Early Lady Lawyers of California- Mary McHenry Keith by Zina Abbott

 

In earlier posts, I featured two of the first lady lawyers who were admitted to practice before the California Bar. The first was Clara Shortridge Foltz, and very soon afterward was Laura de Force Gordon. Both of these women, intent on expanding their knowledge of the law after already passing the bar, applied to the Hastings College of Law (Now the University of California). They were denied admission based on their gender. After filing a lawsuit, they won their case. Unfortunately, due to financial and other reasons, neither completed the course of study and graduated.

 

The first woman who attended and graduated from Hastings College of Law was Mary McHenry. Graduatating in 1882, Mary McHenry practiced law for only a few years, although she used her law degree throughout her life to advocate social justice issues, specifically woman suffrage, opposing white slavery and prostitution, and animal rights issues.

Mary McHenry

Mary McHenry Keith was born in San Francisco, California on November 20, 1855 to John McHenry (1809–1880) and Ellen Josephine Metcalfe McHenry (1827-1922). John McHenry was a Judge and Louisiana Supreme Court Justice who moved to California in 1850 and continued to work as a judge in San Francisco. Mary had three siblings, Elizabeth Harris McHenry Lamare (1850-1907), Emma McHenry Pond (1857-1934), and John McHenry (1858-1935). She attended San Francisco's Girl's High School before pursuing a college degree.

Mary's father was not supportive of women's work outside the home, but did not stop her from attending college. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1879 at the University of California in Berkeley. Thanks to the efforts of the above-mentioned lady lawyers to make it possible for women to attend law school about the time she finished her undergraduate degree, and without telling her father, she enrolled in Hastings.

1883 Portrait of Mary-William Keith

For a short time after graduating from law school, Mary worked as a lawyer specializing in probates. She gave up being a lawyer in 1883 when she married prominent landscape artist, William Keith. Mr. Keith died in 1911, and Mary did not remarry.

Mary McHenry Keith focused activist work after her marriage. Her work in this area started when she was still a student and promoted the dress reform movement, which drew attention to the ways in which women’s clothing restricted the abilities of women to comfortably and effectively engage in the full range of activities available to male classmates. As a as president of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, she addressed the importance of women receiving an education.

By the early 1890s, Mary was a prominent lecturer and member of the Berkeley Political Equality Club, serving as its President beginning in 1902. With a membership of over 200, the Berkeley Political Equality Club was one of the largest suffrage organizations in California and throughout the West Coast of the US.

 

Mary Keith at 1911 Amendment 8 Campaign in San Francisco

 

Mary firmly believed that women should develop themselves to their full potential, and that they should fully participate in society. In 1895, she organized the Woman's Congress (held in Berkeley) at which time she met Susan B. Anthony and began a regular correspondence about suffrage and women's rights. After the dismissal of the campaign in 1896, Mary revamped and retargeted the movement; publicly speaking to the right and need for co-education, centralizing suffrage as a primary cause in women organizations across the state, and integrating modern devices, such as cars and telephones as a way to reach and democratize rural areas. her leadership in Northern California provided a key role in securing the passage of suffrage for California women in 1911.  

In 1912, Mary was elected president of California’s Equal Suffrage Association. In this role, she expanded her experience and suffrage support to other states, such work contributed to the 19th amendment's ratification in 1920. 

Mary Keith 1910

Mary was an advocate for animal rights. She saw connections between women's and animals rights, and her thoughts on animal rights are reported to have had a strong influence on John Muir. Her advocacy for animal rights led to her service to the Humane Society, the California Audubon Society, as an officer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and as a trustee of the Latham Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education.

As a donor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and William Keith’s widow, she also was recognized for her work cataloguing, preserving, and exhibiting his collected works.

Mary McHenry Keith lived until the age of ninety-one. She died in Berkeley, California, on October 13, 1947.

This includes my trio of blog posts about early California lady lawyers. I’ve been interested in women and the law in California for years. However, my research for my romance, A Lawyer for Linton inspired my learning more about these women who pioneered professional careers and held leadership positions advocating for a better, more equitable society.

 

 

You may find the book description and purchase link for A Lawyer for Linton by CLICKING HERE.

 

 

My latest book to be released tomorrow (preordered purchases will actually show up on most readers’ Kindles late tonight) is Lighthouse Escape. What a delight writing this romance turned out to be. I hope my readers will enjoy reading. You may find the book description and purchase link for this book by CLICKING HERE.

