Nettie Cronise Lutes
Annette "Nettie" Cronise Lutes (born Tiffin, Ohio, 1843; died 1923) was the first woman admitted to the bar in the state of Ohio.
Born to a prominent local family (her grandfather was a newspaper publisher and served in the Ohio state senate), Nettie studied at Heidelberg College and the State Normal School at Bloomington, Indiana before studying law at the office of Warren P. Noble. Lutes went in front of a panel of judges in 1873 to make her argument that she should be admitted to the bar, and was successful. Her sister Florence was admitted to the bar six months later, and the sisters formed their own firm. In 1874 Nettie married Nelson B. Lutes, a fellow lawyer she had met while studying the law.
In 1880 Nettie ceased practicing with her sister and joined her husband's firm because he was losing his hearing and needed her assistance. A biography described their method of conducting trials like this: "Mrs. Lutes sits facing Mr. Lutes, and if a jury trial, also facing the jury, and repeats, by the motion of the organs of speech, without sound or whisper, every word that is spoken by the witnesses, judge, and opposing counsel, on the instant the words leave the mouth of the speaker..." Nettie did more than just translate for her husband, they were regarded as full partners and highly successful in their practice.
Nelson Lutes died in 1900, and Nettie continued in sole practice until she was joined by her daughter Evlyn Latta Lutes (1877-1968), who was admitted to the bar in 1905. Nettie applied for a widow's Civil War pension but was denied because she had too much money; after her appeal was denied, she tried to get a private bill passed in Congress to give her the pension.
Nelson and Nettie had three daughters - Elinor Seney Lutes (1875-1963); Evlyn Latta Lutes; and Lillian Cronise Lutes (b. 1882). Nettie was buried by the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, probably at the request of her daughter Lillian, who had written several historical articles about Valley Forge.
The three Lutes daughters founded a settlement house in Philadelphia in 1933 which operated until at least 1953.
Legacy
The women's section of the Ohio State Bar awards the Nettie Cronise Lutes Award annually, to women lawyers who have "improved the legal profession through their own high level of professionalism and who have opened doors for other women and girls".
References
- Bench and bar of Ohio: a compendium of history and biography, ed. George Irving Reed, Vol. 2, Century Publishing, Chicago, 1897, p. 376
- History of Ohio Law, eds. Michael Les Benedict and John F. Winkler, Volume One, Ohio University Press, 2004, p. 839
- Decisions of the Department of the Interior in Appealed Pension and Bounty-Land Claims, Volume 14, ed. John Bixler, Government Printing Office, 1904, p. 281
- Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the Fifty-Eighth Congress, Third Session (Volume 39), Government Printing Office, 1905, p. 92
- Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland), Dec. 23, 1923, "Funeral Friday, Woman Attorney", p. 5
- Toledo Blade, Sept. 9, 1953, "Two Sisters Mark 20th Anniversary of Settlement House", p. 24
- Ohio Bar website, news article on 2011 NCL Award
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