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Montana Freemason March 2015
before the law department of the University of
California. He authored the article on “Mines and
Minerals” published in the Cyclopedia of Law, which
is considered as authority on the subjects. Judge
Clayberg organized a law department at the University
of Montana in 1911 and was made honorary dean,
filling the chair of mining law and code pleadings
until 1912. He was a Mason held his membership in
Michigan.
Understanding Equality
In December of 1889, prominent Freemasons and
Attorneys Cornelius Hedges, Wilbur Fisk Sanders and
John B. Clayberg demonstrated their pioneering spirit
again and an understanding of equality. Montana
owes much to these men for the development and
advancement from a Territory to Statehood, as well
as the positive growth of a civil society. The three
Attorneys assembled in Helena as the Board of Bar
Examiners to conduct the bar exam on Ella Knowles
for the Montana Bar. On December 26, 1889, Ella
Knowles became the first woman admitted to practice
before the State Supreme Court and Montana’s first
female lawyer and its first female notary public.
Cornelius Hedges wrote:
“Examined Miss Knowles for admission to the Bar and
was surprised to find her so well read. She beat all
that I have ever examined.”
Ella J. Knowles-Haskell was born in 1860
in Northwood Ridge, New Hampshire. Her
determination and tenacity helped her became the
first woman lawyer in Montana, the first woman to run
for a major political office as state Attorney General, Burt, Professor Emeritus of Mining at the University of
the first women to serve as Assistant State Attorney
General and represent a State before the State
Supreme Court. Ella was also the state’s first woman
to be a notary public. Ella had read law in the office
of Joseph W. Kinsley (whose Masonic membership
was held in Massachusetts). During her first year
as a lawyer, Ella continued to work with Joseph W.
Kinsley. Ads identified the operation as “Kinsley and
Knowles” with offices in the Helena Masonic Temple.
Ella was active in many civic organizations including
Volume 91 Number 1
the Order of Eastern Star (Butte Chapter No. 39). 7
She opened her own law office in 1891. In 1896 she
was elected President of the Montana Women Suffrage
Association and later that year she was selected
to attend the Populist Party National Convention.
She married Henri Haskell (a member of Glendive
Masonic No. 31) to whom she lost the election as State
Attorney General, occurring some 22 years before
Montana women received the right to vote. Ella later
practiced Law in Butte for the next fourteen years. She
became an expert on mining and corporate law, and
during her career she argued and won cases before
both the U.S. Circuit Court and U.S. Supreme Court.
She also lectured extensively on Woman’s Rights. In
1997, Ella Knowles was inducted into the Gallery of
Outstanding Montanans in the Capitol Rotunda in
Helena.
References:
1. John M. Hodson, William H. Upton, Jonas W. Brown,
Cornelius Hedges, Masonic History of the Northwest
(1902).
2. Paula Petrik, No Step Backward: Women and Family on
the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier, Helena, Montana
1865-1900, Montana Historical Society (March, 1990).
3. Roger Burt, The Role of Fraternal Organization in
Migration and Informal Labour Organizations in Mining
Communities (April 12, 2014) and Freemasonry and
Business Networking During the Victorian Period. Roger
Exeter and member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076
and Secretary for the QCC.
4. Reid Gardiner, For This and Succeeding Generations,
the Cornelius Hedges Story. ISBN 13: 978-0-9832423-
2-1.
5. Montana the magazine of Western History (Winter
1973), Montana Historical Society.
6. Capitol Capsules : Legislative Minutes Presented to the
57th Montana Assembly, Montana Historical Society.
7. Roeder, Richard B., Crossing the Gender Line: Ella L.
Knowles, Montana’s First Woman Lawyer. Montana the
Magazine of Western History, Montana Historical Society
(Summer 1982): 64-75.
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