The Owego Business and Professional Women's' Club in conjunction with Tioga County Historical Museum will present an interpretive program for Women's History Month on March 14, at 7:00 pm, at the Museum on Front Street in Owego.

 Mrs. Belva Lockwood -- the first woman appointed to the District of Columbia Bar and allowed before the US Supreme Court -- invites you and your family to join her for an evening presentation of her life and accomplishments, to be followed by a buffet tea provided by the Owego Historical Society, Museum. 

 All ages welcome for this presentation of the first woman to become a lawyer, and the second woman to run for President in the United States.  

 When Belva was only fourteen she became a teacher, and first learned of the extreme pay differences between men and woman.  She was only making half of what her male colleagues made. She taught at the seminary in Owego for three years.  She eventually moved to Washington, D.C., and after a long hard fight received a law degree.  She later devoted five years petitioning Congress, complete with legal brief, seeking a "Declaratory Act, or Joint Resolution to the effect" that "no woman otherwise qualified, shall be debarred from practice before any United States Court on account of sex."  

 She finally had her bill in Congress passed and became the first woman to practice law before the Supreme Court on March 3, 1879.