“I am studying law.”
Lavinia Goodell, March 7, 1872
After moving to Janesville in the fall of 1871 to take care of her aging parents, Lavinia Goodell spent the first few months organizing the household and settling into her new home, but by the start of the new year, she was ready for new challenges. In early March she wrote to her cousin, Sarah Thomas:
Since you have told me so much – I will tell you what I am doing. I am studying law. Have been at it about six weeks. Like it ever so much. Have been thro’ “Warren’s Law Studies” and two vols. of Blackstone, and am in the third. I am studying with Mr. Jackson, who is one of the pillars of the Congregational Church, and a good woman’s rights man.
The “Mr. Jackson” Lavinia referred to was A.A. Jackson.
Jackson was born in Oneida County, New York in 1831 and moved to Janesville in 1855. Jackson practiced law in partnership with a number of other attorneys – and in August of 1872 formed a partnership with Pliny Norcross, who would play an important role in Lavinia’s legal career – but when he took Lavinia on as a law student he was a sole practitioner. As he did throughout her life, Lavinia’s father, William Goodell, played an important role in helping her undertake her new studies. Lavinia told her cousin that, “My parents are satisfied with the idea (indeed, Father arranged the business for me), and nobody seems shocked.”
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