 

 

 

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McHenry_Keith

https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/saint-marys-college-museum-of-art/mary-mchenry-keith-suffrage

Creating a Family Legacy for a story

For my recent release, Lightkeeper’s Challenge, I wanted to create a family who had a legacy of being lighthouse keepers. Since the story was set in 1880, looking to Europe for the characters’ ancestors was the logical solution. During the 1800s, America bloomed in size because of the relocation of immigrants seeking a better life.

Part of the fun of writing a new novella is populating it with people who have rich heritages. Research tells us that people who emigrated held tight to their country’s traditions. Besides doing things the way they already knew, heeding tradition kept them connected to those left behind, as well as offering the potential for banding together in their new home.

I chose Denmark as the country of origin for my heroine Lisbet’s family—the Dinesens—partly because of the country’s early history with lighthouses. Lisbet strives to become the fourth generation of lightkeepers. I established her great-grandfather as serving as a lighthouse keeper to the Skagen White Lighthouse at the northern tip of Denmark. This is where Lisbet’s father grew up and learned the trade.

Once the ancestry is selected, then I look for details about the country’s culture to include. If I want the character to be musically inclined, I research native instruments. If the character likes to do handcrafts, I check if the culture invented something contemporary readers would know. I especially have fun with researching details about food and wedding customs.

All of the above are included in Lightkeeper’s Challenge, book 12 in the Keepers of the Light series.

Raised in a Pacific Coast lighthouse, Lisbet Dinesen hopes to follow family tradition and succeed her father as senior lightkeeper. Assistant lightkeeper Hale Warwyck feels he’s paid his dues by working the night shift for five years and deserves command of his own lighthouse.

Principal Lightkeeper Anders Dinesen announces the need for a substitute during his vacation time. Both Lisbet and Hale want to step in. A challenge is established to test their suitability and skills. Has Anders taken on the role of matchmaker for his eldest child? Will the competition drive a wedge into Lisbet’s and Hale’s budding attraction? 

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Let me know if you like such cultural details in the historical stories you read.

A Brief History of Lighthouses

 

Structures have been needed along coastlines to warn sailors for as long as people have put vessels into oceans, seas, and bays. The first lighthouse is thought to be The Lighthouse at Alexandria (Egypt) built in 256 BCE was believed to be about 330 feet tall, making it one of the seven wonders of the world at the time. Multiple earthquakes between 950 and 1323 CE tumbled the structure to ruins.

In the Unites States, lighthouses were first governed by the Lighthouse Establishment created in 1791 as part of the Treasury Department. Complaints from owners in the shipping industry prompted the 1852 creation of The US Lighthouse Board, a quasi-military organization that focused on modernizing the structures and equipment. Construction of many of the coastal lighthouse was completed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Their expertise was needed to determine which type of structure worked best for the designated location. After 1865, all lighthouses had Fresnel lenses (named after the developer French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel). The special design of the lens (flatter and with more angles) captures and beams more of the light from a single source. 

1-Fresnel lens; 2-convex lens from Wikipedia

Men recruited into the lighthouse service had to meet specific physical requirements and were responsible for detailed recordkeeping and maintenance to keep the equipment functional. Most lighthouses sit on bluffs or beaches overlooking an ocean where the light at the top of a tower shining at night marks the coastline to prevent ships from running aground. Some towers are built from a ground base (with attached house), and other rise from the second floor of a base structure where the lightkeeper lives. Because the structures also serve as daymarks for ships to chart their progression along a route, neighboring lighthouses have different overall designs or different patterns are painted on the towers. Due to remote lighthouse locations, lightkeepers often had to be self-sufficient by maintaining a vegetable garden and raising chickens and a cow. Supplies and mail were delivered by a light tender (person on a small boat) on a regular basis.

I’ve always found lighthouses fascinating, and I just released my second novella in the “Keepers of the Light” series titled Between Two Beaus.

When Gala’s decision to act as a fake fiancée threatens the balance among the trio of friends, she is torn between Hal, who has suddenly shown interest, and fulfilling her promise to Bork.

Amazon or free in Kindle Unlimited

If you want to learn more lighthouse facts, join the series Facebook page here.

Why We Bless Those Who Sneeze

 As often happens when I’m writing a new story, I clicked to a search engine to look up ONE simple fact and then get intrigued and keep clicking.

