Victoria Claflin was born in 1838, in Homer, Ohio, about 145 miles from my very own doorstep. She was born into a family where her father was a conman, and he went to work straight away putting Victoria and her sister, Tennessee, or Tennie-C to work as mediums and healers. Victoria was put to work talking to the dead as a medium, and this really gave her a start at talking to people. Though not as famous as the Fox sisters in New York, Victoria and Tennie did pretty well for themselves and it got them an audience of men as well as women. At the time, being a medium was one of the few ways that women could get an audience with men and speak with them. In my research, this really seems to have given Victoria the foundation she needed to so freely voice her opinions later in life. Being that their father was a conman, there were no shortage of angry customers, after moving to New York city, stories would follow Tennie and Victoria, because their father had given a woman a salve made with lye that killed her, and claimed that Tennie was a healer and had gotten it wrong. Rather than facing these problems head on, their father just picked them up and moved them around a lot.
By the time Victoria reached the age of 16, she was
married, and it was just in time, as she and Tennie were both determined to get
away from their father, no matter how short lived it would be. In 1868, Victoria,
her husband and Tennie all moved to New York, where the ladies would set up
shop as Wall Street Brokers, with the help of a little startup money and
backing from the one and only Cornelius Vanderbilt, yes the famous railroad
tycoon. He believed in her and in many ways, it seems he was correct to do so.
She and Tennie made quite the name for themselves, and this time, not for their
father. They were able to take that money, move to a better neighborhood in New
York and begin their pet project, Victoria and Claflin Weekly, a Newspaper, the
first to publish the Communist Manifesto in the United States, something
about which they were very proud.
Her
fame and fortune often put her at odds with many people, including another
famous Ohioan, Henry Ward Beecher. She broke news of a scandal about he and the
wife of a parishioner of his church, one that would do almost no harm to his
name, but would seal her fate as Mrs. Satan. Eventually, she “fled” to England
with her sister, where they both met and married new husbands. She lived the
rest of her life out in England, and even made a second bid for president in
1892. She had no shortage of publicity stunts in her life, but she was extremely
fascinating to say the least.
Victoria Woodhull is full of personality and character;
she is somewhat of a local “hero” to many in the state of Ohio and was really
the inspiration for my interest in Ohio women’s history. She had many views and
ideas I did not agree with, but she did make some major headway for women, if only
in that it got people talking about the position’s women should hold. She had
the ear of men, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, and it truly allowed for her to
build something, regardless of the scandals that plagued her life, she was not
only the first woman to run for President of the United States, not once, but twice
AND she and her sister were some of the very first female brokers on Wall
Street and they sought to help women who were inheriting money a forum and a
place to discuss that and to guide them in their investments. She was a woman
of firsts and a character I have never forgotten. I have enjoyed getting to
talk about her so much this semester. I enjoy sharing her story with others and
I am looking forward to getting to play her role in an upcoming event Heroines
of our History, which will be at the local heritage village I volunteer for in
Cincinnati. I hope you enjoyed reading a little more about a woman who I see as
a local icon, I know I have enjoyed sharing her story.
Bibliography
Carpenter, Victoria Woodhull and Cari M. "The
Memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull."
Havelin, Kate. Victoria Woodhull: Fearless Feminist.
Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2006.
History Things. Victoria Woodhull: The First Woman to Run
For President. June 29, 2020 .
https://historythings.com/victoria-woodhull-first-woman-run-president/
(accessed December 12, 2020).
Ohio History Central. Victoria C. Woodhull. 2020.
https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Victoria_C._Woodhull (accessed December 11,
2020).
