Lavinia Goodell’s Thanksgiving celebrations in the 1860s and 1870s bear at least some resemblance to today’s holiday festivities. The day often began with a religious service. Although Lavinia had a lifelong affiliation with the Congregational church, she liked to explore other houses of worship as well.
Continue reading →We want good original matter very much. Poor me! I have to “stand in the gap” and supply when others fail. I wouldn’t care if I could suit myself, but I do want our paper to be so extra good that I am always dissatisfied with my attempts.
Lavinia Goodell, November 2, 1862
From 1859 until early 1865, Lavinia Goodell’s father was the editor of the New York Principia, a weekly anti-slavery newspaper. The paper’s offices were located in lower Manhattan. The masthead proclaimed that the publication stood for “First Principles in Religion, Morals, Government, and the Economy of Life.”
Continue reading →On May 2, 1839, William and Clarissa Goodell, aged 47 and 42, welcomed a new baby girl to their family. Their only other living child, Maria, was 12. Clarissa’s advanced maternal age and previous, difficult childbirths were cause for concern. So William hastened to send his father-in-law details of Clarissa’s health, the new babe, and the family’s joy to assure him that all was well.
May 15, 1839
Dear Father,
. . . On Thursday morning, May 2, at about half past 3 o’clock, the Lord was pleased to bless us with another fine daughter, who is doing well thus far, and her mother is comfortable, and in a fair way to recover in safety. Thus, when we feared evil, the Lord has covered us with the mantle of his Goodness and mercy.
–Lavinia Goodell, September 24, 1874
Many, many thanks to the State Bar of Wisconsin. It has awarded Lavinia Goodell the Lifetime Legal Innovator award posthumously for opening the practice of law to women. Click here. The honor helps raise public awareness about Lavinia’s important contributions to history.
We think that Lavinia would be pleased. To her, the equality of women and men was “like an axiom which it were as idle to dispute as to undertake to controvert the multiplication table.” Click here. She would not have expected to receive the award in 2019–150 years after she was admitted to the Rock County Circuit Court because she thought that once a few women began practicing law, the prejudice against them would melt away quickly. In any case, she would be delighted to learn that opening the bar to women helped improve the hygiene of courtrooms across Wisconsin! In her September 4, 1875 Woman’s Journal article, “Shall Women Study Law?,” she wrote:
The first woman lawyer admitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court had to fight for that status, overcoming opposition from the most powerful legal figure in the state. Lavinia Goodell (1839-1880) was also one of the first female trial lawyers in the United States, a nationally-respected writer, a Vice President of the Association for the Advancement of Woman, a candidate for Janesville City Attorney, a successful lobbyist, a jail reformer, and a temperance advocate. Yet she is undeservedly obscure. Another woman’s likeness adorns her spot in books, on the web, and at the Rock County Courthouse. Lavinia Goodell: The Private Life and Public Trials of Wisconsin’s First Woman Lawyer aims to secure her rightful place in history.
Historical research is a lot like detective work. You follow the facts wherever they might lead. Sometimes they lead down dark alleys; many times they lead to dead ends. But once in a while they lead to a never before seen vista that is so breathtaking that you have to pinch yourself. Case in point: the moment you discover that the widely disseminated photo of Lavinia Goodell isn’t her at all. How could that be possible? Here’s how:
When Lavinia died in 1880, she left her personal belongings to her sister, Maria Frost. On Maria’s death in 1899, her son, William Goodell Frost, whom Lavinia affectionately called Willie, was the president of Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. Willie placed the Goodell family papers, which included Lavinia’s diaries and correspondence, in the Berea College library. The papers apparently did not include a photograph of Lavinia, although her letters recount that she had her picture taken on several occasions. Lavinia may well never have had a public face were it not for the fact that in 1959 two writers were simultaneously doing research for dueling biographies, neither of which was ever published.
