1. Arabella Mansfield, born Belle Aurelia Babb, became the first female lawyer in the United States in 1869, admitted to the Iowa bar; she made her career as a college educator and administrator.
10 Facts About Arabella Mansfield
1. 2.
Arabella Mansfield's older brother, Washington Irving Babb, born in 1844 and named after the prominent New York author, was her lifelong friend.
3.
Arabella Mansfield Babb graduated in three years as valedictorian; her brother Washington Babb was salutatorian in the same class.
4.
Arabella Mansfield returned to Mount Pleasant to marry her college sweetheart, John Melvin Mansfield, a young professor at Iowa Wesleyan.
5.
Arabella Mansfield encouraged her in her ambition to study law.
6.
Arabella Mansfield "read the law" as an apprentice in her brother Washington's law office, after he had passed the bar and established his practice.
7.
In 1869, Iowa became the first state in the union to admit women to the practice of law after Arabella Mansfield challenged the state law excluding her.
Related searches
Washington Irving 8.
Arabella Mansfield was sworn in at the Union Block building in Mount Pleasant that year.
9.
Arabella Mansfield taught at Iowa Wesleyan College, followed by DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
10.
In 1893, Arabella Mansfield joined the National League of Women Lawyers.