Lemma Barkeloo

Lemma Barkeloo
Born(1840-03-26)March 26, 1840
Brooklyn, New York
DiedSeptember 11, 1870(1870-09-11) (aged 30)
St. Louis, Missouri
Alma materMoravian College
Washington University in St. Louis
OccupationLawyer

Lemma Barkeloo (1840–1870) was one of the first women in America to attend law school, alongside Phoebe Couzins.[1][2][3][4] She was the first woman admitted to the Missouri bar and the first woman to try a case in an American court.

She was born on March 26, 1840, to Teunis Suydam Barkeloo and Lammetje G. Barkeloo (nee Bergen).[5] Her uncle was Teunis G. Bergen, a Congressman from New York.[6] Barkeloo lived in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated with honors from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.[7]

She began attending Washington University School of Law in 1869.[4][7] However, she never finished her course work or graduated.[8][9] Prior to completing her first year, she petitioned to take the Missouri bar without her law degree. On March 25, 1870, she passed the bar exam. The next day, she was the first woman admitted to the Missouri bar.[7] She began to practice law in the offices of Lucien Eaton and became the first woman to try a case in an American court.

Only a couple months after she was admitted to the bar, she died from typhoid fever on September 11, 1870.[3][8][9]

In 2000 Susan Frelich Appleton, J.D., was installed as the inaugural Lemma Barkeloo and Phoebe Couzins Professor of Law at the Washington University School of Law.[1][2]

  1. ^ a b "Appleton first Barkeloo-Couzins professor; New chair honors two pioneering women lawyers". Wupa.wustl.edu. Archived from the original on 2010-08-02. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  2. ^ a b "Susan Frelich Appleton : CV" (PDF). Law.wustl.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  3. ^ a b Benardo, Leonard; Weiss, Jennifer (July 2006). Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More ... - Leonard Benardo, Jennifer Weiss - Google Books. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814799468. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  4. ^ a b "New York City Bar Association - Women and the Law". Nycbar.org. 1981-09-26. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  5. ^ "Lemma Barkeloo (1840-1870) - Find A Grave..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
  6. ^ "Miss Lemma Barkaloo". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. September 13, 1870.
  7. ^ a b c Tokarz, Karen (2001). "Lemma Barkeloo and Phoebe Couzins: Among the Nation's First Women Lawyers and Law School Graduates". Washington University Journal of Law & Policy. 6: 181–187.
  8. ^ a b Norgren, Jill (2013-04-15). Rebels at the Bar: The Fascinating, Forgotten Stories of America's First ... - Jill Norgren - Google Books. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814758984. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  9. ^ a b Hoff, Joan (April 1994). Law, Gender, and Injustice: A Legal History of U.S. Women - Joan Hoff - Google Books. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814744864. Retrieved 2013-10-15.