Sarah Herring Sorin

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Sarah Herring Sorin

Sarah Herring Sorin (born January 15, 1861 in New York City , † April 30, 1914 in Globe , Arizona ) was an American teacher, headmistress and lawyer . She became the first female lawyer in the Arizona Territory and the first female attorney to try cases in the United States Supreme Court without the assistance of a male attorney.

Career

Sarah Herring Sorin, daughter of Mary Emeline Inslee (1834-1903) and the lawyer William Herring , was born in 1861 in New York City. She had at least three siblings: Howard Ford Herring (1864-1891), Bertha Herring (1868-1925) and Henrietta Herring (1870-1963). Her childhood was overshadowed by the civil war. Nothing more is known about her youth. Sarah began her career as a public school teacher in New York City. Her father inherited mining rights in the Arizona Territory from his brother in 1880. With the hope of increasing prosperity in the west, her father won investors for his project to develop the Neptune mine there and in the spring of 1880 he moved to the Arizona Territory with his wife and two youngest children. This was located southeast of the small Copper Queen Mine in the Mule Mountains , now Bisbee ( Cochise County ). Sarah and her brother Howard stayed in New York City, where he was supposed to finish high school.

In 1882, Sarah and her brother Howard joined their family in the Arizona Territory. At this time the mining company had failed her father and he had a law practice in Tombstone ( Cochise County already opened). Moving to Tombstone in the early 1880s must have been an exciting and scary thing for a young woman. The shooting between Wyatt Earp and Ike Clanton wasn't long ago. It was also in the midst of great population growth when miners and speculators moved west with the hope of riches. In the midst of all of this, Sarah took the traditional path for a young single woman at the time and became a teacher. Sarah was one of the first female teachers in Tombstone. She also served as a principal at the local school from 1884 to 1886 and as a librarian in 1891.

Sarah's decision to pursue a legal career in 1892 was the result of a great family tragedy. In November 1891 her brother Howard went to the dentist to have some teeth pulled. As was common at the time, he asked to be given cocaine for pain relief. Shortly after the dentist gave him the cocaine, Howard collapsed and later passed away. His death had dire consequences for the family, especially for her father, as he trained Howard as a lawyer and relied on his support in his legal practice. Three weeks after her brother's death, Sarah gave up her teaching job to help her father with his work. In the following years she studied at her father a year Jura . On November 19, 1892, she took her bar exam at the local Tombstone Courthouse to be admitted to the First Judicial District Court of the Territory of Arizona . Sarah was interviewed by three lawyers on her knowledge of the law. According to the local newspapers, she passed the exam with distinction. She received her bar license and became the first female lawyer in the Arizona Territory on November 21, 1892. A year later, she was admitted to the Supreme Court of the Territory of Arizona bar .

After she was admitted to the bar, Sarah declined to represent clients immediately. Instead, she decided to study law at New York University School of Law . At the time, it was one of the few law schools that accepted women but did not actively solicit them. Sarah graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1894 . She was fourth best in a class of 86 law students.

After graduating, Sarah returned to Tombstone to practice law with her father. Sarah dealt primarily with mining law, and her clientele ranged from injured miners to mining companies. In the course of time she gained a reputation in the legal community for being a competent and charming lawyer. One newspaper wrote the following about her:

"She is never at a loss for authorities, being so thoroughly prepared as to have references at her fingers' end, and no matter how complicated the issue, she possess that happy felicity of elucidation that most generally wins for her client a favorable verdict. "

By 1896, tombstone began to lose its importance in the Arizona Territory as many mining mines nearby closed and many mining people emigrated. In response, the family moved to Herring Tucson ( Pima County ), where Sarah and her father continued their work as lawyers. Sarah married two years later, on July 21, 1898, Thomas Robertson Sorin (1846–1923), a local rancher and newspaper journalist. After their wedding, Sarah moved to live with her new husband on his Cochise County ranch, where she enjoyed the rugged desert landscape. Sarah lived on the ranch for the first five years of their marriage and only came to Tucson to represent cases with her father. After a while, she began to spend most of her time in Tucson, as her husband was often on business trips at the time.

During her legal career, she tried four cases in the United States Supreme Court. In April 1906, her father campaigned for Sarah to be admitted to the Supreme Court. Sarah became the first woman from Arizona, and by then the 24th woman ever, to be admitted to the Supreme Court.

One of her highlights in her legal career was representing United Globe Mines in the Work v. United Globe Mines . This case took Sarah to the Supreme Court for her fourth and final time, and allowed her to be the first woman to present a case unassisted. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in Sarah's favor.

Four months after the court ruling, Sarah died on April 30, 1914 of complications from pneumonia . In History of Arizona , Sarah was described as follows:

"She was constant and dependable in everything, and her innate dignity and charm of manner gained for her the sincere respect and admiration of all who came into contact with her."

She was buried in Evergreen Memorial Park in Tucson.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mary Emeline Inslee Herring in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  2. ^ William Herring in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  3. ^ Howard Ford Herring in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  4. ^ Bertha Herring in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  5. ^ Henrietta Herring Franklin in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  6. ^ Thomas Robertson Sorin in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 22, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Sorin, Sarah Herring
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herring, Sarah Inslee (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American teacher, principal, and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1914
Place of death Globe , Arizona