All led by a woman, who broke the rules about women's roles!
Victoria Woodhull, one of the few women in the United States, who has run for president,...advocated Free love,..married into the British Nobility,.and made a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange..all before the turn of the 19th century into the 20th century..had her origins in Massillon,..Ohio!
..Victoria began her claim to fame by announcing to the Social Elite of Stark County,..Ohio..that she was a pyschic and a medium. She had a huge group of people..mesmerized in a local church as she told them about their dead ancesters, who were supposedly coming back to"scold and advise"..their living family members. Aristocrat after aristocrat fainted as Victoria told them the dates of their ancesters' births and deaths and gave them detailed information about their familial relationshionships.
..The young "medium" was well on her way to achieving financial success right here in Stark County..till a country hick lawyer by the name of William McKinley stood up in one of her "meetings" in a Methodist Church in Canton and told the bemused crowd that Victoria was fond of "visiting" the local cemeteries and gathering information from the family plots and tombstones.....Victoria was given a "ride on a rail" to the local railway station and was thusly thrust out of the reachs of the stiffling environment of Bimblewort country and onto the larger national scene.
..One of the results of that melodramatic moment of revelation was Stark County's gift to the world of..two presidential cantidates!! Miss Woodhull became a leader in the Women's Rights movement, ran for president and lost,..married an English Nobleman,..and later made a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange. Lawyer McKinley married Ida Saxton, the daughter of one of the richest bankers in Canton, Ohio,..ran for President and won. I wonder what would have happened to the two of them if they had elected to stay in Stark County?