by Jill Norgren
9. Livermore, The Story of My Life, 479.
10. Ibid., 479.
11. Ibid., 481.
12. Ibid., 482.
13. Morton J. Horwitz, The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977), 141. Founded in 1808, it was the first law journal in the United States.
14. Maxwell Bloomfield, “Lawyers and Public Criticism: Challenge and Response in Nineteenth-Century America,” American Journal of Legal History 15 (1971): 274.
15. Gordon Morris Bakken, Practicing Law in Frontier California (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991), 29-30.
16. Editorial, CLN, October 3, 1868, 1.
17. Friedman, America’s First Woman Lawyer, 77.
18. “Laws Relating to Women,” CLN, October 31, 1868, 37.
19. “Laws Relating to Women: Married Woman’s Property,” CLN, November 14, 1868, 53; “Law Relating to Women, the Property Rights of Married Women. To the Editor of the Legal News,” CLN, December 12, 1868, 85. The state enacted some of the reforms urged by Bradwell in March 1869. See “An act in relation to the earning of married women,” Illinois Laws 225 (1869).
20. Friedman, America’s First Woman Lawyer, 80-81.
21. CLN, March 13, 1869, 188, column 1.
22. Friedman, America’s First Woman Lawyer, 79.
23. CLN, September 21, 1878, 5, column 1.
24. Friedman, America’s First Woman Lawyer, 89-91.
25. Ibid., 84.
26. Ibid., 29.
27. Mary Greene to Equity Club members, 27 April 1887, WL, 52.
28. 9 October 1869 entry, Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas, eds., The Diary of George Templeton Strong: Post-War Years, 1865-1875 (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 4: 256. Strong followed with the confession that he loathed the ladies who had taken up the cause of women’s rights. He postured behind the offer to rescue women. So did his contemporary, Dr. Edward H. Clarke, a Harvard medical school physician, who argued in his book Sex in Education that hours of daily study would re-direct energy from a woman’s reproductive organs to her brain, causing ill health and potential danger to her unborn offspring.
29. For a discussion of the “confusion and controversy” surrounding Cary’s law school career, see Shamina Sneed, “Mary Ann Shadd Cary: A Biographical Sketch of the Rebel,” WLH, 17-23.
30. This account draws on the work of Teresa Federer, “Belle A. Mansfield: Opening the Way for Others,” WLH, 1-77.
31. Ibid., 35.
32. Ibid., 37-38, citing to the District Court Record, Henry County, Iowa, Book Hat 54-55, June Term, 2nd Day, Tuesday, June 15, 1869.
33. Ibid., 38-39.
34. Bradwell followed Mansfield’s story and wrote about her success. Myra Bradwell, “A Married Woman Admitted to the Bar in Iowa,” CLN, October 16, 1869, 20.
35. It is generally thought that Couzins did not practice although she was admitted to the bar in Missouri and Arkansas in 1871, Utah in 1872, and subsequently in Kansas, the Dakota territories, and the federal courts. Matthew J. Sanders, “An Introduction to Phoebe Wilson Couzins,” WLH, 8. Sanders writes that in 1871, “Couzins reportedly established a law office in downtown St. Louis … but she handled very few, if any, cases in her lifetime.” Ibid., 8-9; Federer, “Belle,” 40-41.
36. CLN, March 31, 1877, 229, column 1. For reviews of several of these cases, see Gwen Jordan, “Stepping-Stones to Women’s Emancipation: The Origins of a Woman’s Law Reform Movement in Illinois, 1855-1875.” Paper presented at the Midwest Law & Society Retreat, Madison, Wisconsin, September 15-16, 2006, 54-56.
37. “Chicago Woman Suffrage Convention,” CLN, February 20, 1869, 164. In 1869 Bradwell was elected corresponding secretary of the newly formed Illinois Woman Suffrage Association.
38. See Jordan, “Stepping-Stones.”
39. Ibid., 38; Myra Bradwell, Additional Brief, reprinted in “A Married Woman Cannot Practice Law or Hold Any Office in Illinois,” CLN, February 5, 1870, 145-46.
