Dora Sandoe Bachman (October 8, 1869 – January 1, 1930) was an American lawyer, community leader, and

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

. She was the first woman graduate of the Ohio State University College of Law, in 1893. She was vice-president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association.

Early life and education

Dora Sandoe was born in

Tiffin, Ohio Tiffin is a city in Seneca County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Developed along the Sandusky River, Tiffin is located about southeast of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo. The population was 17,953 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

, and raised in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, the daughter of Henry Harrison Sandoe and Eliza M. Barton Sandoe. Her father was a pastor in the

Reformed Church Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

. She attended Pleasantville Collegiate Institute and Curry University. In 1893, she became the first woman graduate of the Ohio State University College of Law, and the seventh woman admitted to the bar in Ohio.

Career

Bachman taught school as a young woman. She and her husband shared a law practice in Columbus, where she specialized in family law. She was the first woman elected to the Columbus Board of Education, on which she held a seat from 1910 to 1917. She served as board president in 1913, the first woman to be a school board president in an Ohio city. She ran unsuccessfully for a judgeship in 1920. She was attorney for the Florence Crittenden Home in Columbus. She was founding vice-president of the Columbus Home and School Association. She chaired the legislative committee of the Ohio branch of the National Congress of Mothers. Bachman was vice-president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, during the presidency of

Harriet Taylor Upton Harriet Taylor Upton (December 17, 1853 – November 2, 1945) was an American political activist and author. Upton is best remembered as a leading Ohio state and national figure in the struggle for women's right to vote and as the first woman to ...

. She drafted the defeated 1912 Ohio suffrage referendum, and a field worker on the campaign for the 1914 Ohio suffrage referendum, which also failed. In 1913 she was part of the Ohio contingent marching in the large pro-suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. She served as a legal advisor to

Alice Paul Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American Quaker, suffragette, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the foremost leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the Unit ...

in the formation of the

Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage was an American organization formed in 1913 led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns to campaign for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's suffrage. It was inspired by the United Kingdom's suffrage ...

. "Suffrage is but one step in the evolution of woman," she told a 1917 audience. "Economic independence is the next step." She became head of the Social Hygiene Committee of the Ohio

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a nonpartisan American nonprofit political organization. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include Voter registration, registering voters, providing voter information, boosting voter turnout and adv ...

in 1920. Bachman was president of the Columbus Cremation Society, and a member of the Columbus Women's Newspaper Club. She spoke at the

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

in 1914, on "Woman as a Citizen". She spoke to the Columbus chapter of

Kappa Alpha Theta Kappa Alpha Theta (), commonly referred to simply as Theta, is an international Fraternities and sororities, sorority founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established ...

in 1917, on "Ohio Laws Pertaining to Women". She spoke to the Columbus Woman's Homeopathic Society in 1920, on "The Causes of Delinquency" among working girls.

Personal life

Sandoe married fellow lawyer Jacob Leo Bachman. One of their three sons died in infancy in 1904. Her husband died in 1920, and she died in 1930, at the age of 60, in Columbus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachman, Dora Sandoe 1869 births 1930 deaths Lawyers from Columbus, Ohio American women lawyers Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni Suffragists from Ohio