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Victoria C. Woodhull

© Andrea Janel Kirk

I first heard of her in the seventh grade. Her defiance of social convention completely captivated my adolescent imagination. No American woman before or since has had the unparalleled audacity to grasp toward the chief executive office of our country.

Her ubiquitous rise to fame began in the rural surroundings of Homer, Ohio. She was born September 23, 1838, the seventh of Roxanna and Buckman Claflin’s ten children. She and her nine siblings were brought up in the humblest of settings. Victoria and her sister Tennessee, however, seemed destined for an extraordinary life. From the cradle Victoria possessed an exaggerated sense of the fantastical, and often succumbed to the will of her dreams. The belief in clairvoyance, though prevalent in the era, was frequently regarded as the property of charlatans and “quacks.” Victoria claimed that her mission was one of enlightenment, that she had been informed through the powers of divination of her role in the nation’s fortune.

At the age of fourteen she was wed to Dr. Woodhull –he was many years her superior in both age and experience. His wayward lifestyle eventually landed them in California. There Victoria made the acquaintance of Anna Cogswell and became an actress. One evening, in the middle of her performance, she received an urgent message to return home. She claims she received this message in the form of a vision of her younger sister beckoning to her. She immediately sailed for home and, after consultation with her sister and mother, set up shop as a medium in Indiana. Her miraculous acts soon impressed the entire community and she was hailed wherever she journeyed. She supported her husband and her entire family through her dubious talents, and traveled from city to city until she finally arrived in Chicago once again. She gave birth to her daughter there, her second child. And, after eleven years of a façade of a marriage to a drunken, licentious sot, obtained a divorce. She went on to meet and wed Colonel James Blood.

In 1869 she opened a bank and brokerage in the swelter of Wall Street. She and her sister Tennie were the first women to do so, and were supported by the sponsorship of none other than Cornelius Vanderbilt. Their brokerage was a success and became an enviable enterprise by the male bastion of the financial world. The women encouraged other women to establish financial independence, to invest their resources and protect their assets. In an age where marital property rights and status were to the disadvantage of women in general, Victoria and her sister advocated a controversial lifestyle.

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