San Diego County
Biographies
CLARA SHORTRIDGE FOLTZ,
known as the Portia of the Pacific, was born in Henry County, Indiana, and is a
lineal descendant of Daniel Boone, that eminent pioneer, who was ever in the
advance, progressive in his ideas yet at all times seeking privacy rather than
prominence; such are the characteristics inherited by the subject of this
sketch, who though very prominent in public life is never so happy and contented
as when in the privacy of her home, surrounded by those she loves most dearly.
Her remote ancestors lived in Scotland, some four generations back; the family
was established in Kentucky, where it produced several great lawyers and
preachers. It divided there early in the present century, one branch going north
and the other south. Mrs. Foltz's father, Elias V. Shortridge, was born in
Indiana. He prepared himself for the bar in company with Oliver P. Morton, but,
without entering upon his profession, turned to the pulpit and became a
clergyman of the "Campbellite" or "Christian" denomination, in which President
Garfield was prominent. The branch that went south adorned the history of
Alabama with distinguished names. They were a family of strong mentality and
great learning. Mrs. Foltz moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, with her parents and
was educated in Howe's Seminary of that city. She was regarded by her teachers
as possessing an extraordinary mind, having at the early age of twelve years
finished the first two books of Latin, and stood at head of her classes 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 or authority she was married to Z.D. Foltz, and moved to the Pacific
coast in 1872. She began reading law in the office of the Hon. C.C. Stephens in
San Jose, California, in 1876, she was admitted to the bar. She was the author
of the bill which amended the law of California so that women could be admitted
to practice, and was first admitted under its provisions. Afterward, having been
denied admission to Hastings' College of the Law, she sued out a writ of
mandamus, argued her own case and won it. The directors appealed from the
judgment. Mrs. Foltz was prevented attending the law college, but by the aid of
a coal-oil lamp, amid the cries of her populous nursery, she prepared herself
for admission to the Supreme Court and was admitted, December 6, 1879. A few
weeks following the Supreme Court affirmed the college case, and ever since that
time women have been free to enter and graduate 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 her services,
charging for them only when the party applying was able to pay.
Mrs. Foltz practiced law for 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. Mrs. Foltz is possessed with great oratorical
ability, and takes up the hard and knotty problems of political economy with
keen insight and great ability, carrying force and conviction with her
utterance, as has justly been written of her:
"Thy voice has argued in debate,
In scathing satire sharply fell.
In forum and in hall of State,
Held listening thousands with its spell;
Then dropped its tones to softest keep,
And, crooning, sang a babe to sleep,
Then hail! thee priestess of the law,
Our fair-browed Portia of the West!
Write on thy shield: "I came, I saw,
I conquered!" Thou has earned the crest,
Nay more; it seemed the gods to thee,
Had given the Sakhard's mystery.
And thou hast proved that woman can -
Who has the nerve, and strength and will -
Work in the wider field of man,
And be a woman still."
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 as the ablest presentation of the suffragists yet offered in support of the proposition that in Sates 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.
An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time.... - Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. pp 110-111 Transcribed by Sue Silver