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People & the artsHelen Shaffer Is Welcomed to the County Courts
October 15, 1934
The Sunbury law graduate's October 15, 1934, admission was reported alongside three other new attorneys.
Some details remain uncertainHelen Shaffer was admitted to practice in Northumberland County's courts on October 15, 1934, according to that day's News-Dispatch. The daughter of Sunbury attorney Fred Shaffer, she had graduated from Sunbury High School and received her degree from Dickinson Law School the previous June.
She had already taken a desk in her father's Sunbury office. The report welcomed her alongside Frank Moser of Shamokin, Eugene Mirarchi of Kulpmont, and Charles H. Reitz of Mount Carmel.
The newspaper described Shaffer as the county's first woman attorney, but earlier accounts of Julia Radle prevent treating that label as settled. Shaffer's own admission remains a distinct milestone: a young law graduate entering the county courts and joining her father's practice.