CLARA SHORTRIDGE FOLTZ

Clara Shortridge Foltz, known as the “Portia of the Pacific,” was born in Henry county, Indiana, a descendant of Daniel Boone, the pioneer of Kentucky. Her remote ancestors were from Scotland about four generations ago, and in America the family was established in Kentucky, where several of the descendants became eminent in the professions. Early in the present century the family divided, one branch going North and the other South. Mrs. Foltz’s father, Elias V. Shortridge, was a native of Indiana, and prepared himself for practice at the bar, but without entering upon that profession he became a minister of the gospel in the “Christian” denomination. The branch of the family that went South adorned the history of Alabama with distinguished names, being a family line of intellectual people.

Mrs. Foltz moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, with her parents, and was educated at Howe’s Seminary there, being regarded by her teachers as possessing extraordinary powers of mind. At the early age of twelve years she had finished the first two books of Latin and stood at the head of her class in philosophy, history and rhetoric. After leaving school she taught two terms, near Keithsburg, Mercer county, Illinois, the last one closing on the day she was fifteen years of age. Within a few weeks thereafter and without parental advice and authority, she was married to Z. D. Foltz, and moved to the Pacific coast, in 1872. She began reading law in the office of Hon. C. C. Stephens, in San Jose, California, in 1876, and September 4, 1878, she was admitted to the bar. She was the author of the bill which amended the law of this State so that women could be admitted to practice, and was the first admitted under its provisions. Afterward, having been denied admission to Hastings College of Law, she sued out a writ of mandamus, argued her own case and won it. The directors of that institution appealed from the judgment. Notwithstanding she was prevented from attending that college, she assiduously pursued her studies by the aid of a coal-oil lamp, amidst a populous nursery, and prepared herself for admission to the bar of the Supreme Court, and was admitted December 6, 1879. A few weeks after that the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the lower court in the Hastings College case, and ever since then women have been free to enter and graduated upon equal terms with men. (See Clara Foltz vs. J. P. Hoge et al., 54 Cal., p. 28.)

From the day of her admission to the bar Mrs. Foltz had all the business she could attend to. Patient and kind, she served all who applied for her services, charging for them only when the party applying was able to pay. She practiced law many years in San Francisco, and among a thousand lawyers she was the one woman who with keen sight and natural ability broke down the barriers of conservatism which had been raised against her sex, and won the highest respect and consideration, as well as attaining high honors in the profession as a public speaker.

In 1880 she was Clerk of the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly, the first woman to hold that important position, and during the same season prepared a brief on the constitutionality of a bill she had introduced: “To enable women to vote at elections for school officers and in all matters pertaining to public schools,” which is considered the ablest presentation of the woman suffragists’ cause yet offered in support of the proposition that in States, where not prohibited by the constitution, the legislature may grant suffrage to women. The bill was defeated, however though not for want of constitutional authority.

Transcribed Karen L. Pratt.

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 1, page 669-670, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.

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