40. Jordan, “Stepping-Stones,” 39.
41. Bradwell, “A Married Woman Cannot Practice,” 145.
42. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “The Sixteenth Amendment,” in Ann D. Gordon, ed., Against an Aristocracy of Sex: The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000), 237. The ratified Fifteenth Amendment reads, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
43. Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. 130 (1873).
44. Several thousand copies of her comments, titled The Memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull, were mailed out requesting petition signatures from women suffrage supporters. Barbara Goldsmith, Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull (New York: Knopf, 1998), 248-57.
45. Ibid., 253, citing to Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s letter of 21 June 1871, to Victoria Woodhull. Washington lawyer Albert G. Riddle was also convinced that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed women’s right to vote, and in 1871 he helped to establish a test court case in the nation’s capital. Jill Norgren, Belva Lockwood (New York: New York University Press, 2007), 58-66.
46. Susan B. Anthony to Myra Bradwell, 30 July 1873, cited in Friedman, America’s First Woman Lawyer, 22-23. Carpenter argued Bradwell’s case on January 18, 1872. The court waited to render a decision for more than a year, until the results of the election of 1872 had been announced.
47. The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U. S. 36 (1873).
48. Bradwell, 139. Without offering an opinion, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase “dissented from the judgment of the Court and from all opinions.” Justice Miller was the father-in-law of attorney George B. Corkhill, who examined Arabella Mansfield for membership in the Iowa bar. “George B. Corkhill Dead,” New York Times, July 7, 1886. Available at http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10A10FE3B5410738DDDAE0894DF405B8684F0D3.
49. Bradwell, 141.
50. Ibid., 141.
51. Jordan, “Stepping-Stones,” 44-45, citing to the Boston Daily Advertiser, April 16, 1873.
52. Jordan, “Stepping-Stones,” 46-47.
53. Journal of the Illinois House of Representatives, March 21, 1872. Bradwell’s appeal had been argued in January, before passage of the legislation. The Supreme Court did not declare her case moot.
54. Jordan, “Stepping-Stones, 52-53.
55. “Deep-Rooted Prejudice,” CLN, June 14, 1873, 453.
56. Lucia M. Peabody entry, http://www.herhatwasinthering.org/Site/default.aspx. In 1875 the Illinois General Assembly opened the office of notary public to women, a reform slowly occurring in many places.
57. For an account of the help that Bradwell and her husband extended to Mrs. Lincoln, see Friedman, America’s First Woman Lawyer, chapter 3 and 202-8.
58. Lelia J. Robinson, “Women Lawyers in the United States,” The Green Bag, January 1890, 14. Myra Bradwell’s son, Thomas, was also a lawyer.
59. Friedman, America’s First Woman Lawyer, 40.
CHAPTER 4
1. In Memorium, William Goodell (Chicago: Gilbert and Win, 1879), 18, in WGF. Lavinia Goodell wrote this remembrance although her name does not appear on it.
2. Maria Goodell Frost, The Life of Lavinia Goodell, 6-7, WGF. Gerrit Smith and the Tappan brothers, for example, were friends and visitors.
3. Ibid., 8.
4. Ibid., 28, 31, and 57.
5. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 18 March 1858, quoted in The Life of Lavinia Goodell, 39-41, WGF.
6. Ibid., 42.
7. Ibid., 42.
8. Ibid., 43.
9. Frost, Life, 68.
10. Goodell to Frost, 18 March 1858, quoted in Life, 41.
11. Frost, Life, 69.
12. Ibid., 78.
13. Ibid., 82.
14. Ibid., 82.
15. Ibid., 88.
16. Ibid., 95.
17. Ibid.,
96. The senior Goodells also repaid Lavinia the money she had given to them over the past several years.
18. Frost, Life, 96.
19. Ibid., 96.
20. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 2 January 1872, LGP.
21. Ibid., 96.
22. Item, Woman’s Journal, August 16, 1873, 258.
23. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 7 March 1872, LGP.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 6 April 1873, quoted in Frost, Life, 100. Seven months later she summarized her work to date: “I have read 16 vols of law since I commenced study, which considering how much I have been interrupted, is doing pretty well, I think.” Goodell to Frost, 18 November 1873, HC4, Box 15/7, WGF.
