SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

Lawrence, she returned to Vermont to ready the rest of her family for the move to Kansas. In the
spring, the family homesteaded four plots of land on Ottawa Creek. Just as the family was
beginning to get settled in to life in Kansas, Nichols’ second husband, George, weakened from a
farm accident, caught a severe cold or pneumonia and died in late August of 1855. For twelve
years Nichols had known what it was like to be married to a decent husband. She once wrote to
Susan B. Anthony about how lucky she was to have found George. 59
Nichols’ second marriage was a stark contrast to her first marriage. She had married
Justin Carpenter who was ten years older than she was in April of 1830. Early in their marriage
she became involved in several reform movements; first, she experienced the Second Great
Awakening and then was involved in the Temperance Society. Her husband also threw himself
into the temperance movement. For a while the couple worked for these reforms together.
However, by 1832, Justin Carpenter began to struggle both professionally and personally. While
Clarina never recorded exactly what went wrong in the marriage, she soon became the
breadwinner of the family. They moved to New York City in hopes of Justin finding success in
the city, but failure followed him to the city as well. For the next few years, Clarina lived a
vagabond life traveling between Vermont and New York City providing for the family by sewing
and teaching at a school for girls. Clarina had no support or love in her marriage. By 1840,
Clarina had permanently returned to Vermont with her children. While in Vermont she began
writing for a local paper where she met George Nichols, her second husband. George owned and
edited the Windham County Democrat. Before she could marry George, Clarina had to officially
dissolve her first marriage. Eickhoff clarifies, “On February 16, 1843, she was granted a divorce
from Justin Carpenter on the basis of ‘cruelty, unkindness, and intolerable severity.’ Though
59 Ibid., 115.
22