Laura de Force Gordon

Laura de Force Gordon was an American lawyer, editor, and a prominent campaigner for womens rights in the American West. She was the first woman to run a daily newspaper in the United States . She was a key proponent of the Womens Lawyers Bill allowing women to practice law in California, and the related language in the California Constitution allowing women to practice any profession in California.

Laura de Force was born in Pennsylvania to Catherine Doolittle Allan and Abram de Force, in a family of nine children and a father struggling with rheumatism. Despite the hardships, she was fortunate enough to become welleducated and master oral communications. After the death of one of their children in 1855, the whole de Force family turned to Spiritualism. Laura became particularly gifted in communicating with the spirits and toured the Northeast with public exhibitions. During one such event, she met Charles H. Gordon, and married him in 1862. They lived in New Orleans, Louisiana during the American Civil War, but in 1867 moved west to Nevada, and finally settled in Mokelumne , California in 1870.

Source: Wikipedia