Friday, July 9, 2010 Woman marshal in the Gateway to the West
Saint Louis, Missouri, calls itself the Gateway to the West. In
the late 1880s, the city was beset by a ring of counterfeiters.
But an intrepid U.S. Marshal put an end to their activities --
U.S. Marshal Phoebe W. Couzins. And it was not the first time
she had led her deputies in the pursuit and capture of criminals
who broke federal law. Phoebe was made a deputy marshal by her
father, U.S. Marshal J.E.D. Couzins, in 1887. She was the first.
Couzins was confident Phoebe could do the job because she'd
already racked up a list of firsts. She was the first woman
graduate of Washington University Law School in Saint Louis. She
was the first woman to pass the Missouri bar exam. She was also
the first professional woman lawyer in the United States.
Becoming a U.S. Marshal by President Grover Cleveland merely
added another first for Phoebe. She was a well-known campaigner
for women's rights, but died in 1913, seven years before the
19th amendment gave nat