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View Print Version A good student, Belva attended rural schools and by age 14 whet her appetite for lawyering. This had to wait, however, was offered a teaching position in Lockport. Here she had her while she faced the exigencies of supporting herself and her first taste of independence – as well as her first taste of sex dis- child. Immediately upon graduating, she accepted a position as crimination. As a female, she was paid less than half the salary preceptress of the Lockport Union School. In the ensuing years, paid to her male counterparts for the same work. She protested Belva worked in various schools, becoming active in statewide BBelvaelva LLocockkwoodwood aanndd thethe this inequity as “... an indignity not to be borne...” and through- academic organizations, always urging for a broad education out her life, seized every opportunity to advance “equal pay for for girls. equal work.” But her interest in law kept nagging at her. In 1866, she Though Belva yearned to continue her education, the vast enrolled her now 16-year-old daughter at the Genesee SStrugtruggglele fforor WWomeomenn’s’s EEqquuaalitylity majority of colleges were closed to women, plus her father Wesleyan Seminary and left for Washington, DC. There, she refused to allow it, arguing that education was unimportant for became intrigued by politicians and their power; fascinated by a girl. So, for the moment, she took the only road open to her: law and law-making. She saw limitless possibilities for herself, marriage. In 1848, at the age of 18, she married 22-year-old either as an owner of a small school or in following a career in By Maryann Saccomando Freedman Uriah McNall. They settled near the hamlet of Gasport where government or law. Being a pragmatist, she embarked upon they farmed and ran a mill. A year later, the couple welcomed both paths simultaneously. She started McNall’s Ladies Semi- their only child, Lura McNall. Marriage and motherhood failed nary and became involved in an effort to open the American to dampen Belva’s enthusiasm to pursue learning, however, Foreign Service to women. The latter failed, but it put her in though she acknowledged that marriage was usually the death touch with other women – and men – who encouraged and knell of an ordinary woman’s identity and independence. “For- supported her in her ambitions. ever after,” she would later observe in an 1888 article for Her move to Washington signaled the beginning of a Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, “[a woman] is known by her lifetime career as a women’s rights activist. She was a founder husband’s name, takes his standing in society, receives only his of the Universal Franchise Association, befriended several friends, is represented by him and becomes a sort of domestic women journalists, joined the National Woman’s Press Associ- nonentity, reflecting, if anything, her husband’s religious, moral, ation and became a credentialed journalist. This latter position and political views, rising or falling in the world as his star shall also served to admit her into meetings otherwise closed to go up or down.” Finding such a future unacceptable, Belva women. instead “directly adapted the unwomanly habit of pursuing my In 1868, Belva met and married Ezekiel Lockwood, 29 years studies after my marriage, writing theses for literary gatherings her senior. A Baptist minister and dentist, Ezekiel supported and sometimes for the press.” Belva’s desire to become a lawyer, shared her commitment to In 1853, Uriah succumbed to tuberculosis, leaving her with women’s rights and not only accepted, but expected, her equal a three-year-old daughter and a meager estate, deeply in debt. contribution to the economics and finances of the family. Without an education, she saw the future as gloomy with no means to support herself or her toddler. As Jill Norgren notes in Belva’s biography, Belva Lockwood, the Woman Who Would Be President, “Tragedy ... freed [her] ... from a woman’s shackles.” Belva saw that education would provide the tools to earn a livelihood. She sold the mill and paid off the debt. Gathering up her few remaining dollars, she enrolled in the Gasport Acad- Belva Lockwood, about the time of emy over the objections and harsh criticisms of her father and her campaign for the presidency friends. Completing her studies at Gasport, she sought employ- in 1884. ment there, only to be told that the board would be hiring a LIBRARY OF CONGRESS man. Midway through the year, however, the man was fired and Belva was chosen to replace him. For the next year and a half, Belva saved her money. Then, in efore there was Hillary Clinton or Shirley Chisholm, there was Belva the fall of 1854, despite the criticism of friends, she left her daughter with her parents and set off on the 60-mile trip to enroll Lockwood. Born Belva Ann Bennett on October 24, 1830 into a