Caroline Hamilton Pier Roehmer (September 18, 1870 – April 28, 1938) was an American lawyer.

Early life

Caroline Hamilton Pier was born in

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Fond du Lac () is a city in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 44,678 at the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the United States Census Bureau's Fond du Lac United States metrop ...

, on September 18, 1870. She was the second daughter of Colwert Kendall Pier and

Kate Pier Kate Pier (June 22, 1845 – June 25, 1925) was an American court commissioner and the first woman in the United States to be conferred with judicial powers. Early life Kate Hamilton was born in St. Albans (town), Vermont, on June 22, 1845. ...

. She was educated in the public schools of Fond du Lac and was graduated in the classical course of the high school, after studying music and other womanly subjects, until ready to enter the law school of the Wisconsin University. She enrolled in 1889, finishing the course in 1891 and receiving the degree of LL.B. After law school, she briefly studied

elocution Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone as well as the idea and practice of effective speech and its forms. It stems from the idea that while communication is symbolic, sounds are final and compelli ...

at Northwestern University.

Career

She was admitted to the Wisconsin Bar in 1891 and joined the firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of which her mother,

, and two sisters,

Kate Hamilton Pier Kate Hamilton Pier McIntosh (December 11, 1868 – April 1, 1931) was a lawyer. She was the first woman to argue a case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Early life Kate Hamilton Pier was born on December 11, 1868, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, ...

and

Harriet Hamilton Pier Harriet Hamilton Pier Simonds (April 26, 1872 – April 4, 1943) was a lawyer in Wisconsin. Her mother and two sisters were also lawyers, at a time when there were only eight female lawyers in Wisconsin. Biography Harriet Hamilton Pier was born ...

, were the other members. She paid special attention to admiralty and maritime law and made it a specialty. In 1897, she was admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court.

Personal life

On November 17, 1897, Caroline Hamilton Pier married John Henry Roehmer (1865-1935), a lawyer and Yale graduate. The wedding was celebrated by her mother, Kate Pier, in her capacity of Court Commissioner. She had four children: Kate Pier Roehmer French (1898-1984), John Pier Roehmer (1901-1971), Dr. Edward Pier Roehmer (1908-1999) and James McIntosh Roehmer (1907-1908). John H. Roehmer taught at the University of Wisconsin and at Yale University and was instrumental in organizing the Wisconsin's street railway commission. He served on the State's Railroad Rate Commission and was general counsel for H.M. Byllesby & Co. She and her husband lived in Milwaukee and Fond du Lac, but moved to Elmhurst, New York, after he retired in 1931. She died on April 28, 1938, in Madison, Wisconsin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pier, Caroline Hamilton 1870 births 1938 deaths People from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century 19th-century American women lawyers 19th-century American lawyers