Ada Harriet Miser Kepley - Part I

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College Directory Columnist

May 7, 2010

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Ada Harriet Miser Kepley was the first American woman to graduate from law school.

In February 11, 1947 Ada Harriet Miser one of four children of Henry and Ann Miser was born and spent much of her childhood in Somerset, Ohio.

Her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1860. From 1860 to 1866, Ada completed two years of high school. Her family then moved to Effingham, Illinois, a pioneer settlement, where she lived the rest of her life. There, her parents ran a hotel and her mother had a book store and circulating library.

His father Henry Miser, was not really interested in organized religion. However to please his wife Ann, he joined the Methodist Church. There was an occasion when Henry Miser was late for Sunday service and Methodists decided to expel him from church. Later Ada's mother became Swedenborgian. The young girl was surrounded by old faiths' believers, and it was a suffering situation for her.

Years later she wrote that it was hard for her to get free from these influences, but at last she became a Free Thinker.

In 1867 Ada married Henry B. Kepley. Henry had his own law practice in Effingham and at first he trained his wife to be his legal assistant. Although it was difficult at those times Henry encouraged Ada, who began to aspire to follow a professional legal career of her own under her husband's supervision and support.

At his husband's urging Ada went to Chicago to study at the Union College of Law (now Northwestern) from 1869 to 1870. It was a sort of sacrifice because Chicago was 200 miles far from home. Ada was graduated from the Law Department of the old Chicago University (a different legal entity from the present University of Chicago) in June 1870 when she earned her Bachelor of Laws.

Upon graduation, Ada accompanied her classmates to the Cook County State's Attorney's office to apply for her license to practice law. State's Attorney Charles Read informed her that Illinois law did not permit women to enter the learned professions.

Her husband Henry Kepley helped his wife challenge this ruling. He drafted a bill forbidding sex discrimination in the legal and other professions. The bill was passed and became law in 1872, but Ada did not apply for and she did not receive her license until 1881. Occasionally Ada Kepley handled court cases, but she did not steadily practice as a lawyer. She also obtained a Ph.D. from Austin College in Effingham.