Laura de Force Gordon  Laura de Force Gordon (née Laura de Force; August 17, 1838 – April 5, 1907) was a California lawyer, newspaper publisher, and a prominent suffragette. She was the first woman to run a daily newspaper in the United States (the "Stockton Daily Leader", 1874), and the second female lawyer admitted to practice in California. As an activist, Gordon was a key proponent of the Woman Lawyer's Bill, which allowed women to practice law in California. She also pushed for the inclusion of a section in the California Constitution that prohibited the state from barring women from practicing any profession. Laura de Force Gordon (née Laura de Force) was born in North East, Pennsylvania, on August 17, 1838, to Abram de Force and Catherine Doolittle Allen. The family had nine children. Her father struggled with rheumatism, but the children (including at least two daughters) received education in the public schools. After the death of one of the children, the family turned to Spiritualism in 1855. Gordon toured the Northeast of the United States giving public speeches, starting as young as 15, including a speech in Boston at age 18. During one such event, she met a Scottish physician named Charles H. Gordon, and married him in 1862. They moved west gradually, first to New Orleans (where he was posted during the Civil War), then to Nevada, and finally settling in California in 1870. Before 1878, she divorced her husband on grounds of adultery. She later referred to herself frequently as a widow, rather than a divorcée, since widowhood was "a more acceptable explanation ... for ... lack of male protection". In 1873, Gordon became an editor and reporter for the "Stockton Narrow Gauge". In 1874, she bought the "Stockton Weekly Leader" and converted into a daily newspaper, becoming the first female publisher of a paper in the United States. Between 1876 and 1878, she published the "Oakland Daily Democrat". During that period, she also served as a correspondent for the Sacramento Bee and other papers, with a press desk on the floor of the state Assembly. She also served as an organizer of the Pacific Coast Press Association. In the late 1860s, Gordon's speaking career turned from Spiritualism to women's rights, perhaps influenced by Spiritualism's emphasis on egalitarianism and equality between the sexes. Gordon's February 19, 1868 speech in San Francisco, titled "The Elective Franchise: Who Shall Vote", was the first in California on the suffrage movement.