THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 18 | SEPTEMBER 2024 Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. Women in Law Florence Etheridge Cobb FLORENCE ETHERIDGE COBB WAS BORN IN BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, on Sept. 20, 1878, to Samuel W. and Emma A. (Nichols) Etheridge. Her childhood was spent near Boston and Everett, Massachusetts, and she graduated from Everett High School on June 23, 1897. Although she was raised in New England, she did not appear to have a stilted manner or live by the customs of mid-Victorian Boston. Because of her belief that women had the ability to succeed in activities outside the home, she pursued a legal education. She attended the Washington College of Law, where she received her law degree on May 26, 1911. On Oct. 3, 1911, she was admitted to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia on a motion by Ellen Spencer Mussey.1 Ms. Cobb continued her legal education, and on May 27, 1912, she received an LL.M. from the Washington College of Law. She was admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 29, 1915. While living in Washington, D.C., she was employed at the Census Bureau, the Department of Commerce, the Division of Education and, finally, the Office of Indian Affairs. During her years in government service, she was elected treasurer of the Federal Employees Union in 1916, and from 1917 to 1921, she served as the fourth vice president of the National Federation of Federal Employees. Ms. Cobb was one of the few women in federal government service during these years and did her part in the “war of independence for women,” according to an article in the Wewoka Times-Democrat.2 She was a “revolutionist when it came to the question of woman’s place, and proper amount of activity in the world outside of the home.”3 Ms. Cobb’s drive to establish the independence of women led her to organize the inaugural suffrage parade on March 3, 1913. This concerted effort on behalf of the women’s movement came at a time when there was a “newer, more liberal, progressive administration under Woodrow Wilson ... and the Democratic Party was forced to take cognizance of the growing demand of women for a share in the government.”4 However, the conservatism of the Old South and New England forced many women suffragists to play the “role of unwanted martyrdom,” as the press portrayed them as exhibiting unladylike attitudes of defiance while picketing the White House.5 During this same period, Ms. Cobb was appointed to the office of probate lawyer based on her work as a law clerk, where she consistently demonstrated her legal aptitude and ability. In 1918, she relocated to Vinita and became a U.S. probate attorney. After serving there for two years, she went to Seminole County and served in the same position for one year. Upon arriving in Oklahoma, she was admitted to practice law before the Oklahoma Supreme Court on June 3, 1918. Settling in Wewoka, it was noted that there was an “unusual stir of chivalry among the pioneer legal practitioner who had any probate practice.”6 The gentlemen curtailed their rough-and-tumble tactics on days when she might be in court, but perhaps the unfailing show of courtesy in the courtroom made her wonder what might be going on behind the scenes. She was constantly on the alert as to “whether any unfortunate Indians were being defrauded of their lands secretly by old ruses.”7 In 1923, Ms. Cobb represented the intervener in a reported decision dealing with constitutional amendments, one of which was the so-called women’s amendment, which would extend the
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