Editor’s note: This is part of a series about local historical figures. The following contains information from a 1976 article about Lucy Upson, the first female to practice law in Kosciusko County. The article is from the files of the Kosciusko County Historical Society. 

WARSAW — Fifty years is a long time to be in one profession. But Lucy Upson, the first female to practice law in Kosciusko County, will have 50 years as a member of the American Bar Association behind her next July and she’s still not sure when she will retire.

Lucy Upson in 1975

Her first step toward retirement was in 1957 when she sold her building in Warsaw and built an addition onto her home in Winona Lake. That was for semi-retirement.

But as she said, “I still have clients and I still have interest.” So somehow she never got around to retiring. The fact that she wrote more than 500 wills last year proves it.

Upson started in law as a legal secretary with the Vesey Law Offices, Fort Wayne, in 1909, following her graduation from the Fort Wayne International Business College.

She had a brief vacation (less than a year) from the field when she moved with her family to Vancouver, Wash., and worked at the Vancouver National Bank. The family returned to Kosciusko County a year later, and she worked for Stookey and Anglin as a legal secretary. 

After both partners had died, she discovered that she had clients. She had read a substantial amount of law and decided she should work for a degree. She enrolled in a law correspondence course from Chicago, obtained her L. L. B. degree and was admitted to the bar in 1926.

Her career has brought challenges and satisfaction to the 88-year-old attorney who conquered new frontiers by entering law. When she first entered law, the only other female attorneys she knew were in Indianapolis. Besides being the first woman to practice law in Kosciusko County, she was the first woman attorney to appear in Elkhart Circuit Court. Today she is still the only woman attorney in the county. In addition to working in Kosciusko and Elkhart counties, she has had cases venued to all the surrounding counties and is familiar with the courts.

Upson contends that she has never been much of an orator. Her method has been one of successful compromise on behalf of her clients. As she says, “I was always more of a compromiser than I was a fighter in court. I’ll say that I was unusually lucky at being able to be at the right place or knowing the right thing to say at the right time to work things out.”

In recounting her most interesting case, she pointed out that it was not terribly dramatic, but very satisfying. It was a damage suit where a land owner had assaulted a tenant in an effort to get the tenant to move. She came to Upson to file charges. The case was venued to Elkhart County, and she was against what she would term the best lawyer in Northern Indiana, Sam Parker, although a lot of people said he was the best in the state.

A 1959 photo of Lucy Upson

It was a jury trial and the first time Parker had been in a courtroom with a woman. That woman won $500 in damages for her client. She said “I’ve never been an orator, but I made my speech to the jury and won.”

Part of her success she attributes to her care in preparation. She cited several incidents where her extra attention to detail made the difference between winning and losing the case. 

“If you’re a woman in a field like this, where men are in the same field, you have to be sure that you are prepared. A lot of men go into court not very well prepared.”

Asked if she had suffered discrimination because of her sex throughout her career, she could think of only one time. On that occasion she was involved in a case that required working with Morrison Rockhill. When she called him about the case, he told her he simply couldn’t work it out with her because he couldn’t talk to a woman. That was the end of the conversation. Rockhill was in partnership with Walter Brubaker, who contacted her and worked out a compromise on the case. Eventually, according to Upson, she and Rockhill became fairly good friends and respected one another.

Concerning the Equal Rights Amendment and the National Organization of Women, she states, “If you’re a woman and want to compete with men, you can do that without an organization and being represented. I refused to join NOW for that reason.

“I’ve never asked special favors because I was a woman. I transacted business as a business person along with other lawyers.”

Her strongest interests during her career have been estates, real estate contracts and tax work.

Ironically, Upson doesn’t plan to leave an estate. Her philosophy is to enjoy her money and travel rather than leave any estate that will give a large fee to an attorney.

Traveling is her favorite hobby and she has visited all 50 states. She used to enjoy traveling by car, but now flying is her favorite mode of transportation.

The most spectacular sight she recalls was on a flight to Alaska. “We went up over the water, and you could see all the glaciers and the blocks of ice falling from the glaciers into the bay.” 

On the return flight she was impressed by the beauty “when the sun came up and it seemed that all of Canada was ablaze with sunlight from the plane. I have never seen anything so magnificent as that view from the plane.”

People who meet her or who knew her years ago find it remarkable that she is still active in her profession and interested in traveling.

Even more remarkable was her reaction last January when she broke her hip. For many older people, such an injury causes deep depression and a feeling of hopelessness. For Upson, it was something to get over so she could get back into the swing of things.

Before she was completely out from under the anesthetic, she was asking her secretary, Kay Mitterling, to bring her work into the hospital. While she recuperated at Miller’s Merry Manor, she received clients and transacted business. Income tax time was approaching and she had to try to keep ahead of her work. Nurses wheeled her down the hall to answer the phone. 

She didn’t get her strength back overnight, but she progressed from being confined to bed, to a wheelchair to a walker to the heavy cane she uses today.

Her strong will and determination are evident through her experiences with the broken hip. As soon as she could, she began to think about getting back on her feet. Mitterling said, “She was determined that she was going to walk again. She cooperated fully with the doctors and the therapists.”

She has been active in several organizations, besides the American Bar Association. She is a charter member of the local Business and Professional Women’s Club. The club was organized in 1927, and she served as the second president from 1929-1931. She is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a charter member of the Kosciusko County Historical Society. She drew up the by-laws for the organization when it was formed 10 years ago. In addition, she is a member of the Winona Lake Literary Club and the Winona Lake Presbyterian Church.

— Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels