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Footnotes
1. The Shortridge family had also
moved to San Jose, where Foltz's brother Charles later published
and edited the San Jose Mercury newspaper.
2. She obtained a place in the offices
of C. C. Stephens of San Jose. 1 The Bay Of San Francisco 670
(1892). Law schools were not to become major training grounds
for lawyers until almost two decades later. At this time, would-be
attorneys studied in the offices of those already admitted to
practice until they themselves could pass the bar examinations.
3. At this time women had been practicing
medicine in California for over twenty years; the California Board
of Medical Examiners began issuing licenses to physicians under
the Medical Practice of 1867.
4. Foltz, Struggles and Triumphs
of a Woman Lawyer, New Am. Woman, Oct. 1916, at 11. According
to the California Code of Civil Procedure in effect at that time,
an attorney could be admitted to practice in all courts of the
state by showing proof of good moral character and passing an
oral examination in open court before the justices of the Supreme
Court. An attorney could gain admission to practice before a particular
district or county court by showing proof of good moral character
and passing an oral exam in that court. Cal. Stat. 1861. ch. l,
§§ 275-77 at 64 (repealed 1931).
5. Id. at 10. Foltz later
wrote that the reason given her to justify excluding women from
the college was that "The rustle of the ladies' garments
would distract the attention of the young gentleman." Foltz
"was hardly able to appreciate their argument as a legal
proposition."
6. See Woman's Herald of
Industry, Oct 1882, at 4, col. 4. In this advertisement, Foltz
described herself as "Clara S. Foltz, Attorney and Counselor
at Law... Probate and Divorce Matters a Specialty." The Rules
of Professional Conduct, which forbid advertising by attorneys,
were not adopted by the California Supreme Court until May 24,
1928, 46 years after this advertisement.
7. C. Gilb, 1 Notable American Women
643 (E. James ed. 1971). In recognition of her activity and expertise
in the area of penal reform, Foltz was appointed to the California
State Board of Charities and Corrections at the age of 60. She
was the first woman to serve on the board, where she was active
for two years.
8. Cal. Stat. 1893, ch. 153, §
1, at 183. The statute restricted parole to defendants who had
had no prior felony convictions and who had not otherwise served
time in a penal institution.
9. She campaigned across California
for the Republican party in 1880, 1882, and 1884. In 1886, she
supported a Democrat, Washington Bartlett, when his Republican
opponent for governor, John F. Swift, expressed the opinion that
a woman had no right to be a lawyer. Bartlett won, and he appointed
Foltz to a State Normal School trusteeship, the only state office
then open to women. With her active support, her brother Samuel
M. Shortridge ran for the United States Senate, winning a seat
which he occupied from 1921 to 1932.
10. Yet Foltz supported herself
very well. Along with her legal practice, she developed extensive
business interests. In 1905 she organized a women's department
for the United Bank and Trust Company in San Francisco and began
to publish a monthly magazine, Oil Fields and Furnaces,
in the same city. She headed Foltz Oil Producers Syndicate from
1921 to 1922. This venture came to an end in August of 1922 when
State Corporations Commissioner E. M. Daugherty suspended sales
of shares in the corporation, for reasons he did not disclose.
The San Francisco Examiner speculated that Foltz's venture may
not have complied with the corporations commission regulation
that 80 percent of money invested in oil drilling companies must
be spent on development. S.F. Examiner, Aug. 12, 1922. Foltz also
apparently operated a Los Angeles real estate agency, the American
Woman's Little Farms Company. See New Am. Woman, June 1916, at
back cover (advertisement).
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