government. Under her chairmanship, a Paternity Act program was launched. “With the WBAI's backing, financial support and Pappas' prodigious work the legislation passed and was signed into law on July 6, 1957 by Governor Stratton.”
“Another committee of long standing of which I had the privilege to be a member and ultimately one of its chairmen was the Family Court Committee.” (WBAI 75) For many years, the members of this committee volunteered their services representing indigents in that court, without any renumeration whatsoever. In 1968, she had the privilege of accepting on behalf of the WBAl, a Certificate of Merit and Appreciation from the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges, for the many years of service devoted by the WBAI.
During her term as WBAI President, and in honor of the first elected woman jurist in Illinois, the Judge Mary M. Bartleme Scholarship Fund, was established, to provide scholarships for worthy law students. The first scholarship was awarded in July of 1966. This Fund was later renamed as the WBAI Foundation Fund. Over the many years, aside from her professional activity, she was active in public service. In the early 60's, she was elected to the Elementary School Board of Lake Bluff, and became its first female President.
In 1969, she was elected a Delegate-Member to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention by the electorate of the then 51st Senatorial District. She had the privilege to serve with Judge Odas M. Nicholson, who was another delegate. The result of the efforts of that Convention, was the present Illinois state Constitution which was presented to the voters in a form based upon Member Resolution#1 which she submitted. That resolution mandated a separate submission to the
electorate, of controversial subjects and fassured successful passage of the Constitution.
Former WBAI President (1961-1962), Esther Rothstein, was urged to go to law school by two members of the WBAI, namely, Phyllis M. Kelley, the first woman to be appointed an Assistant Probate Judge and Etha Beartrice Fox who had an outstanding career in government service. Both were graduates of Chicago-Kent College of Law which had an evening law school program. Rothstein was forever grateful to them, and to McCarthy and Levin, the law firm where she was then working as a secretary, and where she later became a partner, for setting her on the legal path.
Rothstein graduated from law school in 1949. Her love affair with the legal profession never dimmed.
“I have had a satisfying and gratifying career. It has been more than a good living-it has been a good life. I, early on, became impressed with the benefits of legal training besides that of earning a livelihood. It also was a means for serving the community, of contributing towards making government more responsive and in meeting unmet legal needs of the less fortunate and indigent.” (WBAI 75)
Rothstein was the first woman in 103 years to serve as President of the largest urban bar association in the United States, The Chicago Bar Association, and a few years later, to serve as President of its Foundation. She was also the first woman to serve as a director of the Illinois Bell Telephone Company, the first woman trustee of Illinois Institute of Technology, the first to chair a committee of the American Bar Association, the Gavel Awards Committee, and the first woman lawyer to be elected to the Chicago Hall of Fame.
Rothstein urged women attorneys “not to give back to others because we have to, but because we can.” (WBAI 75) The WBAI hosts an annual “Rise Up and Reach Back” luncheon with the Women's Bar Foundation (what used to be the WBAI's Bartelme Committee) where the “Esther Rothstein Scholarship Award” is given to deserving women lawyers who have freely given back to other women and members of the legal profession, demonstrated visionary approaches in their professional endeavors, and who have made a contribution to the well-being and empowerment of women. Proceeds from the Rise Up & Reach Back Luncheon are donated to the Women's Bar Foundation Scholarship Program to be used for law school scholarships. Rothstein was the President of the Women's Bar Foundation for many years.
“I am pleased to have been instrumental in encouraging many young men and women to enter the legal profession. In looking back over 40 years, I feel that there are many unmet challenges. While women have made some dramatic strides, there are 'many, many closed avenues. For the profession as a whole, the challenges are equally as great. The attendant pressures of new techniques, the erosion of professionalism and the shrinking world give real need for solutions to problems in reaching the goal of equal justice for all. Certainly the law has been the bulwark of our democracy, and if we are to be a strong beacon for the future, our profession needs strengthening. I am proud to be a part of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois which is playing a major role in facing important issues and working toward their solution, and through its Foundation Scholarship Program for deserving and needy young women law students, in making it possible for them to become lawyers and leaders for a better society.” (WBAI 75)
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Former WBAI President. (1973-1974), Odas Nicholson grew up on a farm in Pickens, Mississippi. She never dreamed that she would become a lawyer in Chicago, or a judge. As the youngest of seven children, she was the “odd one;” she read everything she could find, and aspired to be a teacher, a profession of most of the women in her family. Two fortuitous things happened in her life however. When she was 13, her father consented to her coming to live with her brother and sister, following her mother's death. While a student at Wilson Jr. College (now Kennedy-King College), she represented the college in an Oratorical Contest sponsored by the Old Herald American Newspaper annually, on a city wide basis, and including all of the college. She participated in the contest on "Thomas Jefferson - A Great American.” It was her good fortune to meet the late Dr. T.V. Smith of the University of Chicago, who was one of the judges. It was he who suggested that she become a lawyer.
When she attended DePaul University College of Law, there was only one other woman in her class and only four women in the entire Law School. In 1975, women comprised 40-45% of the student body. She was the first African American woman to graduate from DePaul. It was a blessing in disguise that she had to work during college and law school since she had the privilege of working as a secretary for a very outstanding lawyer, Mr. Earl B. Dickerson. Upon receiving her Juris Doctor Degree from DePaul and being admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1948, she became a trial attorney for Supreme Life Insurance Company of America where Mr. Dickerson served as General Counsel.
Aside from the many rewarding experiences on derives from the general practice of law, three events stood out in her career: (1) being elected as a Delegate to the Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention, and being elected Secretary of the Convention by the delegates, and helping to write the 1970 Constitution, especially the Equal Rights provision; (2)Serving as head of the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for the Chicago and Kansas City Regions which comprised ten states in the Midwest; (3) her selection as a Fellow by the National Endowment for Humanities “Law and Justice in American Society” Seminar at Harvard University.
Among her many professional affiliations, she deemed her membership in the WBAI since 1962 and the honor of having served as our President from 1973-1974, the most rewarding. During her presidency, the WBAI voted to permit male lawyers to become members. As a founding member of the Joint Negro Appeal and past president she was able to make a contribution to agencies serving under privileged youth. She was privileged to serve as President of the Illinois Judicial Counsel as well as a Board Member of the NAACP and the Chicago Youth Centers.
A great source of strength was her membership in the Metropolitan Community Church where she served as a trustee since 1956. Due in large measure to her membership in the legal profession and as a member of the judiciary, she was the recipient of many honors and awards including the following: Alpha Gamma Pi Medallion, Cook County Bar Association Public Service Award, Operation Push Achievement Award for Law, Sojourner Truth Award of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, DePaul University Distinguished Alumni Award, Edith S. Sampson Memorial Award, Illinois Judicial Council, Outstanding Achievement in the Legal Community Award, Women's Law Caucus DePaul University Award, Operation Push Award for Exemplary Service in Leadership Role in Law, Kenneth E. Wilson Award, Cook County Bar Association Distinguished Service Award, Cook County Bar Association, Listed in Who's Who of American Women 9th Edition, Listed in Who's Who among Black Americans.
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