The State Bar Association of North Dakota Spring 2013 Gavel Magazine | Page 28

FIRST WOMAN LAWYER

REMEMBERING IDA CRUM: NORTH DAKOTA’S FIRST WOMAN LAWYER
by Ted Smith, Supreme Court Law Librarian
Ida May Crum was born July 30, 1859, in Lake City, Minnesota. In September, 1880 she married David Henry Lyman; he dies in 1884. One daughter, Anna, was born to them in 1881. After Henry's death, she moved to Moorhead, graduated from Moorhead Normal School (now Minnesota State University - Moorhead) and taught school. On April 4, 1892, she entered into contentious marriage with Taylor Crum, a Fargo attorney. The 1900 census, taken about four months after the divorce, shows Ida using her first married name (Lyman), living with daughter, and lists her occupation as lawyer. I have been unable to find any mention of her in the 1910 census (trying Geer, Lyman, Crum or White); her daughter is now married and living in Steele continued on page 29

The achievements of Helen Hamilton, first woman graduate of the University of North Dakota School of Law, are well documented and celebrated. Conversely, the first woman lawyer in North Dakota, while being somewhat of a sensation in the state at the time, has been (deservedly?) relegated to the edges of obscurity. Ida May Crum became the first woman attorney in North Dakota when, on September 7, 1897, she passed the bar examination and was admitted to the North Dakota Bar. She then argued her first case, which she won, before the North Dakota Supreme Court on October 20, 1897. When disbarment proceedings were instituted against her husband in early November, 1897 and he was sent to jail, one newspaper wryly commented, "It appears to be a lucky thing for Taylor Crum that his wife has been admitted to practice. ...Mrs. Crum could attend to the legal business of the family." The disbarment proceedings went up to the Supreme Court and Mrs. Crum argued the case for her husband. He was disbarred and less than a month after the court's decision, she petitioned for a divorce. Divorces between attorneys can be messy. Mrs. Crum filed for divorce in May, 1898, Mr. Crum filed for divorce in December, 1899, and Mrs. Crum was granted the divorce in February 1900. At the time Mrs. Crum filed, the paper reported "She has threatened to institute divorce proceedings on several occasions, but their domestic troubles have always been smoothed over until this time." Various charges were leveled against the opposing party; she took the money from their practice and threw his stuff from their living quarters and refused to live with him; meanwhile someone (inferring him) had thrown a brick through the transom in her room. In the end, she got the divorce and $500 and he got what he wanted, "rid of the woman." Much of Ida's subsequent legal career and activities remains a mystery. After the divorce, the only reference to Mrs. Crum acting as a lawyer is a 1908 Grand Forks Herald piece mentioning her as a member of the Walsh County Bar.

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The Gavel Spring 2013