28. Catherine B. Cleary, “Lavinia Goodell, First Woman Lawyer in Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 74 (Summer 1991): 249; Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 18 August 1873, LGP.
29. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 18 August 1873, LGP.
30. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 18 November 1873, quoted in Frost, Life, 102.
31. Ibid., 102.
32. Ibid., 102.
33. Ibid. 102. She also maintained respectability through her strong commitment to temperance. In the summer of 1873 Goodell joined in the planning of a temperance coffee house to “cut out the saloons.” Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 18 August 1873, LGP.
34. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 7 March 1872, LGP.
35. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 18 November 1873, quoted in Frost, Life, 103. Holland’s Janesville City Directory, 1870, lists the town’s lawyers and law firms.
36. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 18 November 1873, quoted in Frost, Life, 103.
37. Ibid., 103-4.
38. Ibid., 104.
39. Ibid., 104. The next quotation also cites to this source and page.
40. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 22 February 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 106-7.
41. Lavinia Goodell, undated letter, quoted in Frost, Life, 112.
42. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 8 June 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 113. The following quotations in this and the next three paragraphs cite to this letter.
43. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah Thomas, 18 June 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 115. Maria also received a letter announcing “your little sister is a member of the Wisconsin bar.” Goodell to Frost, 18 June 1874, HC, Box 15/9, WGF.
44. Ibid., 116.
45. Cleary, “Lavinia Goodell,” 251.
46. Lavinia Goodell to unknown recipient, July 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 121.
47. Walter Theodore Hitchcock, Timothy Walker: Antebellum Lawyer (New York: Garland, 1990), 25.
48. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah Thomas, 18 June 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 118.
49. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 30 June 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 123.
50. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 28 June 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 119. All quotations in this paragraph cite to this letter, 119-22.
51. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 14 July 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 124.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid.
54. Goodell to Frost, 14 July 1874, 125.
55. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 6 August 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 126.
56. Ibid., 126-27.
57. Goodell to Frost, 28 September 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 128. All quotations in this paragraph cite to this letter.
58. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 8 October 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 131.
59. Ibid., 131; Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 15 October 1874, quoted in Frost, Life, 132. Goodell later learned that the jury was divided in the second liquor case, which she lost. They deliberated for six hours but then “everyone wanted to go home,” and they voted for acquittal. Ibid., 134.
60. Goodell to Frost, 8 October 1874, 131-32.
61. Ryan was sent to Clongowes Wood College (later James Joyce’s secondary school). As the second son, he could not inherit. The family may have hoped that he would become a priest. My description of Edward Ryan’s life and career draws upon Alfons J. Beitzinger, Edward G. Ryan: Lion of the Law (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1960), as well as lengthy obituaries that describe his work and temperament. These death notices are singular in all mentioning that Ryan was afflicted by “a bitterness and irascibility,” that he exhibited a “petulant temper,” and that “the frailties of [his] temper were colossal”—a problem that nearly destroyed all ability to make contributions to his profession. Several writers speak with frankness about his failures as a husband: “His wife was long ago driven from his side by his unkindness.” Edward G. Ryan Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison.
62. Beitzinger, Edward G. Ryan.
63. Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, The Oxford Annotated Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), 1227.
64. My discussion of this lecture draws upon Beverly B. Cook’s article, “Lecturing on Woman’s Place: ‘Mrs. Jellyby’ in Wisconsin, 1854-1874,” Signs 9 (1983): 361-76. Cook argues that Ryan “was attempting to prepare Wisconsin citizens to resist” the ideas of the young woman’s movement. Ibid., 366. The manuscript of his lecture is found in the Edward G. Ryan Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison.
65. Cook, “Lecturing,” 374. Cook excerpts about one-fourth of the lecture at the end of her article.
66. Ibid., 374.
67. Ibid., 374.
68. Ibid., 374.
69. Ryan was elected in 1875 to fill out the rest of Dixon’s term, and in 1876 won election to a full six-year term. He wrote well-regarded opinions on government regulation of corporations and railroads, tort liability, and tax law.
70. Cook, “Lecturing,” 370, note 41. Ryan was a Jeffersonian Democrat. In addition to his conservative views on sex roles, he supported the Fugitive Slave law.
