Lease, Mary Elizabeth Clyens
1850 - 1933

Details
Alias: Mary Elizabeth Clyens
Born: 9/11/1850 in Ridgway, Pennsylvania
Died: 10/30/1933
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Professional Facts

Practice Area:
Civil Rights
Corporations
Profession:
Corporate law
Women's rights
Regions and States of Practice:
KS, Midwest
Positions During Her Career:
Private practitioner in Wichita, Kansas (1885?-1897)
President and founder of the Hypatia Club (1886)
President and founder of the Wichita Equal Suffrage Association (1886)
Master Workman of the Knights of Labor (1880's)
Lectured publicly, and is best known for her committment to the Populist Party
President of the Kansas State Board of Charities and Corrections (1893)
Wrote for the New York World (1897
Paid lecturer for an evening program of the New York Board of Education (1908)
Firsts:
Woman to be appointed President of the Kansas State Board of Charities and Corrections (1893)


Further Research Materials

References:
Dawn Bradley Berry, The 50 Most Influential Women in American Law. Los Angeles: Contemporary Books (1996).
MaryJo Wagner, Prairie Populists. In Karen Blair, Northwest Women's Heritage, Seattle: Northwest Center for Research on Women (1985)
Susan Estelle Kelso, Less corn and more hell in performance, 8 (2) Plainswoman 7 (October 1984)
Edward T. James, Notes and Documents: More Corn, Less Hell? A Knights Of Labor Glimpse Of Mary Elizabeth Lease, 16 Labor History 408 (1975)
Richard B. Morris, William Greenleaf, and Robert H. Ferrell, The Alliances and Populism. In Richard B. Morris, William Greenleaf, and Robert H. Ferrell, America: A History of the People (428-430). Rand McNally & Co., Chicago (1971)
Marie MacDonald, Wichitan Was 'Doing Her Thing' 70 Years Ago; Populism, Women's Rights Among Causes of Rebel Mary E. Lease, July 5, 1969, at 2
O. Gene Clanton, Intolerant Populist? The Disaffection of Mary Elizabeth Lease, 34 Kansas Historical Quarterly 189 (1968)
James C. Malin, A Concern About Humanity: Notes on Reform, 1872-1912, at the National and Kansas Levels of Thought (84-87). Lawrence, Kansas (1964)
The Return of a Wanderer; What Dennison Thought About an old Friend, Eagle, April 4, 1897
A. L. Livermore, Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Foremost Woman Politician of the Times, Metropolitan Magazine, November 1896, at 263
T. A. Eilson, Greek Meets Greek, Concordia Times, July 24, 1891

Student Papers:
Potential Paper Topics:
Lease's legal career in New York
How Lease used her legal skills to become an effective orator, personal advocate, and politician