Ella Maria Ballou (November 15, 1852 – July 29, 1937)[1] was an American writer who worked as a stenographer, reporter, and essayist.

She started her career as a teacher, but finding the compensation for women in this vocation too small, she took up the study of shorthand and became so proficient that she went into the courts and wrote evidence and arguments until she became noted among attorneys.

[2] Ella Maria Ballou was born in Wallingford, Vermont, November 15, 1852, and spent her life in her native state.

[3] Immediately after leaving school, she began teaching, in which vocation she was successful, but was rebellious over what she considered the injustice of requiring her to accept for equal service a much smaller compensation than was paid to a man of equal or less ability.

The persistence and thoroughness that had been a characteristic of her girlhood manifested itself in her work, and she went into the courts and wrote out evidence and argument until she became noted for accuracy and skill, and in 1885, upon the unanimous application of the Rutland County Bar.