The Washington herald., 1911-12-07
YEARS
OF WOMAN s LIFE
To Be HONORED
Tribute Is Planned to Mrs.
Belya Ann Lockwood.
HAS HAD NOTABLE LIFE

The career of Mrs 'Belva AnpRsock-
wood, who celebrated OH the 24th oi
last October her eighty-frst birthday,
is to be honored by a public Demon
stration arranged by the women OF
| Washington. Mrs. Lockwood was the
first woman to be admitted to practice
before the Supreme Court of the Unit
eds States. has been active in efforts to
secure equal rights for men and wom-
en-, and has been one of the foremost
advocates of peace and arbitration, hav-
ing been three times delegate to ses-
sions of the Universal Peace Union.
WILL HOLD MEETING TODAY.
The movement was inaugurated by a
committee of ladies, who have issued in
vitations for a meeting to be held at 4
o'clock this afternoon at Eagle Lodge"
the home of Mrs. John A. Logan, at the
corner of Thirteenth and Clifton streets
northwest. At this meeting, which will
also be a reception and tea, the guests
will be received by Mrs. A. L. Barber.
Mrs. Thomas II. Anderson, Mrs Charles
P. Granfield, Mrs. Sarah D. La Fetra,
Mrs. E. D. Crumpacker, Miss Elizabeth
Pierce, Miss Edith Mosher, and others.
1t is expected that the details of the tri-
butte to be rendered will be fully decided
upon.
Representative Committee.
The committee which has inaugurated
the affair is representative OF every phase
of women's work. In includes. among
others, Mrs. John Otis Estabrook, of the
Universal Peace Union; Miss Minnie F.
Mickey. D. A. r.; Miss Ellen b. Foster
Woman's National Press Association,
Mrs. Sarah Doane La Fetra, Mrs. Clinton
B. Smith, and Mrs. Emma Sanford Shell
ton, Woman's Christian Temperance
Union: Mrs. Edith Kingman Kern, Amer
ican Penwomen's League: Mrs. Carrie B.
Kent. Mrs. Harvey w. Wiley, and Mrs.
C. w MacNaughton. State Equal Suf-
frage Association; Mrs. y. l. Chapman
and Miss Edith r. Mosher. American
Woman's League: Mrs. John a. Logan
and Mrs. Nannette B. Paul. Woman's
Professional League, and Mrs. Josephine
Arnold Rich, Federation Of Women's
Clubs.
Has Had Notable Career.
Mrs Lockwood was born in Royalton,
Niagara County, n. Y, on October "a,
1880 Her first marriage occurred when
she was eighteen years old, and when
her husband died, in 1853, she became a
prominent educator, being a professor Of
higher mathematics. logic. rhetoric, and
botany She came to this city at the
close of the civil war and began the
study Of law. She graduated in 1873 from
the National University Law School,
having in the meantime married Rev.
Ezekiel Lockwood, a Baptist minister,
who died in 1877. On September .. 1873.
she was admitted to the bar of the
Supreme Court OF the District, and at
once entered upon the active practice of
her profession.
In 1875 she applied for admission to the |
Court of Claims, but was refused on the
ground that she was a woman and that |
she was a married woman. The contest /
was a bitter one. but short, sharp, and |
decisive. In 1876 Mrs. Lockwood's ad- !
mission to the bar of the United States ]
Supreme Court was moved but was re- |
fused on the ground that there were no |
English precedents for the admission OF |
women to the bar"
Secured Act of Congress.
1t was in vain that she logically plead |
ed that Queens Eleanor and Elizabeth |
had both been supreme chancellors of !
the realm, and that at the assizes of
AppIeby, Ann. Countess Of Pembroke, sat
with the judges on the bench. Nothing !
she drafted a bill admitting |
women to the bar of the Supreme Court,
secured its introduction in both Houses
of Congress, and after three years ef-
fort aroused enough influence and public
sentiment to secure its passage in Janu-
airy, 1879. On March of that year Mrs.
Lockwood was admitted to the bar of
that august tribunal, the first woman In
the world on whom the honor was con-
ferred.
Mrs. Lockwood has made several trips
abroad as a representative to peace con-
ferences, and upon one occasion in Paris
read an able paper in French upon inter
arbitration. She was also in
strumental forty years ago in securing
the enactment of a law giving women in