Women in History: Victoria Woodhull

I may not have talked about in the past that I took Women's History for one of my college electives. It was a great class!  And it was fun because we had one man in the class.  Plus our professor was a man.  We had some interesting conversations.  Those of you that know me personally may know that I do have a special interest in Women's History.  I often wonder what life would have been like for me if I had been born in another era or even another generation!  Plus I love Historical fashion!  (Probably why I have an independent fashion boutique as well).

With that being said, I thought I would start a series on Women in History.  Each post I will pick a woman from history, famous or infamous and talk about her and her life.  These women may or may not be in my genealogy, but they are all fun to learn about.  So for this post, I am going to talk about Victoria Woodhull.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull

 Victoria Woodhull was born Victoria Claflin on September 23, 1838, to Ruben Buckman and Roxanna Hummel Claflin in Homer, Licking County, Ohio.  Her mother was described as a religious zealot and illiterate and her father was described as a criminal.  She was one of 10 children.  She worked as a medium and traveled with her sister, Tennie C. Claflin, around the country.

She married Dr. Canning Woodhull when she was 15 on November 10, 1853, and had 2 children by him.  Her first husband is described as an alcohol and a philanderer.  Their son, born in 1854 was born mentally handicapped.  They divorced in 1864. 

Next, she married  Colonel James H. Blood.  Blood was said to have introduced Woodhull to multiple reform movements.  Blood was a Union Civil War Soldier and was elected city auditor for St. Louis Missouri.  Blood and Woodhull divorced in 1873.

In 1868 Woodhull and her sister had traveled to New York City where they met Cornelius Vanderbilt, wealthy and recently widowed.  Vanderbilt, in return for the psychological relief Woodhull provided, set up Woodhull and her sister in the first female-run stock broker company in New York City.  The Woodhull sisters, however; never received a seat on the stock exchange.


Woodhull's most notable achievement is that she was the first woman to run for United States President in 1872 under the equal rights act.  Scholars argue that she was removed from the ballot because she was not the required 35 years old at the time.  However, Woodhull was arrested for the crime of sending obscene material in the mail and spent election day in jail.  No one knows how many votes she actually got because her votes were never counted!

The indecent material were articles sent in the mail were articles about the affair between stockbroker Luther Challis and Rev. Beecher between Elizabeth Tilton, the wife of Beecher's friend, Theodore Tilton.  While the information was acknowledged to be true, the goal was to shut down Woodhull and her sister's weekly paper, Woodhull & Claflin'ss Weekly.  Woodhull was arrested eight times during this time and although she, her sister and her husband, James Blood, were all acquitted, the lawsuits bankrupted them, closing down their stock brokerage and their printing press was taken away.

She was a strong supporter of women's suffrage as well as women should be free to marry, divorce and have children as they control.  Other rights she advocated for were free love and birth control.  Despite her initial strong support from many of the other women's suffrage leaders of the time, they Woodhull eventually lost their support due to her love of being in the spotlight and her indecent behavior.

Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877.  In 1877 Woodhull and her sister moved to England.   Was this perhaps a change for the start of a new life?  Others argue that William Vanderbilt, the brother of Cornelius Vanderbilt,  paid for the sisters to leave the United States so they would not testify against the now deceased Cornelius Vanderbilt estate hearing for the distribution of his estate.

In England, where she spent much of her time writing.  She married her third husband, John Biddulph Martin on October 31, 1883.  Martin was a wealthy banker whose family did not approve of the marriage initially. 

Woodhull advocated against abortion, but she was a proponent of eugenics.  Some believe it is because of the handicap of her son.  She also advocated for better prenatal care for healthy children and preventing physical and mental diseases, sex education, and marrying well.  She returned to the United States occasionally, attempting to run for president.  In 1892 she attempted for the last time to run for president. 

Victoria Woodhull Martin died on June 27, 1927, at her home, Bredon's Norton in Worcestershire, England.  She was cremated and her ashes spread at sea.  A cenotaph memorializes Woodhull at Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, England.  



Sources:
http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/whoisvw.htm
https://www.biography.com/people/victoria-woodhull-9536447
https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-should-know-about-victoria-woodhull
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Woodhull#
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8616083/victoria-california-woodhull