Clara Shortridge Foltz
American lawyer and women's rights activist (1849-1934)
Clara Shortridge Foltz (July 16, 1849 – September 2, 1934) was an American lawyer, the first female lawyer on the West Coast, and the pioneer of the idea of the public defender. The Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles was renamed after her in 2002, and is now known as the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
Early life and legal education
Foltz was born Clarissa Shortridge in Milton, Indiana, to Talitha and Elias Willetts Shortridge (a lawyer and preacher). Prior to the Civil War, the family moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where Foltz attended a co-educational school (rare at the time). In December 1864, at age 15, she eloped with a farmer and Civil War veteran named Jeremiah D. Foltz, and they began having children. However, he had difficulty supporting his family. The Foltzes moved several times, first to Portland, Oregon, and finally to San Jose, California, in 1872. During these times, she contributed articles to the New Northwest and the San Jose Mercury.
Around 1876, her husband abandoned her and their five children. She began studying law in the office of a local judge, in part through the support of local suffragette Sarah Knox-Goodrich.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Clara Shortridge Foltz” as american lawyer and women's rights activist (1849-1934). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5126040. VIAF identifies the subject as 7327778. The Library of Congress control number is nr2002031134. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1849, 1934, 2002 and 1864.
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This entry incorporates text from “Clara Shortridge Foltz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.