Editing Victoria Woodhull (section)

=== First marriage and family ===
[[File:Victoria-Woodhull-by-Bradley-&-Rulofson.png|thumb|right|Victoria Woodhull, c. 1860s]]
When she was 14, Victoria met 28-year-old Canning Woodhull (listed as "Channing" in some records), a doctor from a town outside [[Rochester, New York]]. Her family had consulted him to treat the girl for a chronic illness.  Woodhull practiced medicine in Ohio at a time when the state did not require formal medical education and licensing. By some accounts, Woodhull abducted Victoria to marry her.<ref>Prioleau, Elizabeth. ''Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love''. Penguin, 2004, p. 222</ref> Woodhull claimed to be the nephew of [[Caleb Smith Woodhull]], [[List of mayors of New York City|mayor of New York City]] from 1849 to 1851; he was in fact a distant cousin.<ref>Coates, H.T. Woodhull Genealogy: The Woodhull Family in England and America, 1904 pp. 159, 211.</ref>

They were married on November 20, 1853.{{sfn|Gabriel|1998|loc=[https://archive.org/details/notoriousvictori00gabr/page/12 p. 12]}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-17962-14094-44?cc=1614804|title="Ohio, County Marriages, 1789–2013, index and images, FamilySearch "Marriage records 1849–1854 vol 5 > image 273 of 334; county courthouses, Ohio|publisher=familysearch.org |access-date=June 9, 2015}}</ref> Their marriage certificate was recorded in [[Cleveland]] on November 23, 1853, when Victoria was two months past her 15th birthday.<ref name=Johnson1956_46>{{harvnb|Johnson|1956|p=46}}.</ref>{{sfn|Underhill|1996|p=24}}

Victoria soon learned that her new husband was an [[alcoholic]] and a womanizer.  She often had to work outside the home to support the family. She and Canning had two children, Byron and Zulu (later called Zula) Maude Woodhull.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Woodhull, Zula Maude |journal=Who's Who |year=1907 |volume=59 |page=1930 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1930}}</ref>  Byron was born with an [[intellectual disability]] in 1854, a condition Victoria believed was caused by her husband's alcoholism.<ref>Noll, Steven and Trent, James. ''Mental Retardation in America: A Historical Reader''. NYU, 2004, pp. 73–75</ref> Another version recounted that her son's disability was caused by a fall from a window.  After their children were born, Victoria divorced her husband and kept his surname.{{sfn|Johnson|1956|pp=46–47}}<!-- Presumably the reference is the different version; hence arguing the case. -->