To Believe In Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America - A History – A Compelling Landmark Account of 19th and 20th Century Rights
by Lillian Faderman
Partner Ellen Annette Martin
Queer Places:
University of Michigan, 500 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
143 LaSalle St (now 211 S LaSalle St, Chicago, IL 60604, USA)
219 W Maple St, Lombard, IL 60148, USA
Forest Hill Cemetery, St Charles Rd &, Riford Rd, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, United States
Mary Fredrika Perry (January 25, 1851 - June 3, 1883) was an early American legal pioneer whose life and career represented a series of groundbreaking firsts for women in the legal profession.
Born on January 25, 1851, in Mendham, New Jersey, Perry spent a key portion of her youth in Coldwater, Michigan — the same hometown that would later produce civil rights pioneer Frances Kellor.
Perry attended the University of Michigan Law School, graduating in 1875. During her time in law school, she met Ellen A. Martin.
Following graduation, Perry and Martin moved to Illinois, where Martin was admitted to the state bar in January 1876. They established their practice in Chicago at 143 LaSalle Street under the firm name Perry & Martin.
This establishment occurred just years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Bradwell v. Illinois (1873), which had upheld the state’s refusal to license Myra Bradwell simply because she was a married woman.
Perry & Martin is widely recognized as the first female law partnership in American history.
The partners frequently represented poor women gratis (pro bono). Legend held that Mary Fredrika Perry never lost a case.
In 1880, Perry and Martin hosted delegates of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) at their law offices during their Chicago convention.
Historians studying 19th-century women's networks identify the relationship between Mary Fredrika Perry and Ellen Martin as a prominent example of an early same-sex domestic partnership.
Perry and Martin lived together on West Maple Street in Lombard, Illinois, commuting daily into Chicago for their law practice. Their cohabitation and shared professional life functioned as a lifelong domestic partnership.
Historian Lillian Faderman highlights Perry and Martin in her seminal book, To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America, examining how early female professionals relied on romantic friendships and domestic partnerships with other women to build independent careers in male-dominated fields.
Following Perry's premature death on June 3, 1883, at age 32, Ellen Martin continued practicing law for over three decades. She insisted on retaining Perry’s name in the firm title (Perry & Martin) until her own retirement shortly before her death in 1915.
References:
|
To Believe In Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America - A History – A Compelling Landmark Account of 19th and 20th Century Rights by Lillian Faderman |
Other references:
Support this project
This website is a passion project researched, developed, and funded entirely by me. If you find the content valuable and would like to help support the ongoing research and hosting costs, any contribution is deeply appreciated.
Thank you for keeping this independent resource alive!
My books on Amazon: Elisa Rolle's books