Arabella Mansfield was the first woman in the United States to pass the bar examination and the nation’s first female attorney.
Background
Arabella Mansfield was born on May 23, 1846, on a family farm in Benton Township, Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. Her father left the family in 1850 to join the California gold rush and was killed in a tunnel cave-in 1852. After his death, her mother, still living in Des Moines County, decided to move the family to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, to provide better educational opportunities for Belle and her brother, Washington.
Education
Arabella Mansfield graduated from Mount Pleasant High School in 1862, then entered Iowa Wesleyan University in that same town in the fall of that year. She graduated from Iowa Wesleyan University in 1866 as valedictorian. After a year Belle returned to Mount Pleasant to pursue a master’s degree at Iowa Wesleyan. She also completed a second Bachelor of Arts in law at the same university.
In 1866 Arabella Mansfield accepted a position teaching at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. Then she was reading law in her brother’s law office in Mount Pleasant. In June 1869 she passed the bar exam even though the Iowa Code limited those taking the test to "any white male person." Upon appeal, a court ruling stated that "the affirmative declaration that male persons may be admitted, is not an implied denial to the right of females," and Judge Francis Springer officially certified Belle at the Henry County courthouse in Mount Pleasant. Belle Mansfield did not devote her life to the legal profession, however.
Arabella Mansfield gave public lectures on women’s rights, was an officer in the Iowa Peace Society, became a professor of English literature at the school, and toured Europe with her husband during the 1872-1873 academic year to gather material for a new science curriculum he was preparing for Iowa Wesleyan.
The Mansfields were especially active in the women’s rights movement. In June 1870 Arabella Mansfield was the temporary chair and permanent secretary of the first Iowa Women’s Rights Convention, which was held in Mount Pleasant. In August 1870 she was elected president of the Henry County Woman Suffrage Association, part of the state group, and her husband was elected secretary.
In 1879 John Mansfield accepted an offer to become professor of natural science at Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana. Arabella Mansfield resigned from her position at Iowa Wesleyan to accompany her husband to Indiana. After a nervous collapse in 1884, John went to California for treatment. She worked to support the couple and pay the medical expenses. Arabella Mansfield lectured around the country, served as principal of Mount Pleasant High School (1884-1885), and taught mathematics at Iowa Wesleyan (1885-1886). After her husband’s death, she returned to DePauw University in the fall of 1886. There she served as preceptress of the Ladies Hall (1886), registrar (1886-1893), and dean of the School of Art and Music (1893-1911).
On retirement, Arabella Mansfield moved to the home of her brother, Washington, in Aurora, Illinois, where she died within months of her retirement.