In writing Between Two Beaus, my October release in the "Keepers of the Light" series, I wanted to know what someone of Swedish and of Finnish heritage would say when another person sneezed. So, here’s your brief lesson on why we bless sneezers.

from webcomics.net

In pre Christian population, people believed their souls lived in their breath and a violent sneeze could temporarily expel your soul from your body. If your soul is gone, then the devil can sneak in and you might need an exorcism to get it out. So the God Bless You was a protection for you during that perilous time.

Sneezes were thought to be an interference by evil spirits and so a blessing of some type of spoken to invoke good spirits. Another theory is that people thought your heart stopped momentarily with the sneeze and hearing someone wish you well would start it again. Yet another theory is that the practice originated during the time of the plague when people blessed those who sneezed as a way to keep the disease from infecting them. The idea being to wish those affected good health.

No matter the belief, here are a few ways to respond to a sneeze.

Most of us know Geshunheit, which is German for health.

People in Spanish countries say salud for health for the first sneeze then dinero (money) for the second and amor (love) for the third.

Dutch is gezondheid for health for the first sneeze only.

French is â tes souhaits for to your wishes.

Finnish is terveydeski or for health.

Say prosit  when someone sneezes in Sweden (the first time only) Added detail: Swedish folklore dictates that each time you say tack (thank you) in response to prosit, a gnome will die. The word is the same in Danish and Norwegian.

In Russia people say будьте здоровы for “be healthy”. 

In Yiddish the response is tsu gesunt.

After the first, the saying in Turkish is çok yaşa or“live long” and for the second sneeze, the response is sağlıklı yaşa meaning “live healthy”. But more than a simple “thank you”, the sneezer’s response to the first blessing is, “And I hope you will live to see it.”

Tagline for Between Two Beaus releasing October 13^th.

When Gala’s decision to act as a fake fiancée threatens the balance among the trio of friends, she is torn between Hal, who has suddenly shown interest, and fulfilling her promise to Bork.

The "Keepers of the Light" authors are hosting a Summer Fun and Games Facebook party on September 25 & 26 from 8AM-5PM PDT to highlight the upcoming releases. My time slot is 11AM to 2PM on 9/26. A $50 Amazon gift card will be awarded at the completion of the party on the Amazon series readers page. The first 8 titles in the series are on sale 9/25-9/26 for only 99 cents. Find them on the series page.

Abigail Scott Duniway--A Woman Ahead of her Time

In researching my last release, The Suffragette’s Vow, book 8 in the multi-author “Keepers of the Light” series, I stumbled across—perhaps a better term is clicked to—the fact a feminist newspaper started printing issues in May of 1871 in Portland Oregon. The timeframe fit with my story, as did the location, and my heroine, Nadina, became an intrepid reporter.

courtesy of Wikimedia

Abigail Scott Duniway, a married woman and mother of six children, launched The New Northwest as a weekly publication that carried the motto “Free Speech, Free Press, Free People.” Her brother, Harvey W. Scott who later became chief editorialist of the Portland Oregonian, helped with editing, as did her sister Catherine Coburn. Her disabled husband, Benjamin, managed the business affairs, and several sons helped with the printing press. Missus Duniway supplied much of the copy—include news reports, topical essays, travel pieces, and serialized fiction—herself. Almost twenty years earlier, her family was among one of the early groups of settlers to move to Oregon Territory. All her life, she was aware of the inequality between the sexes. Her wish was to promote discussion about issues pertaining to women—divorce law, economic status of women in a pioneer state, and of course, women’s suffrage—in the hope of making their lives easier.


The New Northwest is acknowledged by contemporary historians as the first effort in the Pacific Northwest to further women’s rights. Missus Duniway arranged for Susan B. Anthony to visit in summer, 1871 and conduct a tour through the state, making speeches in support of women’s rights and suffrage.  In several elections from 1884 through 1910, males did not support initiatives to grant the right to vote. However, credit is given to Missus Duniway and The New Northwest for the passage of the Married  Women’s Property Act of 1878. After passage, women were allowed to manage their own wages and to own property. When the state’s suffrage initiative was passed in 1912, Governor West asked Abigail Scott Duniway to author and sign the official proclamation. The New Northwest remained in circulation until February, 1887.

Taglines for The Suffragette’s Vow

Can a reclusive lighthouse keeper prevent a curious reporter from digging into his past?

Will a reporter wrest a story from a taciturn lighthouse keeper and gain her independence?


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