in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, which was open to B both men and women. Soon she became aware that her male farming family in Royalton, NY, she would become the first woman classmates were preparing to enroll in Genesee College, which WESTERN NEW YORK HERITAGE had been opened by the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary to offer to practice law before the United States Supreme Court and the first further education for its graduates, and that the college had woman to appear on ballots as a legitimate candidate for the U.S. presidency. already allowed two women to matriculate. Despite the mis - givings of the preceptress of the seminary and the president of the Lockwood’s life and career would also have a lasting and profound impact college, she graduated from Genesee College on June 27, 1857. Belva McNall attended the Gasport Academy following the death of While attending the college, she had taken a law class her husband, Uriah, in 1853. Today, the structure houses apartments. on the legal profession and American society. offered in the village by an unaffiliated law professor, which WESTERN NEW YORK HERITAGE PHOTOGRAPH, 2017 20 Summer 2017 WESTERN NEW YORK HERITAGE 21 A good student, Belva attended rural schools and by age 14 whet her appetite for lawyering. This had to wait, however, was offered a teaching position in Lockport. Here she had her while she faced the exigencies of supporting herself and her first taste of independence – as well as her first taste of sex dis- child. Immediately upon graduating, she accepted a position as crimination. As a female, she was paid less than half the salary preceptress of the Lockport Union School. In the ensuing years, paid to her male counterparts for the same work. She protested Belva worked in various schools, becoming active in statewide BBelvaelva LLocockkwoodwood aanndd thethe this inequity as “... an indignity not to be borne...” and through- academic organizations, always urging for a broad education out her life, seized every opportunity to advance “equal pay for for girls. equal work.” But her interest in law kept nagging at her. In 1866, she Though Belva yearned to continue her education, the vast enrolled her now 16-year-old daughter at the Genesee SStrugtruggglele fforor WWomeomenn’s’s EEqquuaalitylity majority of colleges were closed to women, plus her father Wesleyan Seminary and left for Washington, DC. There, she refused to allow it, arguing that education was unimportant for became intrigued by politicians and their power; fascinated by a girl. So, for the moment, she took the only road open to her: law and law-making. She saw limitless possibilities for herself, marriage. In 1848, at the age of 18, she married 22-year-old either as an owner of a small school or in following a career in By Maryann Saccomando Freedman Uriah McNall. They settled near the hamlet of Gasport where government or law. Being a pragmatist, she embarked upon they farmed and ran a mill. A year later, the couple welcomed both paths simultaneously. She started McNall’s Ladies Semi- their only child, Lura McNall. Marriage and motherhood failed nary and became involved in an effort to open the American to dampen Belva’s enthusiasm to pursue learning, however, Foreign Service to women. The latter failed, but it put her in though she acknowledged that marriage was usually the death touch with other women – and men – who encouraged and knell of an ordinary woman’s identity and independence. “For- supported her in her ambitions. ever after,” she would later observe in an 1888 article for Her move to Washington signaled the beginning of a Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, “[a woman] is known by her lifetime career as a women’s rights activist. She was a founder husband’s name, takes his standing in society, receives only his of the Universal Franchise Association, befriended several friends, is represented by him and becomes a sort of domestic women journalists, joined the National Woman’s Press Associ- nonentity, reflecting, if anything, her husband’s religious, moral, ation and became a credentialed journalist. This latter position and political views, rising or falling in the world as his star shall also served to admit her into meetings otherwise closed to go up or down.” Finding such a future unacceptable, Belva women. instead “directly adapted the unwomanly habit of pursuing my In 1868, Belva met and married Ezekiel Lockwood, 29 years studies after my marriage, writing theses for literary gatherings her senior. A Baptist minister and dentist, Ezekiel supported and sometimes for the press.” Belva’s desire to become a lawyer, shared her commitment to In 1853, Uriah succumbed to tuberculosis, leaving her with women’s rights and not only accepted, but expected, her equal a three-year-old daughter and a meager estate, deeply in debt.
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