Nellie Carlin

Nellie Carlin
Carlin, from a 1920 publication
Born(1864-06-24)June 24, 1864
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedSeptember 4, 1948(1948-09-04) (aged 84)
Miami, Florida, U.S.
OccupationsLawyer, suffragist

Nellie Carlin (June 24, 1864[1] – September 4, 1948)[2] was an American attorney and suffragist based in Chicago. She was second president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois and a vice-president of the National Women Lawyers Association. She succeeded Mary Bartelme as Cook County Public Guardian in 1913.

Early life and education

Carlin was born in Chicago, the daughter of Stephen Carlin and Catherine Carlin. Her parents were both born in Ireland.[3] She graduated from the Chicago College of Law in 1896, and was admitted to the bar that year.[4]

Career

Carlin was an associate of Clarence Darrow's law firm from 1896 until 1910. Two of the cases she worked on were wrongful death suits following the Iroquois Theatre fire in 1903 and another massive fire on Lake Michigan in 1909.[5]

Carlin was an active member of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, and marched in the 1913 women's suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.[5] She was a co-founder and the second president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois[5][6] and vice-president of the National Women Lawyers Association.[4] She was an officer of the Women's Municipal Ownership League of Chicago.[7] As co-founder and president of the Woman's Protective Association of Chicago, Carlin advocated for a farm colony for the "treatment and reformation" of women offenders in Chicago, where they would "be better fitted physically, mentally, and financially to resist temptations" and avoid the stigma of a jail term.[8]

In 1913 she succeeded Mary Bartelme to become the second woman to serve as Cook County Public Guardian,[9] appointed by Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne.[10] She ran for municipal judge in 1914[11] and 1916.[5] She served as Assistant Cook County State's Attorney from 1918 to 1919, after which she returned to private practice.[12] She attended the first convention of the National Women Lawyers Association in Minneapolis in 1923.[13] In 1924, she attended the conventions of the London Bar Association and American Bar Association, to report about the meetings for the Chicago Legal News.[14]

Personal life

Carlin raised her nephew, William L. Carlin, who followed her into the legal profession.[5][15] She retired to Florida in the 1920s, and died in 1948, at her home in Miami, Florida, at the age of 84.[2][4]

References

  1. ↑ Her birth year varies in sources. Her New York Times obituary reported her age in 1948 as 84, indicating an 1864 date; this agrees with her appearance as a 6 year old in the 1870 census. But June 1866 is her birthdate in the 1900 census, via Ancestry; and many sources give 1869 as her birth year, and she gave 1869 as her birth year on a 1920 passport application, via Ancestry.
  2. 1 2 "Obituary". The Miami News. 1948-09-05. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
  3. ↑ "Mrs. Horigan Dies at Beach". The Miami News. 1930-04-14. p. 11. Retrieved 2026-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 "Miss Nellie Carlin". The New York Times. 1948-09-06. p. 13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Wood, Brian (2020-05-27). "Member Spotlight Suffragist Nellie Carlin". Women's Bar Association of Illinois. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
  6. ↑ Adelman, Charlotte (1992-06-01). WBAI: The First 75 Years. Turner Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-68162-561-4.
  7. ↑ "The Women's Municipal Ownership League of Chicago". The Public. 7 (364): 807. 1905-03-25.
  8. ↑ Bres, Rose Falls (1917). The Law and the Woman. American Printing Office. pp. 82–83.
  9. ↑ "Women in the Legal Profession". Women Lawyers' Journal. 2 (6): 74. August 1913.
  10. ↑ "Gov. Dunne Names Woman for Big Job; Nellie Carlin Appointed Public Guardian of Cook County". Morris Herald-News. 1913-05-16. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Chicago Woman Enters Race for Municipal Judge". The Minneapolis Journal. 1914-07-13. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Darrow, Clarence (2013). In the Clutches of the Law: Clarence Darrow's Letters. University of California Press. pp. 473–. ISBN 978-0-520-95458-8.
  13. ↑ Bres, Rose Falls (1923-07-29). "Women Lawyers Trace Woman's Rise to Admission to Schools in 1804". The Minneapolis Journal. p. 49. Retrieved 2026-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Woman Represents U.S. in World Conference". Chicago Tribune. 1924-07-02. p. 23. Retrieved 2026-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "W. L. Carlin, Darrow's Law Partner, Dies; Last Member of Famous Firm". Chicago Tribune. 1963-10-21. p. 54. Retrieved 2026-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
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