This is a transcription of the Marilla (Marks) Ricker biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 81.
Marilla (Marks) Ricker
Marilla Marks, daughter of Jonathan B. and Hannah D. (Stevens) Young, was born in New Durham in 1840. Her father was an ardent Whig, the New York Tribune was the family paper, and its close perusal gave her the decided political convictions which make her now an earnest Republican. Educated in the public schools and New London academy, she taught with much success for several years. In 1863 she married John Ricker, Esq., of Madbury. they made their home in Dover where Mr. Ricker had a large real estate business. He died in 1868, leaving her a good property. In 1872 she went to Europe, resided for a long time in Germany, and thoroughly mastered the German language. Returning, she went to Washington, where she read law with Albert G. Riddle and Arthur B. Williams, and was admitted to the bar in 1882, being examined with eighteen young men and outranking them all. She was the first New Hampshire woman to become a lawyer, and practiced successfully in Washington many years, being admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme court in 1892. For some time past she has been United States commissioner and examiner in chancery for the District of Columbia. In 1890 she applied for admission to the New Hampshire bar. This raised the question of woman’s right to admission to the bar in this state. After due consideration by the full bench Chief Justice Doe rendered a decision to the effect that she could be admitted the same as any man who is a practicing attorney in another state. Mrs. Ricker early became a believer in equal rights for men and women under the constitution, and offered her ballot at the polls in Ward Three, Dover, in 1870, with her reasons for demanding a voter’s privilege, being the first woman in the state, and probably in the country to attempt to vote. She has spoken effectively on the stump in national campaigns for the Republican party. She is frank, generous, and open hearted, a friend of the unfortunate, a champion of many reform causes, a hater of sham and hypocrisy.