Heritage

Briefly introducing some of those gallant souls who, for whatever reason, did not appear in Heroic Vignettes, Feminine Americans. I am beginning with local (to me) personalities, one of these local heroes is contemporary, the other historical.

Our first appearance is Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway:

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a young woman who would later lead Oregon’s women voters to the polls came to the WillametteValley via wagon train. Abigail Jane Scott (1834-1915) moved to Lafayette in 1852 with her father and eight siblings, her mother having died along the trail. Not long afterward, Abigail moved to Eola (then called Cincinnati) to become the first schoolteacher of the new school there. Her own formal education consisted of a few months of sporadic classroom attendance and an old speller that she brought with her along the Oregon Trail. It is in Eola where she met Benjamin Duniway, whom she married on Aug. 2, 1853, acquiring the name that she is known by today; Abigail Scott Duniway; Oregon’s leading suffragist.

Benjamin obtained 320 acres of donation land in the southern area of ClackamasCounty near the MolallaRiver where he raised livestock, hunted game, and grew wheat. During that time, donation land was granted to people moving to Oregon who vouched to work the land for four years. In this sparsely populated area, Abigail gave birth to their first child, Clara Belle, just shy of ten months after their wedding date. Besides nursing and caring for her baby, Abigail’s days were filled with endless tasks such as feeding pigs, milking the cow, churning butter, making preserves, pickling, salting meat, baking bread, making soap and candles, as well as laundering and cooking for the hired hands and the numerous bachelor ranchers to whom Benjamin enjoyed exhibiting his wife for admiration. Though the days were long and wrought with duties, Abigail still found time to write stories, which she read to the delight of their company.

Not long after the difficult birth of their second of six children in 1856, the Duniways’ home burned down and they moved in with family nearer to what has been referred to as “Silverton Country” by Robert Horace Down. In his 1926 book, “A History of the Silverton Country,” Down includes the WaldoHills, parts of Howell Prairie, North/East to Butte Creek and the towns of MountAngel, Scotts Mills, and Monitor.as “Silverton Country.”  It is here that Abigail taught a term each at Butte Creek and Needy schools.  Being an avid reader of newspapers and novels, coupled with her involvement in the community and having the experience of what she often termed a “hardscabble” life, it is likely that Abigail endowed her students who would be the future women voters of Silverton Country with not only standard educational exercises, but also such controversial ideas as the importance of a woman having the rights to own property, earn money, marry wisely, vote, and maintain reproductive control of her own body.

In “ Path Breaking, an Autobiographical History of the Equal Suffrage Movement in Pacific Coast States,” Abigail describes her four years on the donation land as “a hospitable neighborhood comprised chiefly of bachelors, who found comfort in mobilizing at meal times at the homes of the few married men of the township…I, if not washing, scrubbing, churning, or nursing the baby, was preparing their meals in a lean-to kitchen.”

It is in Silverton Country that Abigail Scott Duniway first felt the stirrings toward woman’s suffrage taking on a new life as she began to work on what was to later become the first novel ever commercially printed in Oregon, Captain Gray’s Company, or Crossing the Plains and Living in Oregon (April, 1859).  Though the book was not received by the general public with high regard, in fact it basically flopped, Abigail was encouraged by the endeavor nonetheless; going on to author the first Woman Suffrage Proclamation ever written by a woman’s hand fifty-three years later. This later success led her to encourage others who may read her autobiography, Path Breaking, with the words, “Do not yield to difficulties, but rise above discouragements.”

When their four years on the donation land were behind them, the Duniway’s moved to Lafayette, where they met hard times. In 1861, a flood ruined their harvest, making it impossible for Benjamin to pay on the notes he had signed for a friend. In 1862 he was thrown from a team of horses and crushed by the wagon, injuring him to the point where he was resigned to only light work for the rest of his life.  Abigail again began teaching and 1864, the Duniways moved to Albany, where Abigail supported the family first as a teacher, then as a successful shop owner, selling millenary and notions. In 1871 they moved to Portland where she began the publication of a human rights newspaper, The New Northwest and thrust herself into a suffrage movement that would take her more than forty years to succeed at and cost her over forty-two thousand dollars.

