An Outrageous Candidate Comes to Stonington

By Chelsea Mitchell, Director of Community Engagement & the Woolworth Library, Stonington Historical Society

On the eve of the national election in 1888, would-be voters in Stonington – including members of some of the most prominent local families – led hundreds through the streets in protest of an audacious, longshot candidate.

Belva Lockwood, a woman who would break several glass ceilings in her lifetime, was ridiculed across the country for daring to think she could be president of the United States. Her candidacy, in both 1884 and 1888, prompted men to mockingly dress as women and parade around in jest. Stonington was no exception.

Portrait of belva ann lockwood

from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, painted by Nellie Mathes Home in 1913. This portrait is on view in the East Gallery, number 123.

The night before the national election in 1888, the men of Stonington arranged a Belva Lockwood parade. Prominent citizens – Palmers, Chesebroughs, Wheelers, and Stantons – donned women’s clothing and proceeded to Borough Hall. They marched wearing poke bonnets, and carried brooms for “sweeping out corruption.” Local newspapers reported on these events, also known as Mother Hubbard Parades, with churlish glee.

Such an event is what is detailed on the poster, which is part of the Stonington Historical Society’s collection.

A similar event staged here in 1884 was covered by the Stonington Mirror:

“The supposed adherents of the woman candidate for president decided to give their best girl a send-off which would cause her name to be remembered in the valley even if it did not get her one vote. At about eight o’clock a couple of hundred of fantastically dressed human beings fell into line on one of the principal streets near the bridge and, proceeded by the Mystic Cornet Band, marched away on a parade through the two places. All were attired in Mother Hubbard costume and poke bonnets and were otherwise fancifully decorated. Some carried torches, others had brooms and a number had cradles containing rag babies under their arms.”

Borough Hall, seen here during the 1890s, was located at 18 Grand Street. On the steps is Cornelius Crandall, who served as borough warden.

Despite the overwhelming opposition, Belva secured 5,000 votes from four states in her first bid for the White House.

Belva Lockwood was born into neither money nor status when she arrived to farmer parents in Royalton, New York, on Oct. 24, 1830. The second of five children, she was a typical girl for the time, marrying at the age of 18 and settling into a life of dependency on her husband. At the age of 22, Belva’s first husband died, leaving her with a three-year-old daughter. Her prospects were slim, but Belva was clever. Leaving her daughter in the care of her parents, Belva enrolled in Genesee College, graduating in 1857. Upon finishing school and retrieving her daughter, she took a teaching position, and caused quite a stir by introducing public speaking and gymnastics for girls.

In 1866, she moved to Washington D.C. where she met and married Ezekiel Lockwood, a much older Civil War veteran. When her husband’s health began to fail, Belva again was the primary breadwinner. Already immersed in the suffrage movement – having met Susan B. Anthony – Belva returned to school, this time for a law degree.

As a woman, she was rebuffed by Georgetown and Howard universities, but at age 38 she was admitted to the National University Law School. Upon completion of her courses, she was denied a diploma, since women could not practice law, and her classmates were upset about the possibility of graduating with a woman. Again, Belva surprised them all. She learned that then U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant was ex-officio president of the law school, so she wrote him a letter requesting her diploma. He obliged, and she obtained her signed diploma and was admitted to the bar in September 1873.

Belva Lockwood would become the first woman admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

She continued to work as a lawyer until she was well into her 80s. In 1906 she represented the Eastern Cherokee Nation in its complaint against the United States government for the atrocity known as the Trail of Tears. Belva won, and the $5 million settlement was the largest yet paid by the government to an American Indian tribal nation.