Notes from my Knapsack 2-12-2026
Jeff Gill
Victoria Woodhull knew something about wealth and power
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Victoria Claflin Woodhull has an Ohio historic marker in Homer, Ohio, where she was born in 1838. She has a cenotaph behind the high altar in Tewkesbury Abbey, not far from her final home in the west of England, a religious establishment she and her daughter supported generously.
But Victoria's will was clear that she would be cremated at her death in 1927, and those ashes would be scattered in the Atlantic, halfway between her adopted land and her home, where in 1872 she ran for President of the United States.
In reference to that combination of loyalties, it's interesting that she has a monument, albeit anonymously, on Parliament Square in London, just steps north of Westminster Abbey and in clear view to the east of Big Ben. Victoria Claflin Woodhull Martin, her third and final husband being a British banker of note, left Victoria a woman of wealth on his passing, a country home near Tewkesbury Abbey and a town house in London, where her parents lived with her near Hyde Park until their deaths. Buckman and Roxanna Claflin are buried in London, a city their daughter came to know well.
So when a plan came about to erect a statue of Lincoln to mark the century of peace between the U.S. and Great Britain since the War of 1812, a cast of a marvelous statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens placed in Chicago's Lincoln Park was made available in 1914, but on arrival Parliament realized there were no funds to place it on an appropriate pedestal. After a brief controversy, the matter passed: because Victoria C.W. Martin stepped up and paid for it herself.
If you don't know that, you'd pass by unawares. And in fact, the only monument to Victoria Woodhull in this country (as she was most known as through her public career) is in Granville, on the side of the Robbins Hunter Museum, because Robby in 1973 decided this Licking County girl needed to be honored as we headed into the national Bicentennial of 1976, and he built the "V. Woodhull" clock tower over his west door.
I found myself thinking about what V. Woodhull would have to say about our current debates around J. Epstein. I suspect she'd say she was familiar with the type.
Because she was married off having barely reached the age of 15, to a 27 year old doctor who turned out to be a cad, a drunk, and a philanderer (and not much of a doctor). You might ask what her parents were thinking, letting 14 year old Victoria date a man in his mid-20s, and I certainly have. Buck & Roxy are in the county records in 1853 making a final real estate deal in Homer; many stories are told about them, and most aren't true. Which are, we still debate. But poverty likely played a role, just as it did for many of the families who let their daughters go "earn some money" at the Epstein compound. Roxy, for one thing, was illiterate, placing only "her mark" on the documents filed away in Newark. She and Buck had ten children, of which Victoria was the seventh; only six would survive to adulthood.
Victoria's history is vastly complicated by a two word slogan which opens up a wide range of debate and discussion: "Free love." In later life, certainly from 1871, her early reputation as a speaker, spirit medium, and suffragist was overwhelmed by the controversies invoked by her having raised the banner of "free love."
But what Victoria meant by "free love" was not necessarily how many people choose to interpret the phrase. We'll pick this question up next time.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he keeps finding new Victoria Woodhull documents even when he's not looking for them. Tell him what you've wondered about her at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
Victoria Woodhull knew something about wealth and power
___
Victoria Claflin Woodhull has an Ohio historic marker in Homer, Ohio, where she was born in 1838. She has a cenotaph behind the high altar in Tewkesbury Abbey, not far from her final home in the west of England, a religious establishment she and her daughter supported generously.
But Victoria's will was clear that she would be cremated at her death in 1927, and those ashes would be scattered in the Atlantic, halfway between her adopted land and her home, where in 1872 she ran for President of the United States.
In reference to that combination of loyalties, it's interesting that she has a monument, albeit anonymously, on Parliament Square in London, just steps north of Westminster Abbey and in clear view to the east of Big Ben. Victoria Claflin Woodhull Martin, her third and final husband being a British banker of note, left Victoria a woman of wealth on his passing, a country home near Tewkesbury Abbey and a town house in London, where her parents lived with her near Hyde Park until their deaths. Buckman and Roxanna Claflin are buried in London, a city their daughter came to know well.
So when a plan came about to erect a statue of Lincoln to mark the century of peace between the U.S. and Great Britain since the War of 1812, a cast of a marvelous statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens placed in Chicago's Lincoln Park was made available in 1914, but on arrival Parliament realized there were no funds to place it on an appropriate pedestal. After a brief controversy, the matter passed: because Victoria C.W. Martin stepped up and paid for it herself.
If you don't know that, you'd pass by unawares. And in fact, the only monument to Victoria Woodhull in this country (as she was most known as through her public career) is in Granville, on the side of the Robbins Hunter Museum, because Robby in 1973 decided this Licking County girl needed to be honored as we headed into the national Bicentennial of 1976, and he built the "V. Woodhull" clock tower over his west door.
I found myself thinking about what V. Woodhull would have to say about our current debates around J. Epstein. I suspect she'd say she was familiar with the type.
Because she was married off having barely reached the age of 15, to a 27 year old doctor who turned out to be a cad, a drunk, and a philanderer (and not much of a doctor). You might ask what her parents were thinking, letting 14 year old Victoria date a man in his mid-20s, and I certainly have. Buck & Roxy are in the county records in 1853 making a final real estate deal in Homer; many stories are told about them, and most aren't true. Which are, we still debate. But poverty likely played a role, just as it did for many of the families who let their daughters go "earn some money" at the Epstein compound. Roxy, for one thing, was illiterate, placing only "her mark" on the documents filed away in Newark. She and Buck had ten children, of which Victoria was the seventh; only six would survive to adulthood.
Victoria's history is vastly complicated by a two word slogan which opens up a wide range of debate and discussion: "Free love." In later life, certainly from 1871, her early reputation as a speaker, spirit medium, and suffragist was overwhelmed by the controversies invoked by her having raised the banner of "free love."
But what Victoria meant by "free love" was not necessarily how many people choose to interpret the phrase. We'll pick this question up next time.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he keeps finding new Victoria Woodhull documents even when he's not looking for them. Tell him what you've wondered about her at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