In 1858, long before any woman was admitted to practice law in the United States, 18-year-old Lavinia Goodell contemplated her future. She wrote to her sister, Maria:
I expect to graduate next summer . . . and I must have a life plan. I don’t believe in living to get married, if that comes along in the natural course of events—very well, but to make it virtually my end aim, to square all my plans to it, and study and learn for no other purpose, does not suit my ideas.
I think the study of law would be pleasant, but the practice attendant with many embarrassments. Indeed, I fear it would be utterly impractical. [O]ur folks would not hear of my going to college; I should dare not mention it. Mamma is very much afraid that I shall be identified with the “women’s rights movement.” Mary advises me to try writing for the press, but you know I have so much to learn about everything, to be conversant with literature, to perfect my style, to arrange my ideas and to know my latitude and longitude on the ocean of thought that it would be a long, long time before I could enter boldly upon it as a profession.
Novels have been tweeted and blogged, but we could not find a crowdsourced or blogged biography to serve as an example for Lavinia Goodell: The Private Life and Public Trials of Wisconsin’s First Woman Lawyer. So we are very grateful that many organizations and people were willing to support this project.
Our financial and professional supporters include:
The Wisconsin Humanities Council provided a $10,000 major grant to fund the design and development of laviniagoodell.com. The Rock County Historical Society is the director and fiscal agent for the project.
Habush, Habush & Rottier Charitable Foundation, Inc., Madison Wisconsin
Godfrey & Kahn, S.C., Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Civil Justice Education Foundation, Madison, Wisconsin
The Association for Women Lawyers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Legal Association for Women, Madison, WI
Rudy Kopp, Orfordville, Wisconsin
Diana Rhoads, Madison, Wisconsin
William Tyroler and Barbara Ingram, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Richard Johnson, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Bully Broads (a book group of “strong-minded” women), Milwaukee, WI.
For assisting us with research and development of the website, we gratefully acknowledge:
Sarah Frost Stamps, Beverly Wright, and Steve Bates. Lavinia’s relatives shared family papers and photos, answered our questions, and provided help at every turn. Without them Lavinia’s real image and details of her life would have remained hidden. We thank them for helping us bring her story to life.
Professor Steve Gowler, the preeminent expert on the Goodell family archive at Berea College. Steve met with us, shared his own research, supported our grant proposal, and pointed us toward obscure primary sources that enhanced Lavinia’s story.
Professor Emerita Jill Norgren, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/Graduate Center, City University of New York. Jill has written extensively on early women lawyers and supported our grant proposal. Her research has helped us understand Lavinia’s experience in its 19th Century context.
Lori Myers-Steele and Sharyn Mitchell, Berea College archivists. Lori and Sharyn guided us through the William Goodell Family Collection and supplied quality images for this site.
Associate Dean Jasmine Alinder, Humanities, College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Jasmine helped us flesh out our vision of telling Lavinia’s life story through a website and supported our grant proposal.
Ann Hanlon, Director of Digital Collections and Initiatives, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Ann provided ideas for presenting historical materials in a digital platform and also supported our grant proposal.
Professor Alan Ball, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Alan helped us procure important primary sources and edited documents and images for the project.
Professor Diana Hoover, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Proprietor of Strong Heart Design. Diana designed the beautiful graphics for this website.
Attorney Susan Tyndall, a shareholder at Habush, Habush & Rottier, S.C. Sue helped brainstorm this project, and like us, thinks Lavinia’s life story is worthy of a miniseries.
Jennifer Motszko, Digital Scholarship Preservation Archivist at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Jennifer helped track down Lavinia’s Rock County Circuit Court case files.
Karen Muth Fraley of TEK Consulting LLC. Karen worked magic to bring laviniagoodell.com to life. She also manages its social media sites.
Joyce Hastings, Communications Director for the State Bar of Wisconsin. Joyce, one of Lavinia’s biggest fans, expertly provided just the right support for this project at all the right times.
