Uncategorized Archives - Lavinia Goodell

Jul

2026

“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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Apr

2026

“I run for City Atty. on Temperance ticket today.”

Lavinia Goodell, April 6, 1875

In April of 1875, 45 years before women won the right to vote, Lavinia Goodell ran for Janesville City Attorney on the Temperance, or Anti-License, ticket. It is unknown when she made the decision to run. Her diary entry for election day reported, “I run for City Atty. on Temperance ticket today. Don’t know how many votes I got, but N got elected, which I suppose will make him amiable.” The “N” in question was Pliny Norcross, Lavinia’s sometime legal mentor/sometime adversary. The following day, Lavinia reported that she had received about 60 votes, a very respectable showing from Janesville’s all male voting contingent.

The April 17, 1875 issue of the Woman’s Journal reported favorably on Lavinia’s efforts:

The 1875 election was Lavinia Goodell’s only bid for public office, but for the remaining five years of her life she worked tirelessly to help women gain the right to vote.

Feb

2026

“Petition denied.”

One hundred fifty years ago, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued one of its most famous – and infamous – decisions. The afternoon edition of the Tuesday, February 15, 1876 Wisconsin State Journal contained a list of the opinions the court had handed down earlier that day. Two of those opinions were written by Chief Justice Edward Ryan. The first was a routine matter: the denial of a writ of mandamus. The second was the denial of Lavinia Goodell’s motion to become the first woman admitted to the bar of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Although the opinion was authored by Chief Justice Ryan, the other two justices agreed that Wisconsin statutes permitted only men to practice law. In all likelihood, the justices viewed this case as a run-of-the-mill application of the principles of statutory interpretation. Little did they know that their ruling would set in motion a course of events that would forever change the practice of law in Wisconsin.

February 15, 1876 Wisconsin State Journal

Lavinia learned of the decision the following day and made the terse notation in her diary, “Am refused admittance to Sup. Ct.”

Lavinia had lost this battle and was bitterly disappointed, but she was by no means defeated, and her persistence led, thirteen months later, to a change in the law that specifically stated that no person in Wisconsin may be denied a license to practice law on account of sex. Generations of women lawyers have benefitted from her firm stance against the exclusion of women from the legal profession.

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Jan

2026

Where is the line to be drawn between “you may do this” and “you must not do that”?

Henry Ward Beecher, March 1876

One hundred fifty years ago, Henry Ward Beecher was one of the most famous men in the United States. The Brooklyn, New York Congregationalist preacher was a lifelong proponent of equal rights for women. He was also a personal friend of Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin’s first woman lawyer. (Read more about Lavinia’s relationship with Beecher here.) So it was not surprising that when the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to allow Lavinia to practice before it due to her gender, Beecher wrote a strong rebuke in his weekly paper, The Christian Union.

He wrote:

Has woman the right to earn her own living in her own way? Reduced to its practical shape this is the question which the Wisconsin Supreme Court has decided in the negative in refusing to admit Miss Lavinia Goodell to practice at its bar. The old common law, it seems is to blame for this; at least their “honors” fall back upon it in the absence of an express statute authorizing the gentler sex to enter the legal profession.
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Oct

2024

“Married women today are not the abject slaves they were fifty years ago”

Lavinia Goodell, October 1879

In the fall of 1879, Lavinia Goodell wrote an article for the Woman’s Journal titled “How it Looked to a Lawyer Half a Century Ago.” In it, she lauded the progress women had made during her lifetime (Lavinia was born in 1839) in gaining more rights.

Lavinia noted that in 1837, Timothy Walker, a professor at the Law Department of Cincinnati College delivered a course of lectures on American Law that were published in book form in 1837. Walker commented, “With regard to political rights, females form a positive exception to the general doctrine of equality. They cannot vote, nor hold office. We require them to contribute their share in the ay of taxes, or the support of government, but allow them no void in its direction.” Walker said if males were treated in this fashion, it “would be the exact definition of political slavery.” But he said, “probably the most refined and enlightened [women] would be the last to desire a change which would involve them in the turmoil of politics.”

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Sep

2024

Welcome to the Lavinia Goodell State Law Library

On September 30, 2024, the Wisconsin State Law Library, located in the Risser Justice Center just off the Capitol square in Madison, Wisconsin, was named in honor of Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin’s first woman lawyer.

As Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley noted in her remarks at the naming ceremony, Lavinia cherished libraries. In 1867, when Lavinia was living in Brooklyn, New York, her older sister, Maria Frost, was preparing to move to Janesville, Wisconsin. Maria reported to Lavinia that Janesville had no public library. Lavinia could scarcely believe this was true. She wrote:

I am filled with horror at the idea of you not having any reading in Wisconsin, and have been forming plans for the amelioration of your condition. Intellectual starvation is quite as painful as physical, tho’ it doesn’t excite the sympathies of the world so much and must not be allowed in this enlightened country, in the full blaze and glory of the Nineteenth Century. Here I am surfeited with more reading than I get time to enjoy. I have recently joined the new Brooklyn Library Association. It is splendid. There is a nice comfortable reading room, with tables, upon which you find all the principal daily and weekly papers, also thirty or forty of our best magazines, both American and Foreign, besides the New American Cyclopedia and a variety of books of every description that members can take out for two weeks. It only costs $8.00 per year, besides $1.00 initiation fee to be a member and enjoy all the privileges of the library.
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Sep

2024

“It is real fun to be a lawyer.”

Lavinia Goodell, August 21, 1874

The early days of Lavinia Goodell’s legal practice were busy ones. After being admitted to practice law on June 17, 1874, she was eager to get to work and was willing to take on any clients who wanted to hire her. Lavinia’s diary entries and letters make clear that she was throwing herself into her practice with great enthusiasm and she truly enjoyed being a lawyer.

In August 1874 she tried her first cases to the court after being retained by Jefferson County temperance women to prosecute saloon keepers dealers who violated the law by selling liquor on Sundays. She won those cases. (Read more here.) She proudly wrote to her sister, “I am not afraid of the liquor men. I only wish I had plenty of such cases and could win them all. . . . Run away from them and they will run after you, but give them chase and they will run the other way.”

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Aug

2024

Wisconsin State Law Library Launches Digital Timeline of Women Lawyers

When Lavinia Goodell was admitted to practice law in 1874, she paved the way for other Wisconsin women to follow her into the profession, and follow they did. The next two women to take up the practice were Lavinia’s Janesville cohorts Kate Kane – in 1878 – and Angie King – in 1879. Other Wisconsin women soon joined them.

The Wisconsin State Law Library has developed a digital timeline of women who shaped Wisconsin’s legal landscape. The timeline may be found here. While not intended to be exhaustive, the timeline chronicles a variety of women attorneys, judges, activists, and legislators who have made significant contributions to advancing justice and equality in Wisconsin. The timeline also notes important historical events and features scans from the attorney roll books which attorneys sign when they are first admitted to practice law. The timeline is well worth a look. Thank you to the Wisconsin State Law Library for developing this interesting and useful historical reference.