Ellen Spencer Mussey (May 13, 1850 - April 21, 1936) was a lawyer, educator, and pioneer in the field of women's rights to legal education. Mussey self-tutored in the law, helped establish educational opportunities for women in that field, and campaigned to improve women's legal rights. She was the daughter of Platt Rogers Spencer, a reformer and promoter of the Spencerian Method, the widely used form of handwriting.
Biography
Mussey was born on May 13, 1850, in Geneva, Ohio, United States. Between the age of 12 and the time of her father's death, when she was age 14, she was an assistant at his penmanship school. Thereafter she took up residence with relatives and attended Rice's Young Ladies' Seminary in Poughkeepsie, New York, Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, and Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois.
In 1871 she married Reuben D. Mussey, a former Union Army colonel, who was nominated but not confirmed to the grade of brevet brigadier general; he was also a successful lawyer. Having been denied admission at the law schools of National University and Columbian College (now George Washington University), Ellen Mussey tutored herself in the field of law and underwent legal training in her husband's law office and began to practice law. Reuben Mussey died May 29, 1892,
Mussey died on April 21, 1936, in Washington, D.C.
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
- Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. .
- Hunt, Roger D. and Jack R. Brown, Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, Inc., 1990. .
- Golemba, Beverly E., Lesser-Known Women: A Biographical Dictionary. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 1992 .