Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-23
she NAV BE ATTORNEY GENERAL.
The Peoples Party Nominee in Montana
Has Seen a Good Deal of Life.


Has Seen Good Deal of Life.
The spectacle Of female attorney
general for big state is among the pos
sibilities in Montana. The Peoples party
nominee for that Office, Miss Ella L.
Knowles, is the only woman lawyer in
the state. The constitution does not say
that the attorney general, or any other
officer for that matter, shall not be
woman. It infers as much by speaking
Of the attorney general as che" and re-
ferring to ''his duties" But if Miss
Knowles should by any chance get the
most votes she will take the Office unless
the highest court in the state or the
United States says personal pronoun is
strong enough to keep her out of it.
She says SO herself. Lawyers of the
other sex say the same thing or more
They say that in the event of such
thing as her election there will be no oc-
casion for a court to pass on the ques-
| ton; in other words, that no one would
be bold enough to contest her claims to
| the office. AS one of them puts it, mo
gentleman would make such a contest
against woman, and it is to be pre-
sumed that both the old parties will put
gentlemen on their tickets"
The nomination Of Miss Knowles was
not made without consulting her. The
| leaders of the Peoples party asked her
if she would run If nominated. She said
she would. They nominated her and
che accepted. Now she says she is in
| the fight to win. ~ will canvass this
whole state," she says.
The Peoples party candidate for attor-
ney general of Montana was born in
Northwood, Rockingham county, N. H.,
ana is the daughter of David and Louisa
Knowles. Her father still resides on
the old homestead in New Hampshire,
in what is known as the Knowles dis
trict. Her mother died when Miss
Knowles was fourteen years of age.
Miss Knowles was graduated from the
Northwood seminary at the age of fif-
teen, and one year later from the New
Hampshire State Normal school. After
ward she went to Bates college, Lewis
ton, Me-, from which she was graduated
in the class of '84 with high honors, re-
ceiving the degree Of A. B.
Four years later Bates college con-
| ferred on her the degree of A. M. When
she entered Bates college there were
only four other girl students there. The
prejudice against admitting female stu
dents was still strong at the college, but
not so strong as it had been some years
| before, when the only girl there was
forced to leave because the boys decided
| to strike in a body unless she did. So
Miss Knowles has gone through all the
| various degrees of ostracism which at
tend the efforts of women to make their
way in fields which the men had been in
the habit of considering peculiarly their
| own.
| Not only did she do this at school, but
she had to go through the same ordeal
here when she hung out her sign. Still
| she is not man hater. 1t is also to be
noted that during her time at Bates col
lege she was the only woman in party
| Of eight who took part in a political de-
bate, and she carried off the prize.
In 1885 Miss Knowles commenced the
study of law in the Office of Durham &
Brown, in Manchester, N. III. She prose
cuted her studies there about year,
4 Wueu VI dCCouut VI III uestlbn sue cdIne
west and took the chair of elocution and
Latin in an Iowa college. Being advised
by physicians to go among the noun
tains, she came to Helena in the fall of
1887. She taught one year in the Cen
| trail school here and then resumed the
study of law. There was considerable
prejudice against allowing her to prac-
tice. So she went to work among the
members Of the last territorial legisla-
ture, that of 1889, and had bill intro
duced and passed to admit women to
practice law. She was admitted to the
bar Dec. 1, 1S90.-Helena (Mon.) Inde-
| pendent.