Anna Whitehead Bodeker

Anna Whitehead was born July 27, 1826, in Midland Park, New Jersey, to English immigrants Jesse and Sophia Whitehead. When she was ten years old, her family move to Richmond, Virginia where her father oversaw the construction of the Manchester Cotton Mill in Manchester. He was superintendent of the mill for several years, and the family lived in a house nearby. == Women's suffrage activism ==

Bodeker began to follow the work of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) by the 1860s. On January 26, 1870, Bodeker invited NWSA activist Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis to her home to speak about suffrage in front of an audience of civic leaders, as well as Bodeker's friends and neighbors. After the evening's "impassioned discussion", Bodeker was ready to establish a women's suffrage organization in Richmond. With the help of the NWSA, Bodeker and the VSWSA arranged for nationally known suffragists like Susan B. Anthony, Lillie Devereux Blake, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and Josephine Griffing to come to Richmond and speak about suffrage. The petition was sent to the Committee for Courts of Justice, but it was ignored by legislators. Bodeker stopped her advocacy for women's suffrage after 1872, and the Virginia State Woman Suffrage Association faded from the suffrage movement soon after. == Personal life ==

in Richmond|alt=|220x220px Anna Whitehead married Augustus Bodeker on January 15, 1846, at age 18. They had three daughters; the first died in infancy. The family lived in Richmond's Church Hill neighborhood, purchasing a two-and-a-half-story house there in 1862. By 1872, she believed she was a powerful medium. Disturbed by Bodeker's unorthodox views and increasingly erratic behavior, her family admitted her against her will to the Western Lunatic Asylum (now Western State Hospital) in Staunton, Virginia on September 19, 1873. She was released on October 20, 1874, and returned to Richmond. Bodeker's husband died on July 26, 1884. She lived at the family home, 2801 E. Grace Street, with her daughters, Pearl and Ruby, until her death on October 26, 1904. She was buried at Hollywood Cemetery. == Honors ==

Bodeker was honored by the Library of Virginia as part of the 2003 class of Virginia Women in History. Here name is featured on the Wall of Honor on the Virginia Women's Monument, located in the Capitol Square in Richmond. == See also ==