Marion Todd

In 1881, a year after she had been widowed, Marion Todd ran for the office of California attorney general as a candidate of the Greenback Labor Party. She lost but ran ahead of her ticket, having conducted an active campaign of speeches across the state. A political activist, Todd attended the first national anti-monopoly convention (Chicago) as a delegate in 1893 and, again, in 1894. In 1894 she also attended the Greenback convention in Indianapolis, Indiana where she served as a member of the platform committee. She also stumped for Greenback candidates. In the mid-1880s, she joined the Knights of Labor in Michigan, and was sent as a delegate to the convention in Richmond, Virginia. Her involvement with labor lasted a number of years. Todd later moved to Chicago,edited The Chicago Express, a reform paper, lectured, and wrote several books, among them "Protective Tariff Delusion, "Pizarro and John Sherman," and a volume rebutting a discussion of woman's place in the state. Todd was born in Plymouth, New York and taught briefly to earn her living. She married Benjamin Todd of Massachusetts. After they moved to California, Marion Todd attended Hastings College of Law shortly after the efforts of Clara Foltz and Laura Gordon opened the school to women. She practiced in California before moving to Chicago. Encouraged by her husband, before his death in 1880, Todd began a career on the lecture platform. In her later years, she moved to Michigan.