I felt “set up” by my success

Lavinia Goodell, December 1874

In December 1874, six months after her admission to practice law, Lavinia Goodell kept busy not only running her law office but also speaking to temperance groups. Several days before Christmas, Lavinia wrote to her sister saying that the previous week she had accepted an invitation to lecture at Whitewater, Wisconsin. She said, “I was considerably alarmed at the prospect but concluded to accept. I shall have to learn to speak if I am going to make much of a lawyer.” She wrote her lecture out because she did not trust herself to make impromptu remarks. The title of her talk was “The Relation of Government to the Liquor Traffic.” She took the train from Janesville to Whitewater and several Whitewater temperance ladies met her at the depot. She said, “I had a crowded audience, and an attentive one, which applauded me generously. Didn’t feel as much scared as I expected to, and got along very well.”