Cynthia Eloise Cleveland (August 13, 1845 – April 1932) was an American lawyer, politician, writer, and temperance worker. She was the first woman lawyer admitted to the bar in the Dakota Territory.
Early life Cynthia Eloise Cleveland was born in Canton, New York, the daughter of Erin Cleveland and Laura Marsh Cleveland.Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book (1902): 10. She earned law degrees from Howard University in 1899 and 1900.Who's Who in America (Marquis Who's Who 1911): 375. She was described as a cousin or relative of President Grover Cleveland, though she admitted that the connection was distant and they did not know each other."Mr. Cleveland's Sensible Cousin" Chicago Daily Tribune (March 22, 1888): 6."Cynthia E. Cleveland; The President's Relative Who Has Written a Sensational Book" Harrisburg Telegraph (November 22, 1887): 2. via Newspapers.com
Career In 1883 Cleveland was based in Pierre, South Dakota"A Dakota University" The Inter Ocean (May 25, 1883): 5. via Newspapers.com when she became the first woman to practice law in the Dakota Territory."Women in Dakota: What the First Lady Lawyer in that Territory Says of their Chances and Position" Washington Post (February 18, 1884): 4. She lectured across the region as president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in the Dakotas, and worked for prohibition to be written into the constitutions of North Dakota and South Dakota at statehood.Jayme L. Job, "Miss Cynthia Eloise Cleveland" Dakota Notebook (December 9, 2009). She also raised funds for a Presbyterian university to be built in South Dakota. Having passed the civil service examination in 1885, she worked for the U. S. Treasury Department from 1886 until 1911, as a post office inspector, and lived in Washington, D.C. after 1888."Cynthia E. Cleveland: An Activist in the Dakotas" in Jerry L. Bryant, Barbara Fifer, eds., Deadwood Saints and Sinners (Farcountry Press 2017).
Cleveland wrote two novels set in Washington D. C., See-Saw: or Civil Service in the Departments (1887)Cynthia Eloise Cleveland, See-Saw: or Civil Service in the Departments (F. B. Dickerson 1887). and His Honor; or Fate's Mysteries: A Thrilling Realistic Story of the United States Army (1889).Cynthia Eloise Cleveland, His Honor, or Fate's Mysteries; A Thrilling Realistic Story of the United States Army (American News 1889).James A. Kaser, The Washington, D. C. of Fiction: A Research Guide (Scarecrow Press 2006): 36, 318. See-Saw was considered barely fictional, based as it was so closely on her own experiences with the civil service. "Miss Cynthia E. Cleveland's life is identical with that of her heroine," observed the Chicago Tribune, "except her description of herself, which is entirely different.""Another Literary Cleveland" Chicago Tribune (October 25, 1887): 7. via Newspapers.com
She was a member of the Association of American Authors, the Woman's Relief Corps, and the Woman's National Press Association.Gerald L. Cooper, The Cotton States and International Exposition and South, Illustrated (Illustrator Company 1896): 180-181. She spoke against women's suffrage, explaining that "Women in public business know how hard it is to struggle against being considered unfeminine. The ballot would make Amazons of women."
Personal life After she retired from government work, Cleveland ran a tourist hotel in the Chesapeake Bay. She died in 1932, aged 87 years, at home in Kensington, Maryland."Cynthia Cleveland, First S. D. Woman Lawyer, is Dead" Argus Leader (April 14, 1932): 15. via Newspapers.com
See also List of first women lawyers and judges in South Dakota
References
External links Jerry L. Bryant, "Cynthia in the Dakotas" (biographical essay in manuscript). "Remembering Cynthia Cleveland" Historical Marker, the online newspetter of the Lawrence County (SD) Historical Society (January 26, 2011).