Notes from my Knapsack 2-26-2026
Jeff Gill
The triumphs and tragedies of Victoria Woodhull
___
Buckman and Roxanna Claflin are in the December 1853 property records of Licking County, buying and quickly selling the property on the north edge of Homer, along the North Fork, which they had long leased. Some historic accounts say they were in Mount Gilead by that year, or it could be an older daughter was living there (married to the Morrow County sheriff), and they were back and forth, ending up as residents there for certain by 1855.
We do know that in the fall of 1853 their 15 year old daughter Victoria, born here in Homer, was by that time married to 28 year old Dr. Canning Woodhull in Cuyahoga County, quickly moving from Cleveland to Chicago by the start of 1854. Things would not go well for them there, though they would have a son, Byron by the last day of the year; after sojourn across the country from New York State to California (which by the way was her middle name at birth), they would end up in New York City by April of 1861 where she would have their daughter, Zulu (later Zula), and at some point afterwards divorce back in Chicago.
This divorced and largely uneducated mother of two could easily have become just another story of the American west, struggling to get by during and after the Civil War. Instead, she will by 1870 have become one of the most remarkable characters in New York City, with her sister Tennessee the first women to hold seats on the New York Stock Exchange, publishers of a pioneering newspaper (first to publish in the US the English text of "The Communist Manifesto" among other things), leading suffragist to become the first woman to address a Congressional committee, the Judiciary Committee, on the record, and in 1872 a candidate for the presidency of the United States.
And the leading public speaker of her day, second only, perhaps, to Henry Ward Beecher, noted preacher across the East River in Brooklyn, whom Woodhull would accuse of adultery and worse days before the 1872 election. Her editorial would launch three years of hearings, testimony, lawsuits, and legal proceedings which would put Woodhull, not Beecher, in jail twice… and in a way lead to her departure for England in 1877, having divorced her second husband, Col. James Blood, the previous year.
Deeper scholars than I, including some in Granville under the auspices of the Robbins Hunter Museum, have tried to sort out the complicated records of the Claflin family, of which I've only located a few small parts on my own. But there is a through line in Victoria C. Woodhull's story I think worth re-telling, even if it takes a few installments to set the stage, a narrative which is all too relevant in 2026 as we watch hearings and testimony and legal proceedings play out over power, permission, sex and gender issues.
Why did Buck & Anna let their 14 year old daughter go out with, and soon after her 15th birthday marry, a man a decade and more older? The fact that he was a doctor (and he was by the standards of the era, if not a good one) doesn't justify it; if you think "well, in the 1850s?" you would be incorrect. Records before 1890 are notoriously spotty, but many historians have taken a shot at figuring out things like average age of first marriage for women & men, and in the 1850s it was around 19, edging up into the 1860s. 15 wasn't illegal, but it wasn't usual.
It is hard to read the fragmented narratives around Victoria's early life and not think money and security loomed large as rationales for this otherwise impossible situation, for her parents if not for her.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's got two more installments planned, so here's hoping you're interested. Tell him if you are or are not at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
The triumphs and tragedies of Victoria Woodhull
___
Buckman and Roxanna Claflin are in the December 1853 property records of Licking County, buying and quickly selling the property on the north edge of Homer, along the North Fork, which they had long leased. Some historic accounts say they were in Mount Gilead by that year, or it could be an older daughter was living there (married to the Morrow County sheriff), and they were back and forth, ending up as residents there for certain by 1855.
We do know that in the fall of 1853 their 15 year old daughter Victoria, born here in Homer, was by that time married to 28 year old Dr. Canning Woodhull in Cuyahoga County, quickly moving from Cleveland to Chicago by the start of 1854. Things would not go well for them there, though they would have a son, Byron by the last day of the year; after sojourn across the country from New York State to California (which by the way was her middle name at birth), they would end up in New York City by April of 1861 where she would have their daughter, Zulu (later Zula), and at some point afterwards divorce back in Chicago.
This divorced and largely uneducated mother of two could easily have become just another story of the American west, struggling to get by during and after the Civil War. Instead, she will by 1870 have become one of the most remarkable characters in New York City, with her sister Tennessee the first women to hold seats on the New York Stock Exchange, publishers of a pioneering newspaper (first to publish in the US the English text of "The Communist Manifesto" among other things), leading suffragist to become the first woman to address a Congressional committee, the Judiciary Committee, on the record, and in 1872 a candidate for the presidency of the United States.
And the leading public speaker of her day, second only, perhaps, to Henry Ward Beecher, noted preacher across the East River in Brooklyn, whom Woodhull would accuse of adultery and worse days before the 1872 election. Her editorial would launch three years of hearings, testimony, lawsuits, and legal proceedings which would put Woodhull, not Beecher, in jail twice… and in a way lead to her departure for England in 1877, having divorced her second husband, Col. James Blood, the previous year.
Deeper scholars than I, including some in Granville under the auspices of the Robbins Hunter Museum, have tried to sort out the complicated records of the Claflin family, of which I've only located a few small parts on my own. But there is a through line in Victoria C. Woodhull's story I think worth re-telling, even if it takes a few installments to set the stage, a narrative which is all too relevant in 2026 as we watch hearings and testimony and legal proceedings play out over power, permission, sex and gender issues.
Why did Buck & Anna let their 14 year old daughter go out with, and soon after her 15th birthday marry, a man a decade and more older? The fact that he was a doctor (and he was by the standards of the era, if not a good one) doesn't justify it; if you think "well, in the 1850s?" you would be incorrect. Records before 1890 are notoriously spotty, but many historians have taken a shot at figuring out things like average age of first marriage for women & men, and in the 1850s it was around 19, edging up into the 1860s. 15 wasn't illegal, but it wasn't usual.
It is hard to read the fragmented narratives around Victoria's early life and not think money and security loomed large as rationales for this otherwise impossible situation, for her parents if not for her.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's got two more installments planned, so here's hoping you're interested. Tell him if you are or are not at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
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