71. “A Dead Chief Justice,” Sunday Telegraph, October 24, 1880 (ms. pages 13 and 14) in the Edward G. Ryan Papers, Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison.
72. Ibid., 367.
73. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 16 February 1875; and Goodell to Frost, 7 June 1875, quoted in Frost, Life, 136-37.
74. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 2 August 1875, quoted in Frost, Life, 139.
75. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 4 February 1876, LGP. Subsequent quotations in this paragraph also cite to this letter.
76. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 2 August 1875, HC, Box 15/10, WGF. On September 4, 1875, The Woman’s Journal published an essay by Goodell, “Shall Women Study Law?” It is an excellent, succinct summary of her views and contains sensible professional advice.
77. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 20 December 1875, quoted in Frost, Life, 150. Emma C. Bascom, wife of the president of the University of Wisconsin, urged Goodell to have the Wisconsin State Journal publish her argument. The editors acceded to the request and cast Goodell in a positive light. Cleary, “Lavinia Goodell,” 258.
78. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 18 November 1875, quoted in Frost, Life, 140-41. All quotations in this paragraph cite to this letter. Goodell wrote about meeting these two prisoners in “My Tramp,” The Christian Union, December 1 and 15, 1875.
79. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, December 1875 (no day), quoted in Frost, Life, 142; and Goodell to Frost, 1 January 1876, quoted in Frost, Life, 143.
80. Goodell to Frost, 18 November 1875, quoted in Frost, Life, 141.
81. Goodell to Frost, 1 January 1876, quoted in Frost, Life, 144.
82. Ibid., 144.
83. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 4 February 1876, LGP.
84. Ibid.
85. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 17 February 1876, quoted in Frost, Life, 144.
86. Lavinia Goodell to
Sarah M. Thomas, 24 February 1876, LGP.
87. Ibid.
88. Ibid., 145.
89. Ibid., 145.
90. Beitzinger, Edward G. Ryan, 148-58.
91. In the Matter of the Motion to admit Miss Lavinia Goodell, 39 Wisc. 232, 239-40 (1875).
92. Ibid., 244.
93. Ibid., 243.
94. Ibid., 245-46.
95. “Should Women Practice Law in Wisconsin! Judge Ryan’s Opinion Reviewed,” The Woman’s Journal, April 8 and 22, 1876. All quotations from Goodell’s response to Ryan cite to these reproductions of her article.
96. Item, Wisconsin State Journal, February 16, 1876, 1. This was a Republican-leaning paper.
97. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 22 March 1876, LGP.
98. Cleary, “Lavinia Goodell,” 266. She was admitted to the bar at Janesville on September 6, 1878.
99. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 5 January 1877, quoted in Frost, Life, 166-67. In this letter Goodell also reports “drafting some laws intended to ameliorate the condition of married women, and some for prison reform.” She writes nothing more about these proposals.
100. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 7 March 1877, quoted in Frost, Life, 170.
101. Ibid., 168. At the same time that she learned of the cancer, Goodell underwent a religious conversion and joined Janesville’s Congregational Church. Speaking about Goodell and her conversion, her pastor, the Reverend T. P. Sawin, later said, “This step was taken with the utmost deliberation. … For years she had entertained deep-seated doubts of the truth of many of the formulas of the Christian faith, but at last the light came.” Rev. T. P. Sawin, “Obituary,” WGF, 234.
102. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 16 November 1876, LGP.
103. Frost, Life, 186.
104. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, November 1877 (no day), quoted in Frost, Life, 180. Later, Goodell wrote out her thoughts on penal legislation. Lavinia Goodell to the Rev. G. W. Lawrence, November 17, 1879, HC4, Box 16/15, WGF.
105. Lavinia Goodell to Maria Goodell Frost, 27 June 1877, quoted in Frost, Life, 177.
106. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 4 January 1878, LGP.
107. Ibid., 177.
108. Frost, Life, 198. In the spring of 1876 some of her “boys” gave her “grief and anxiety,” and she wrote her cousin Sarah that “[I] shant adopt any more children at present.” Her interest in them, however, was keen, and Lavinia soon increased her prison work. Lavinia Goodell to Sarah M. Thomas, 31 May 1876, LGP.