Frances Tilton Weaver
American lawyer
Frances Tilton Weaver (1904–2003) was an American attorney from Illinois.
History
Frances Tilton Weaver was born in 1904 in Hays, Kansas. During her formative years, her family relocated to the midwestern town of Valparaiso, Indiana. While in Valparaiso, Tilton attended the Valparaiso University School of Law; in 1925, she became the first female graduate in the law school's history.
Tilton was admitted to practice law before the Indiana Supreme Court in 1925, the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1927, and the United States District Court of Illinois in 1929. She was reported to be the youngest woman attorney to have licenses to practice law in the state supreme courts, and she was the first woman ever to practice law in Porter County, Indiana. Tilton practiced law in Chicago until 1933, at which time she joined her father in practice in Valparaiso.
She was a member of the Valparaiso Public Library Board, the YMCA Board, the City Planners Commission, the League of Women Voters, and she was listed in the 1958 Marquis edition of "Who's Who of American Women." During the 1930s, Tilton helped organize the Porter Memorial Hospital Guild.
Tilton died in 2003.
Honors and recognition
She was an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Kappa and the Valparaiso Women's Club.
The public source identifies “Frances Tilton Weaver” as american lawyer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Frances, Tilton and Weaver.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Frances Tilton Weaver”, the useful work is to connect “american lawyer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 6, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q5478978. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904, 2003, 1925 and 1927.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Frances Tilton Weaver”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Frances Tilton Weaver primary sources, Frances Tilton Weaver archive and Frances research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Frances Tilton Weaver”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Frances Tilton Weaver” 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.