In Her Own Right : The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (58 page)

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A genealogical sketch of Stanton’s children appears in app. B.

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Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–98) became more radical in her old age and agreed with ECS on many points, enunciating her views in
Woman, Church and State
(1892). In 1890 she broke with the National and formed a more progressive organization, the Woman’s National Liberal Union. She was its only president until her death in 1898. Had Gage not been plagued by ill health and a weak voice, she might have been even more prominent.

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Clara Bewick Colby (1846–1916) had been born in England and raised in the Midwest. She married another student and moved to Nebraska, where her husband served in the state Senate. The childless couple adopted two children, one a Sioux Indian baby found after the battle of Wounded Knee. Mrs. Colby was very active in the National and the National American and cooperated with Stanton on the Bible project.

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Clemence Harned Lozier Baker (1813–88) was an orphan who opened a school to support herself, taught physiology, and read her brother’s medical books. She completed her training at Syracuse Medical College at age forty. Reports of Stanton’s speech on divorce inspired Lozier to divorce her second husband. She had a large practice, specialized in the removal of tumors, and attained distinction in obstetrics and general surgery.

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Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859–1947) grew up in Iowa. She put herself through Iowa State College and became a public school principal. She married Leo Chapman, a newspaper editor, in 1885. Widowed within a year, she became a lecturer and joined the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. Before her second marriage in 1890 to George Catt, she signed a marriage contract allowing her four months a year for suffrage work. She advanced rapidly in the national organization. An energetic organizer and magnetic speaker, she served as president of NAWSA (1900–04, 1915–20). With her “Winning Plan,” she led NAWSA to final passage of the suffrage amendment. The vote assured, she called for the establishment of the League of Women Voters.

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Lillie Devereux Blake (1833–1913) was born in North Carolina and raised in New Haven, Conn., where she was tutored by Yale students. Bored following her first marriage in 1855, she began to write fiction. After her husband’s death she supported herself and two children until her second marriage in 1866. She joined the women’s movement in 1869. She was president of the New York Woman Suffrage Association (1879–90) and of the New York City League (1886–1900). After her loss to Catt, she founded the National Legislative League.

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At Harvard, Johann Spurzheim (1776–1832) taught with George Combe (1788–1858), who gave up a law career to found the Phrenological Society and the
Phrenological Journal
. Combe’s brother, Scottish philosopher Andrew Combe, was another of ECS’s intellectual influences.

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See Appendix C for “Phrenological Character of Mrs. Elizabeth C. Stanton.”

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Holograph copy, ECS-VC. Considering that ECS was not yet widely known, this description quite accurately predicts her mature personality and political style.