Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/854

606 year Mrs. Stow published her well-known "Voices of the City," which she dedicated to Portland, and which was received with highest praise. From these "voices," we copy the following:

For many years as a part of the editorial staff of the Daily, Sunday and Weekly Oregonian, Mrs. C. A. Coburn has served the cause of justice, clean living and moral reform in a forceful and effectual way. Few writers in Oregon have had the opportunity to preach righteousness in life, and fellowship with humanity, as has Mrs. Coburn through the great circulation of Oregon's greatest journal. And this opportunity she has improved with that judgment, discretion and wisdom as entitles her name to a high rank among those who have not only rare literary ability, but who also use that talent for the highest welfare of the reading public. Seeking no public notice, notority or reward, above that of doing good, she has year after year pressed home the common sense reasons for justice to all without regard to age, sex or social position; and is entitled to be remembered as one who used their talents, and strength for the welfare of humanity.

Akin to the work of Mrs. Coburn, but on a larger scale, in the thick of the battle, and wherever the battle for justice called the leader, has been the work of her distinguished sister, Abigail Scott Duniway. Early called upon, from widowhood to be the breadwinner for a large family, as well as to push the cause of equal suffrage which she had espoused early in life, Mrs. Duniway became one of the most interesting and influential characters produced among the long list of distinguished women of the northwest. It is forty-five years since the author of this book met Mrs. Duniway in the editorial room of the Oregon Statesman at Salem. She was vigorously advocating equal suffrage then, when there were not a thousand persons in Oregon that would give her courteous hearing. She started the "New Northwest" journal with no capital but faith in her cause, and her own industry, and successfully published it for twenty years and sold the property for a handsome price. She has edited newspapers, written books, stories, travels, poetry, and leaflet arguments by the hundreds. She has been president of the Oregon State Women Suffrage Association repeatedly and often a delegate to the National Association meetings; and attained a national reputation and national influence in the cause which has been her life work. And last, and greatest of all her honors, she is mother of, and has reared and educated five worthy and distinguished sons. One of these sons, is the first honest state printer the state has had since Henry L. Pittock's term of forty years ago, and has just been re-elected to the office by a majority of 12,500. Another son is a prominent attorney of the Multnomah bar, and the most distinguished lawyer in the state in his special fine of practice. Another son is a distinguished scholar, historian and teacher, and now president of the university of the state of Mon-