Tilton, Elizabeth M. Richards, 1834-1897

Elizabeth Monroe Richards Tilton (May 28, 1834 – April 13, 1897) was an American suffragist, a founder of the Brooklyn Woman's Club, and a poetry editor of The Revolution, the newspaper of the National Woman Suffrage Association, founded by woman's rights advocates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Tilton also served on the executive committee of the American Equal Rights Association. Tilton became the largely silenced center of "the most sensational and highly publicized social scandal of the era" in 1875, when her husband Theodore Tilton brought a lawsuit charging "criminal conversation" against his friend, the popular preacher Henry Ward Beecher. Although the long trial ended in a deadlock, it destroyed the social positions and careers of both Elizabeth and Theodore Tilton. Beecher's reputation was tarnished, but he retained his position and much of his influence.