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We are delighted to illuminate the important work of Lavinia Goodell. This blog shares significant moments in Lavinia’s life and excerpts from her personal papers. You may browse the posts or use the Table of Contents to find posts that interest you. Please subscribe and help spread the word about Wisconsin's first woman lawyer.

Nov

2019

“Why this is an unexpected pleasure . . . I am ready to explode with fun!”

–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:

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Oct

2019

Introducing Lavinia Goodell’s digital biography

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.

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Oct

2019

A Case of Mistaken Identity: Meet the Real Lavinia Goodell

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:

The faux Lavinia and the real Lavinia — The Faux Lavinia (left) and the Real Lavinia (right).

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.

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Oct

2019

In all probability I must teach, that is all a woman can do.

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 donâ€™t believe in living to get married, if that comes along in the natural course of eventsâ€”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.

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Oct

2019

Acknowledgments

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.

Oct

2019

Select Bibliography

Select bibliography

Primary Sources

Letters, diaries, papers.

Lavinia Goodell’s personal diaries, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1880, located in Berea College’s Special Collections and Archives. Lavinia’s 1875 diary is missing, but a transcription of it by Berea College Professor Elisabeth Peck still exists.

Letters (25) from Lavinia Goodell to Sarah Thomas, 1872-1879, located in the Special Collections at Williams College.

Letters (hundreds) in William Goodell Family Collection, 1780-1892, located in the Special Collections and Archives at Berea College.

Letters, legal briefs, papers, William Goodell Family Papers, 1737-1933, located in the Oberlin College Archives.

Select publications by Lavinia Goodell.

“A Psychological Experiment,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (June 1866).

Articles, letters (35) by Lavinia Goodell published in Woman’s Journal, 1871-1879.

Articles, poems, stories (39) authored by Lavinia Goodell in The Principia, 1859-1863.

“My Tramp,” Christian Union (Dec. 1, 1875).

“Prayer Meetings in Jail,” Christian Union (May 31, 1876).

“Spherical Domesticity,” Christian Union (Oct. 29, 1879).

Unpublished manuscripts about Lavinia Goodell

Maria Goodell Frost, Life of Lavinia Goodell (undated), located in the Special Collections and Archives at Berea College.

Elisabeth Peck, So Life is Learning (undated), located in the Special Collections and Archives at Berea College.

Contemporary articles about or mentioning Lavinia Goodell

Lavinia Goodell is discussed or mentioned in over 50 articles published between 1866 and 1880 in the following papers: Advance, Chicago Legal News, Christian Union, Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee Sunday Telegraph, Providence Journal, The American Socialist, The Central Law Journal, The Janesville Gazette, Wisconsin Chief, and Woman’s Journal.

Court files relating to Lavinia’s law practice

Hathaway v. Hathaway, Rock County Circuit Court Case (1879).

Ingalls v. State, 48 Wis. 647, 4 N.W. 785 (1880).

In re Goodell, 39 Wis. 232 (1875).

In re Goodell, 48 Wis. 693, 891 N.W. 551 (1879).

Leavenworth v. Leavenworth, Rock County Circuit Court Case (1873-1875).

Tyler v. Burrington, 39 Wis. 2d 376 (1876).

Court files relating to Lavinia’s family

In the Matter of Guardianship of Clarissa C. Goodell, Rock County Circuit Court Case (1877).

In the Matter of the Estate of Clarissa C. Goodell, Rock County Circuit Court Case (1878).

In the Matter of the Estate of William Goodell, Rock County Circuit Court Case (1878).

In the Matter of the Estate of Lavinia Goodell, Dane County Circuit Court Case (1880).

Secondary Sources

Barbara Babcock, Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011).

Catherine B. Cleary, “Lavinia Goodell: First Woman Lawyer in Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 74, no 4 (Summer 1991).

Betty Diamond, “Lavinia,” (Madison Theater Guild, 2015).

Eugene Exman, The House of Harper (New York: Harper & Row, 1967).

Jane M. Friedman, America’s First Woman Lawyer: The Biography of Myra Bradwell (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1993).

Phebe Hanaford, Daughters of America or Women of the Century (True and Company, 1882).

Genevieve McBride, On Wisconsin Women: Working for Their Rights from Settlement to Suffrage (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993).

Jill Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President (New York, N.Y.: NYU Press, 2007).

Jill Norgren, Rebels at the Bar: The Fascinating, Forgotten Stories of America’s First Women Lawyers (New York, N.Y.: NYU Press, 2013).

Meyer Leon Perkal, William Goodell: A Life of Reform (unpublished Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 1972).

Lisa Tetrault, The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898, (Chapel Hill, N.C.: UNC Press, 2014)

Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, eds., A Woman of the Century (Buffalo, N.Y.: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893).

“Why this is an unexpected pleasure . . . I am ready to explode with fun!”

Introducing Lavinia Goodell’s digital biography

A Case of Mistaken Identity: Meet the Real Lavinia Goodell

In all probability I must teach, that is all a woman can do.

Acknowledgments

Select bibliography

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

In all probability I must teach, that is all a woman can do.