page_title: Ella Knowles Haskell
section_title: Political activities
hierarchical_section_title: Ella Knowles Haskell / Career / Political activities
context_page_description: Ella Knowles Haskell was an American lawyer, suffragist, and politician. Born in New Hampshire, she moved to Montana to improve her health following a bout of tuberculosis and there became the first woman to be licensed as a lawyer, the first female notary public, the first woman to run for Montana State Attorney General, and the 26th woman to be admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court. She served as the President of the Montana Equal Suffrage Association and was widely known in Montana for her advancement of the suffrage movement, political feminism and social equity.
context_section_description: In 1892, 22 years before Montana women received the right to vote, Knowles ran for state Attorney General after being nominated by the Populist Party, becoming the first woman in the United States to run for that office. She narrowly lost the election, but was nominated to be the Montana Assistant Attorney General by Henri J. Haskell, a Republican who had won the election.  Haskell and Knowles later married.
  In 1896, Haskell became the first Montana woman to be elected to a national political convention, that of the Populist party. She went on to convince the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Hoke Smith, to grant Montana $200,000 worth of land for schools near Great Falls.
  Throughout her time in Montana, Haskell remained active in the women's suffrage movement. She was a part of the Helena Business Women's Suffrage Club from its inception and was chosen to serve as the President of the Montana Equal Suffrage Association. As the populist movement grew in Montana she remained active and campaigned in support of William Jennings Bryan, for he was chosen as the Democratic nominee for the presidency in 1896.
caption: 1893
exif: {}