Biography
As a trailblazing attorney, Catharine Waugh McCulloch achieved legal successes for women’s rights that continue to resonate today. She was the first woman in Illinois to serve as a Justice of the Peace (elected April 2, 1907, serving two terms) and played a significant role in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. McCulloch used her legal expertise to expand women’s rights in the public and domestic spheres, as she believed women should not have to choose between one or the other. In her own words she argued: "Family or a career? I'll have both” (“Index,” Evanston News, Sept. 27, 1934, Evanston History Center Subject Files).
Catharine was born on June 4, 1862, in Ransomville, New York, to parents Susan Gouger and Abraham Waugh. Her family moved to a farm near Rockford, Illinois when she was five, and her younger brother was just two. Her father encouraged her to study hard and prepare for a profession, and in 1878, Catharine entered Rockford Female Seminary (now Rockford College) and graduated in 1882, first in her class. After completing college, she pursued a law degree in Chicago, Illinois. One of only two women in her class at Union College of Law (now Northwestern University Law School), McCulloch excelled in school, earning her law degree in 1886. She was admitted to the Illinois Bar that same year.
McCulloch struggled to find work at a law firm in Chicago, so she returned to Rockford and opened her own practice. She was one of only a few dozen women lawyers in Illinois at this time, and law firms were not always welcoming. In response, McCulloch helped establish the Equity Club which was the first association of women lawyers in the country. Women lawyers would write to each other to commiserate about the challenges they faced in their careers and shared advice.
In Rockford, many of McCulloch’s clients were women disenfranchised by the U.S. legal system. She used her legal expertise to help these women navigate issues related to wage discrimination, divorce, probate, child custody, and domestic abuse. These cases would become critical to her evidence and reasoning when arguing in front courts and writing legislation to enhance women’s legal and political status. As the late nineteenth century progressed, McCulloch increasingly became involved in Illinois and national women’s organizations. In addition to running her own firm and participating in multiple organizations, she continued her education. In 1888, she returned to Rockford Female Seminary to earn an M.A., where she wrote her thesis on women's wage equality.
In 1890, Catharine married Frank McCulloch, and they moved to an apartment in Chicago. Frank had been her classmate at Union College of Law. McCulloch’s close friend, the Reverend Anna Howard Shaw, led the couple's marriage ceremony. Catharine and Frank had four children: Hugh born 1891, Hathorn born 1899, daughter Catharine born 1901, and son Frank born 1905. With their family expanding, they moved to a house in Evanston in 1895. Frank and Catharine opened a law partnership in Chicago, where they continued to work on to support women with legal challenges. As her prominence as a lawyer rose, Catharine increasingly took on progressive issues, such as raising the age of consent law in Illinois (from age 14 to 16) and lobbying for the passage of a bill granting wives equal guardianship of their children. In 1889, Catharine argued a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Woman’s suffrage became a main focus of McCulloch's career. She began chairing the Legislative Committee of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA) in 1890 and remained in that position for 22 years. McCulloch authored the Illinois suffrage legislation, which she initially presented to the Illinois Assembly in 1893. Her innovative legal strategy of seeking a partial ballot for women provided the basis for this bill, which gave Illinois women the right to vote on all matters not prohibited by the Illinois Constitution. She continued to present the bill for the next 20 years until it finally passed in 1913. Illinois was the first state east of the Mississippi River to grant women this right, and other Eastern states soon followed, leading to the adoption of the universal suffrage (19th) amendment in 1920.
In addition to campaigning for women’s political equality, McCulloch also used her creativity and writing skills to advance women’s legal status more broadly. She wrote plays that called attention to a woman's need for greater legal protections, and published works of nonfiction and fiction to bring attention to laws relating to mothers and children. As she did with the Illinois suffrage legislation, she firmly believed that women could best advance themselves through legal channels. She thought "women had a special mission to purify and perfect politics" (Shultz, Rima L., and Haste, Adele, eds. Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001).
From 1917 to 1925, McCulloch was President of the Women's Democratic Club of Illinois. She was nominated as their first president and worked to enact women's suffrage and prohibition. She was the first woman to serve as a presidential elector in 1916. In 1936, Rockford College gave her an Honorary Doctorate in recognition of her decades of public service. In 1940 the Illinois Bar Association named her a “senior counselor.”
After a two-week cancer-related illness, Catharine Waugh McCulloch died at age 82 in Evanston Hospital in 1945. She is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, IL. Since her death, McCulloch's life's work has been memorialized through events and dedications honoring the suffrage movement, including a park in Evanston named after her. In 2021, a marker was placed at McCulloch Park to honor her on the National Votes for Women Trail.
Quick Facts:
Father: Abraham Miller Waugh
Mother: Susan (Gouger) Waugh
Spouse: Frank McCulloch
Children: Four: Hugh (1891), Hathorn (1899), Catharine (1901), Frank Waugh (1905)
Education: Rockford Female Seminary (currently known as Rockford College): MA, 1888. Union College of Law (currently known as Northwestern University Law School): Law Degree, 1886. Rockford Female Seminary (currently known as Rockford College): BA, 1882.
Birth Date: June 04, 1862
Birth Place: Ransomville New York, USA
Death Date: April 20, 1945
Death Location: Evanston, Illinois, USA
Burial Place: Memorial Park, Skokie, Illinois
Associated Addresses: 2236 Orrington Avenue, Evanston IL
Sources:
Primary Sources:
"Lady of the Month." Associate Alumnae and Northwestern University Club of Chicago. November 19th, 1937. Drake Hotel, Chicago. Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
"Catharine M'Culloch: Work of a Chicago Woman Leader."Evanston Daily News, 1895. Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
"Evanston Equality League Scores Unique Success at its "All-Star" Meeting Tuesday." Evanston Daily News May 1, 1919. Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
"Evanston Suffragists Elect New Officers,” The Evanston Press, 1910, 8. Evanston History Center Subject Files.
"Honored by the Bar Association,” Newspaper, June 21, 1940, Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
Waugh McCulloch, Catharine. “Illinois Laws Concerning Women” February 1909, Evanston History Center Subject Files.
Waugh McCulloch, Catharine. “Illinois Suffrage Struggle Succeeds After 58 Years: Fairness to Prevail: Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch Tells of Success After Years of Failure.”The Evanston Daily News, June 16, 1913, Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
“Index,” Evanston News, Sept. 27, 1934, Evanston History Center Subject Files.
“Lucy E. Anthony to Catharine and Frank McCulloch.” Letter, May 27, 1940. Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
"Mothers Hear Issues," Evanston Index October 29, 1904.
Obituaries from NY Herald & Chicago Tribune Other Primary Sources: Schultz, Rima Lunin, and Adele Hast, eds.
"Political Rights of Women in Evanston." The Evanston Daily News, November 13, 1913. Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
“Seventieth Anniversary of McCulloch & McCulloch Law Office invitation,” Letter, 1989.
"Suffrage Bazaar is an attraction." Evanston Review, November, 22, 1911, Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
"Woman's Rights New Parlor Game" Evanston Index 9/19/1908 Evanston History Centre Subject Files.
Secondary Sources:
Gilman, Agness and Gertrude Who's Who in IL: Women Makers of History, 1927, McCulloch Family Records.
Sandra L. Ryder, Clearing the Bar: Catharine Waugh McCulloch and Illinois Legal Reform, 17 DePaul J. for Soc. Just. (2024)
Woman Building Chicago, 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary." Bloomington, IN: University Press, 2001.
This Bio was written by Lauren Dain and Lori Osborne.