Sold – Susan B. Anthony Thanks the First Woman to Cast a Vote for her Efforts

In 1871, Marilla M. Ricker had the distinction of being the first U.S. woman to cast a vote (it was not counted), using the argument that women were “electors” under the Fourteenth Amendment. She then read law in Washington, D.C., and passed the bar with the highest grade of anyone admitted there in 1882.

She determined to use her knowledge to help the downtrodden and she became known as the “prisoner’s friend,” successfully challenging a district law that indefinitely confined poor criminals unable to pay fees. In 1890, Ricker became the first woman to practice law in New Hampshire. The next year she became the ninth woman admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court bar. She fought for women’s rights as well, and was an active member of the National Woman Suffrage Association, an organization created by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The New Hampshire Women’s Bar Association has a Marilla M. Ricker Achievement Award that is presented annually to women lawyers who have achieved professional excellence, advanced opportunities for women in the legal profession, or performed exemplary public service on behalf of women.

Here Anthony, her esteemed colleague, thanks her for her years of effort for worthy causes.

Typed Letter Signed, Rochester, N.Y., March 24, 1900, to Mrs. Ricker, whom she addresses as “My Dear Friend.””In my list of presents, I have just come across my Ingersoll spoon from you. Though I expect you are still in Washington, not knowing your address, I shall send this note to Dover, and I hope you will find it there safely when you return to your New Hampshire home. It was a splendid convention and congressional hearing that we had in Washington, to say nothing of sundry receptions, dinners, etc. etc. Thanking you…for every good word and work given to the world by your own good self, I am, Very affectionately yours…”