Before beginning The New Northwest, Abigail invited leading suffragists of the East to come to the Northwest and “give the cause an impetus.” After the paper was launched, Susan B. Anthony did indeed meet Abigail Scott Duniway in Portland and they traveled together to greet and speak to audiences in Oregon, Washington Territory, and Victoria, British Columbia. They traveled by stagecoach, steamer, wagon, carriage, on horseback and by rail, to meet anywhere a group could gather such as churches, schools, saloons and pool halls. Even after Susan B. Anthony returned to her home in the east, Abigail maintained this sort of speaking schedule and was able to keep The New Northwest in publication for sixteen years despite the fact that her brother, Harvey Scott, was the editor of the Oregonian and a staunch anti-suffragist.

Meet Katherine Dunn

Author, illustrator, shepherdess, and lavender farmer Katherine Dunn cares for many animals that may seem to have passed their prime. Since 2004 Dunn and her husband have been offering their small farm in Yamhill as a sanctuary to animals. Dunn enjoys sharing with others the peaceful ways in which Pino, the first donkey to join her at the farm, can wordlessly calm and comfort people. She has even referred to his talent as being Buddha-esque. She occasionally invites people to visit her at Apifera Farm to discover for themselves the tranquil and often healing benefits of spending time with the many gentle donkeys, goats, sheep and other animals who have found a haven at Apifera.

One such time in which Dunn invites people to share her love of animals takes place every June. Wearing her trademark braids wound with a rainbow of colors and with a decorative apron fitted around her middle, Dunn throws a pie party. The purpose of the Pino’s Pie Day is not only to showcase the gentle and serene ways in which farm animals interact with humans, but also to raise money for the care of many once-neglected or senior animal friends on Dunn’s farm and care farms around the world. During Pino’s Pie Day, Dunn sells not only the aprons that have been donated to her care farm from places near and far, but also her own artwork and the lavender that she and her husband grow on Apifera Farm. Pino’s Pie Day, came about after Dunn realized her joy in delivering homemade pies to friends and neighbors. Having Pino along as she delivered pie was important, for he brought loving gifts of his own, but Dunn soon found that her method of walking to deliver the pie was rather slow and tedious. Hence, “Pino’s Pie Day,” now comes around once a year as a way to bring the people to Pino, relieving him from spending so much time of plodding, time that he would rather spend visiting. Pino’s Pie Day is a day when Dunn shares many of the things she loves with as many people as care to join her for donkey hugs, goat nudges, homemade pie, and colorful aprons.  In 2012, all of the proceeds from Dunn’s ongoing apron sales will benefit Lavender Dreams Donkey Rescue, Sanctuary One, and Moon Goat Farm Rescue.

When asked if Apifera Farm was named after Pino the donkey, or Pie in some curiously acrostic way, Dunn explained that “Apifera is Latin for bee bearing” and actually is in reference to the lavender that she and her husband grow. Dunn uses many sources to gather funds for caring for the animals living at Apifera Farm including an informative, creative, and entertaining blog. Everything that she does on Apifera Farm is done with a cheerful manner and a devout sense of purpose which the animals reflect in their friendliness and eagerness to interact with visitors. Over the past few years word must have gotten out along the animal kingdom’s grapevine that Apifera Farm is an animal’s sanctuary. This is evident in the fact that Dunn’s care for retired donkeys has quickly branched out to providing a care-barnyard to ailing or aging goats, a pig, sheep, chickens and even an aging goose.

One should not despair at missing Pino’s Pie Day this year. There are other ways to become involved with the care of the adopted animals at Apifera Farm, and also at sanctuary farms much like Apifera. A visit to Dunn’s website will provide ways to donate towards the cause of hospice care for aging or neglected animals. Aside from cash or apron donations, there is also an annual Art Workshop led by Dunn, who has made a career as an illustrator since 1996. During the Art Workshop participants will commune with the animals, learn the essence of storytelling with art, and of course eat homemade pie.

Apifera Farm. Home to artist Katherine Dunn     http://www.apiferafarm.blogspot.com/