Cynthia Hicks Van Name Leonard (February 28, 1828 – 1908) was a

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

, aid worker, and writer, notable for her pioneering efforts toward social reform. In 1888, she became the first woman to run for mayor of New York City.

Biography

Born Cynthia Hicks Van Name in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, she married Charles Egbert Leonard (1829–1896) in 1852. They had eight children, the most famous of whom was entertainer

Lillian Russell Lillian Russell (born Helen Louise Leonard; December 4, 1860 or 1861 – June 6, 1922), was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for her beauty ...

. While a young woman in Buffalo, Leonard became the first woman to stand behind a counter as a salesperson and later became a member of Buffalo's first Woman's Social and Literary Club. Four years after her marriage, in 1856, the couple moved from

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

Clinton, Iowa Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,469 as of 2020. Clinton, along with DeWitt (also located in Clinton County), was named in honor of the sixth governor of New York, DeWitt Cl ...

, where Charles Leonard founded the ''

Clinton Herald The ''Clinton Herald'' is a six-day (Monday through Saturday) daily newspaper published in Clinton, Iowa, and covering Clinton and Jackson counties in Iowa, and Carroll and Whiteside counties in Illinois. Overview It is owned by Community N ...

'', that community's newspaper, still in existence today. She was on the executive committee of the Soldiers' Relief Association, which established the first soldiers' home in the state of Iowa, attending to the housing needs of Union soldiers recently released from the 18th Regimental Hospital, then quartered in Clinton. In 1863, Charles Leonard sold the ''Herald'', and the couple moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. There Cynthia organized a fair to benefit the

Freedman's Aid Society The Freedmen's Aid Society was founded in 1859 during the American Civil War by the American Missionary Association (AMA), a group supported chiefly by the Congregational, Presbyterian and Methodist churches in the North. It organized a supply of ...

, helped found the Chicago branch of

Sorosis Sorosis Club rules in 1869 Sorosis was the first professional women's club in the United States. It was established in March 1868 in New York City. History The club was organized in New York City with 12 members in March 1868, by Jane Cunnin ...

and was editor of its newsweekly for a time, and was a member of the Chicago Philosophical Society. In 1869, she led the spiritualist faction of the

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...

movement at the Music Hall, one of the first women's suffrage meetings ever held in Chicago.

Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to so ...

was a frequent visitor in the Leonard home. Cynthia organized the Good Samaritan Society, and after the

great Chicago fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 1 ...

, she established a homeless shelter for the "unfortunate" women of the city. She was instrumental in the decision to place matrons in Chicago prisons, and she authored two novels: ''Adventures of Lena Rouden, or the Rebel Spy'' and ''Fading Footprints, or the Last of the Iroquois''. In 1880, working with the Ladies Lecture Bureau, she helped organize a number of benefits for the

Irish Famine The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a ...

. She was afterward accused of mismanaging (keeping for herself) some of the funds raised at one of these events. After she separated from her husband, Cynthia took their two youngest daughters, Nellie and Suzanne, to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

to launch the girls' musical careers and to broaden her own political horizons. There she organized the Science of Life Club and in 1880 managed a benefit for starving women and children in Ireland. In 1888, she became the first woman to run for

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

of New York City. She died in New Jersey in 1908. In a May 3, 1914 interview with

Djuna Barnes Djuna Barnes (, June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel ''Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of Lesbian literature, lesbian fiction and an important work ...

, Lillian Russell gave this testament to her mother:

To be a great woman, a great person, one must have suffered, even... suffered in great crises. What have I done that I should be famous— nothing but powdered a bit gently the cheeks that God gave me and smoothed the hair that I was born with, laughed and proven a faultless set of teeth. Any grinning idol, well painted, can do as well, but the real women, the big women, are those who toil and never write of it, those who labor and never cry of it, those who forfeit all and never seek reward. Begin this article with the name Lillian Russell, but end it with the name of such as was Cynthia Leonard.Interviews and Illustrations by and with Barnes: Selections from an Interview with Lillian Russell (May 3, 1914)
case.edu; accessed January 18, 2016.

References

Sources

* ''History of Clinton County, Iowa, 1976'' (copyright 1978, Clinton County Historical Society) * Baker, Jean H. ''Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists.'' Hill and Wang, New York, 2005; *Fields, Armond. ''Lillian Russell: A Biography of 'America's Beauty (McFarland & Company 1998)

External links

*
1940 film about Lillian Russell, portraying the Leonard family
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Cynthia 1828 births 1908 deaths Writers from Buffalo, New York Writers from Clinton, Iowa Date of death missing American suffragists Activists from Buffalo, New York Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century