1. Daniel Mary Leonard owned a hotel and ferry in the Columbia River Gorge along the Oregon Trail.
18 Facts About Mary Leonard
1. 2.
Daniel was 57, but he claimed 50 at the time of marriage while Mary Leonard claimed to be 30 when they were married at the St Charles Hotel in Portland with the Reverend John Gantenbein presiding on May 18,1875.
3.
On January 4,1878, Daniel Mary Leonard was shot in the head with a small-caliber gun, but there were no witnesses.
4.
Mary Leonard remained in jail, but was taken out for walks accompanied by the sheriff.
5.
On November 18,1878, Mary Leonard went to trial represented by William Lair Hill.
6.
Later that year Mary Leonard collected Daniel's estate as the sole heir and moved to Portland where she went into business as the owner of boardinghouses.
7.
Some records indicate Mary Leonard began studying law in Portland in the early 1880s.
8.
Mary Leonard thus became the first woman lawyer in the history of Washington, though she returned to Portland before practicing law in that then-territory.
9.
Mary Leonard successfully argued that the requirement had never been enforced, and the court relented.
10.
Mary Leonard developed a law practice in Portland with a reputation for poor writing but good courtroom skills.
11.
Mary Leonard worked mainly with clients that were charged in the police courts and demanded others to call her Judge Mary A Leonard.
12.
Mary Leonard was not very financially successful as an attorney and opened a boardinghouse to supplement her legal income.
13.
Mary Leonard developed a reputation for fighting and for drinking with male attorneys.
14.
Mary Leonard was convicted for the embezzlement of $1.40 relating to refusing to pay a witness in the Branson case, but did not pay the $18 fine and was sent to jail.
15.
Mary Leonard was released after a short time on a writ of habeas corpus drawn up by other attorneys, as the minimum fine for the charge was $25.
16.
Mary Leonard continued to practice law in Portland until June 1912.
17.
Mary Leonard died at the Multnomah County Hospital on October 24,1912, of heart disease.
18.
Mary Leonard's remains were donated to the University of Oregon Medical School, but records of where the body was buried were destroyed in a fire.