Around town, it’s pretty likely that you’ve seen the name Duniway; it adorns everything from schools and parks to markets and even the most Portland hotel you’ll ever stay at. Their namesake, Abigail Scott Duniway, certainly deserves the recognition. Today, she is memorialized as “the pioneer woman suffragist of the great Northwest.”
But before she became an icon of the fight for women’s right to vote, Abigail Scott was born in Tazewell County, Illinois in 1834 — the third of 12 children. When her family departed for the Oregon Territory in 1852, she was told to keep a daily journal documenting the arduous journey by ox-pulled wagon.
Her knack for the written word soon came in handy. Once settled, she started teaching in Eola, a small community outside of Salem, where she met her future husband Benjamin C. Duniway. The two eventually moved to his land in Clackamas County.
Life was hard for Abigail. The couple lost two farms — one to a fire and the other to collections on a defaulted loan. Then, Benjamin was severely injured in an accident and could no longer work. So, she became the main breadwinner, again working in a school, while also running a millinery shop (an old-fashioned hat store).
In 1871, the Duniways moved their five sons and daughter up to Portland, where the family started a newspaper called The New Northwest. As its chief editor and writer, Abigail began advocating for married women’s property rights and the right to vote, always signing her work “Yours for Liberty.”
Drawing on past experiences as a businesswoman, she founded the Oregon State Women Suffrage Association and managed a northwest speaking tour by suffragist Susan B. Anthony, who shared valuable advice on politics and organizing the movement. For Abigail, it was a pivotal moment that laid out a path toward lasting change.
As she herself toured Oregon, giving lectures and drawing up support, Abigail was oftentimes verbally and physically attacked. Surprisingly, her younger brother Harvey Scott, a chief editor and part owner of The Oregonian, was one of her most staunch opponents in an 1884 referendum for equal suffrage, which ultimately failed.
For Abigail, the setback gave way to personal tragedy, when her only daughter died of tuberculosis at the age of 31. The Duniways moved to Idaho a year later in 1887 and Abigail continued her activism, helping to pass a women’s voter law there in 1896.
Life eventually brought her back to Oregon, and she established The Pacific Empire, a magazine in the same vein as her previous publication. She revived the suffrage association and picked up right where she had left off.
All told, Oregon has the regrettable distinction of putting women’s suffrage up for vote six times — in 1884, 1900, 1906, 1908, 1910, and 1912 — more than any other state. By the final, successful campaign, Abigail’s own health was failing and she was wheelchair bound.
Nevertheless, when victory was finally won, Governor Oswald West asked her to write and sign the Oregon Woman Suffrage Proclamation in 1912. Unfortunately, Abigail did not live to see the 19th Amendment grant suffrage to all women; she passed away in Portland on Oct. 11, 1915. Her final residence was at the Fordham Apartments on Southwest Vista Avenue.
Abigail’s legacy extended far beyond the ballot box. With the ink on her pages, Abigail highlighted many social injustices, including the treatment of Chinese and Native American people, as well as the limits of Temperance and Prohibition. Her novel, “Captain Gray’s Company,” was the first book commercially published in Oregon in 1859, and from there she wrote herself into the annals of history.
