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THE ILLUSTRATED WEST SHORE.
PROMINENT PEOPLE OF THE PACIFIC COAST.
Abigail Scott Duniway, like Julia Ward Howe, is "the despair of the
photographer." No photo docs her justice, and she is, for this reason, averse
to submitting to .what she calls "a printed attack upon her features."
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AIIKiAII. SCOTT DUNlVAY.
Mrs. Duniway, nee Scott, was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, near the
center of the state, in the beautiful country home of her parents and grand
parents, by them christened Plensant Grove. Here, surrounded by the usual
circumstances of border life on a primitive Illinois farm, she grew to girlhood,
the second in family of ten children, of whom nil but one who attained ma
turity were girls. Her paternal grandfather, Hon. James Scott, was for eight
years the sheriff of Tazewell county, one ol the oldest counties in thej state,
and at the time he held the shrievalty it embraced all the adjoining counties,
" reaching," as he used to say, " to Chicago," Mrs. D'i maternal grandfather,
Lawrence Koloefson, Esq., was widely known as an eloquent and fervent
religious exhorter. Her father, J. T. Scolt, E-.q., shared the deep orthodox
piety of the times, but removed to Oregon at too early a day, and brought up
his growing family in the midst of too much that was new and conducive to
independent religious thought to hold his children to the rigid Presbyterian
lines marked out for them before theii birth, which he, though always a liberal
Christian, himself outgrew before his lorg and useful life was ended. .
Mrs. Duniway says that the daughters of a strong-willed, practical and
bravely independent man, like her honored father, could not be otherwise than
like himself, Her living sisters, five in number, are each as remarkable as
herself in literary power and originality of utterance ; and all are her recog
nized co-workers in the equal suffrage movement. Three of these sisters, Mrs.
M. F. Cooke, Mrs. C. A. Cobum and Mrs. H. L. McCord, reside in this city.
Mrs. S. M. Kelty, the fourth sister, lives in Lafayette, this state, and Mrs. R.
E. Latourette, the youngest, resides in Oregon City. The Hon. H. W.
Scott, editor of the Oregonian, is the only living full brother of this remarka
ble group, and strangely enough, this brother does not hesitate to use the
powerful paper he controls as a weapon to oppose his sisters' demands for
equal rights i although a younger half brother, Charles W. Scott, champions
his sisters' side of the question.
Mrs. Duniway began her public career many years ago through necessity.
Her husband, who still lives in very feeble health, has been an invalid for
thirty years, as the result of an accident with a vicious horse. But the devoted
wife, and mother of a large family, nothing daunted by this misfortune, bent
resolutely to her duties, and kept her children together by teaching, keeping
boarders, doing millinery work, dress making, and such literary work as she
could find meager pay for, until her sons were large enough to become
apprentices in a printing office. She then purchased a plant and removed, in
1 87 1. from the then village of Albany to Portland, where her three oldest sons
grew to manhood as publishers of the New Northwest, of which she was
editor-in-chief, a position she held until January, 1887, when she withdrew
from the newspaper field until the subsidence of what she called " prohibition
craze," should make it worth while to resume her labors for temperance and
liberty.
Mrs. Duniway is now in the prime of life. Her eldest son, Willis S., is
a prominent lawyer in Idaho, where the family have large landed and live
stock interests. The second son, H. R., is a successful lumberman in this
city. The third son, W. C, is connected with the Portland Evening Telt
gram, in addition to his Idaho business, and the yvo youngest sons, Clyde A.
and Ralph R., are making their mark in Cornell university, the first in the
classic course and the latter in the law school.
Mr-. Duniwa)'s family history is thus sketched, partly because of the
uidily spread interest attaching to "those we read about," and largely as an
object lesson for other women, whose paths she made easy by her own per
severance. Of her public w ork so much is known that little remains to be
t ild. As an extemporaneous speaker she is logical, sarcastic, witty, poetic and
oficn truly eloquent, As a critic she is merciless, as an enemy, forgiving; and,
afier having her "say," conciliator)-. As a writer she is forceful, argumenta
tive and sometimes voluminous, but it is hardly necessary to add, never dull.
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1 01. I'M III A KIVK.K, NKAK THK. MOU'll OF THK I.ITTI.K WHITE SAI.MOX.-Set Page 5.
M. M. Hazki.tinf, Photo.