MARGARET BEALL CONNELL

Los Angeles County

Biographies

MARGARET BEALL CONNELL

Among the many women members of the California Bar we point to Margaret Beall Connell. While she pursues a general practice her choice and specialty is probate practice. She has been a member of the California Bar since 1920.

Miss Connell is a native of Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, and is a daughter of John MacNeill and Jane K. (Cox) Connell. She is a descendant of one of the country’s most representative families. The paternal ancestry of Margaret B. Connell reaches back into early Scottish history. John and William Connell were the last of the Connell family to occupy the Connell estates in Renfrewshire, Scotland, known as “Lochwinnock.” They, however, espoused the cause of Charles the Pretender, were forced to flee the country and “Lochwinnock” passed forever from the Connell family. It was confiscated by the British government and became the official Scottish home of the Prince of Wales and where he is known as Baron Renfrew.

Miss Connell’s grandfather, Benjamin Connell, married Ann Maria MacNeill, who was a descendant from a notable Scottish line, reaching back to the time of Roderick MacNeill, king, or chief, of Barra Island, off the west coast of Scotland. He incurred the enmity of Queen Elizabeth, who made an unsuccessful attempt to confiscate his island. From Roderick MacNeill many people of fame in history descended, among them the noted artist, James MacNeill Whistler. Miss Connell’s father, John MacNeill Connell, was born November 7, 1829, in Lancaster, Ohio, and died while she was a young girl. He was very gifted and talented and stood preeminent at the Ohio Bar. He was a precocious youngster, and read Latin and Greek when he was only nine years of age. Later he graduated from the Greenville Academy for Boys. He was about to enter college when his father met with financial loss, so his plans were accordingly changed, and he began the study of law in the office of Judge Stansburg.

After being admitted to the Bar he moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he was elected prosecuting attorney when twenty-two years old. He was also a colonel in the Ninth Regiment of Indiana Militia at this period. A few years later, he returned to Lancaster and there resumed his law practice. Before the opening of hostilities in the Civil War, he had been appointed chief clerk in the First Comptroller’s office in Washington, D. C. After the bombardment of Fort Sumter, however, he went back to his native Lancaster and there organized the Seventeenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was later made colonel of the regiment. He was a life-long member of the democrat party, but he was a Unionist of the staunchest kind and he fought for the northern cause for three years. His brigade, known as Brannan’s (but Colonel Connell commanding in Brannan’s absence), is famous for its fight in the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, and is credited with saving the Union forces from complete annihilation in holding back the rebel army while the main Union forces retreated to Chattanooga. On historic Lookout Mountain today there are three cannon mounted in commemoration of that battle, and on one of them is inscribed the name of Colonel Connell.

He was also, at the beginning of the war, an army judge advocate, which carried with it the rank of major. Although he was elected to the state senate at one time, he consistently resisted the requests of his friends to continue political activities. He had many prominent friends; among whom may be mentioned Thomas Ewing, First Secretary of the Interior (then called Home Department), James G. Blaine, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, and John Sherman. None of his five sons followed their father in the legal profession. His wife, who was Jane K. Cox before their marriage, was a daughter of the Rev. William Cox and his wife, Margaret Ann (Beall) Cox, and granddaughter of Zephaniah Beall, who was on Gen. George Washington’s staff during the Revolutionary War. The Beall family is authoritatively traced back to the days of the Scottish Druids and the name means “Fire-gods.” The Rev. William Cox was a most gifted and eloquent clergyman and was very broad-minded. He was a master violinist, insisting upon instrumental music as a part of the ceremonies of the Presbyterian Church of which he was a pastor, although there was a decided prejudice against this sort of thing at that time.

Miss Margaret B. Connell attended the public schools in Lancaster, Ohio, and after the death of her parents went to the state of Utah to live with a married sister. While in Utah she was connected with the Federal Courts and, deciding to follow her father’s profession, became a student at the University of Utah, Law Department, after extension courses in connection with the University of Chicago. During a period spent overseas, Miss Connell attended lectures at the University of Berlin, in history, ethnology, Code Napoleon and the old Roman laws, also the German system of jurisprudence. She also had private tutoring from German and Spanish instructors. Upon her return to this country and the above attendance at law school, she was admitted to the bars of Utah and Idaho upon examination; and, upon motion, to the bar of Texas. In 1920, she was admitted to the California state bar. Miss Connell is a member of the California State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Professional Women’s Club, the Woman Lawyers’ Club, Inc., of Los Angeles, and the American Judicature Society (incorporated in 1913.) She is also a member of the Y. W. C. A. and the Women’s Aeronautical Society. Miss Connell is much interested in athletic sports, especially calisthenics, swimming and golf. In addition to these many activities Miss Connell still finds time to continue some literary work formerly pursued by her to a considerable extent.

Transcribed by Bill Simpkins.

Source: California of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 271-273, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.

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