Archives West Finding Aid

Lawyer Mary Ellen Krug Case was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on January 13, 1918, to parents Leo Johns and Ernest Krug. She began college at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, which she attended for two years before transferring to the University of Washington in Seattle. She graduated from the University of Washington with her bachelor's degree in classical languages in 1939, and her LLB degree from the University of Washington School of Law in 1943. After being admitted to the Washington State Bar that same year, Krug worked as a law clerk to Washington Supreme Court Justice Walter B. Beals until late 1944. She then joined the firm that was, at the time, called McMicken, Rupp & Schweppe, but later became Schweppe, Krug, & Tausend after she was made an active senior partner in the firm.

Mary Ellen Krug Case was married to John M. Case, although she was always known professionally as Mary Ellen Krug. Throughout her distinguished career, Krug worked with antitrust matters, personal injury cases, domestic relations cases, contested adoptions, cases involving real estate title and, most significantly, cases in the field of labor and employment law. She served as the first female Chairman of the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Labor and Employment Law, which was a position she held at the time of her death. Krug also served as the Chairman of the Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission, as a founder and first Chairman of the Pacific Coast Labor Law Conference, and as a founder of the Seattle King County Bar Association Section of Labor Law. In 1984, she was selected as a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Washington School of Law, which also awards an annual Mary Ellen Krug Labor and Employment Scholarship for students who have a demonstrated excellence in the fields of labor and employment law through both their academic studies and their activities outside of the classroom.

In addition to her legal work, Mary Ellen Krug served as the president of the Seattle Society of the Archeological Institute of America and as a board member of the YWCA. She died on December 17, 1985.

Mary Ellen Krug Case's father, Ernest Henry Krug, was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to parents Eliza Stuebe and Jacob Krug, circa 1886. He worked for a time as the assistant manager of a cereal company in Battle Creek, Michigan, before moving to Seattle, where he founded and managed the Grocers' Wholesale Company. Ernest Krug died on January 21, 1945. He was married to Leo Johns Krug, who was born in Muscada, Wisconsin, circa 1882 to parents Ellen Solmon and Turner Johns. Leo Krug worked as a teacher and a Christian Science practitioner.

Gustavus Francis Linquist was born in Sweden and served with the 165th Regiment, New York State Volunteers during the Civil War. He married Catharina (Catherine) Elizabeth Lundberg Cook in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1865. Their daughter, Francis Elizabeth, was born in Wood County, West Virginia on July 3, 1866. They also had three other children: Carrie, George, and William. Gustavus Linquist died in Tacoma, Washington on January 23, 1912. Catherine Linquist died in Seattle on December 6, 1926.

Francis Elizabeth Linquist married Charles Case. Their son, Edwin F. Case, married Louise Gilpatrick. Edwin and Louise had a son, John, and a daughter, Mary Lou. John Case married Mary Ellen Krug. Louise J. Gilpatrick Case died on April 5, 1988.