Kilgore, Carrie B. (1838–1908)
Kilgore, Carrie B. (1838–1908)
American lawyer. Born Caroline Burnham in Craftsbury, Vermont, on January 20, 1838; died in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, on June 29, 1908; served a medical apprenticeship in the Hygeio-Therapeutic College of Bellevue Hospital, New York, and earned a medical degree; first woman graduate of the Central Pennsylvania Law School (now University of Pennsylvania), 1883; married Damon Kilgore (a lawyer), in 1876 (died 1888); children: two daughters.
In 1864, Carrie Burnham Kilgore graduated with the degree of doctor of medicine from Bellevue Hospital in New York City; a year later, she went to Philadelphia and began reading Blackstone. After considerable time spent knocking at the door, she managed to graduate from law school in 1883, inspiring the ridicule of the press, bar and bench. When she argued her right to vote before the state Supreme Court, the chief justice pronounced her address "an able and exhaustive argument." In 1886, she was allowed to practice in the federal courts and, in 1890, in the U.S. Supreme Court. After her husband's death in 1888, Kilgore took over and managed his law practice. At age 70, Carrie Kilgore was the only woman passenger in the first hot-air balloon flight of the Philadelphia Aeronautical Recreation Society.