Editors note: This series was originally published in March of 2007.

An unknown author once said: "History is herstory, too."

The Statesman Journal will tell Oregon's herstory by profiling notable women from the state's past. Profiles will continue each day through March, which is National Women's History Month.

The lives and work of these women span more than two centuries and represent a wide range of achievements and occupations.

Some of them are well known, such as Abigail Scott Duniway, who fought for women's suffrage and published a weekly newspaper in Portland.

Others are more obscure, such as Fern Hobbs, the personal secretary to Gov. Oswald West who was sent to decree martial law in the rowdy mining town of Copperfield.

Their contributions have been diverse and historic:

The first female doctor in the West: Bethenia Owens-Adair.

The first U.S. congresswoman from Oregon: Nan Wood Honeyman.

The first female steamboat captain West of the Mississippi: Minnie Hill.

The first Oregon woman to compete in the Olympics: Thelma Payne.

The first female police officer in the United States: Lola Greene Baldwin.

Many of these women overcame obstacles to make a difference and secure their place in Oregon herstory. They helped make this state what it is today.

More:Women of the Century project honors Oregon leaders who made a difference

Tabitha Moffat Brown

Born: May 1, 1780, in Brimfield, Mass.

Died: May 4, 1858, in Salem. She is buried at Pioneer Cemetery.

Facts: Brown was a social reformer and educator who traveled the Oregon Trail and assisted in the founding of Tualatin Academy, which became Pacific University in Forest Grove. She turned to teaching to support four children after her husband, a minister, died. She was 66 when she crossed the plains in 1846 with her son and suffered much hardship. At one point on the journey, she was left alone on the trail in the bitter cold with her ailing 77-year-old brother-in-law. She pulled them through, despite being near starvation. Once in Oregon, she traveled between Oregon City and her daughter's home in Salem, and eventually settled in Forest Grove. Her first job was sewing gloves to sell. She later helped start a home and school for orphan children and became affectionately known as "Grandma Brown." The log church she used for the school was officially established as Tualatin Academy in 1848, and the following year became what is now Pacific University.

Notable: Honored in 1987 by the Oregon Legislature as the "Mother of Oregon."

Quotable: "I rode through (the Umpqua Mountains) in three days at the risk of my life, on horseback, having lost my wagon and all that I had but the horse I was on."

SOURCES: Pacific University, Salem Online History, RootsWeb.com, The Brown Family History II

Abigail Scott Duniway

Born: Oct. 22, 1834, near Groveland, Ill.

Died: Oct. 11, 1915. She is buried at River View Cemetery in Portland.

Facts: Duniway was a novelist, newspaper publisher, teacher, pioneer, milliner and suffragist. She came to Oregon in 1852 and wrote a novel based on the overland experience. Her mother and brother died during the grueling trek. Her family settled near Lafayette, where she began a career as a schoolteacher. She married Benjamin Duniway, and they had four children spaced less than two years apart. She endured the loss of their Yamhill County farm because of her husband's faulty business decisions. Later, he became an invalid. In order to support the family, she returned to teaching as well as running a hat shop in Albany. Her experiences convinced her that women needed the right to vote. She campaigned for suffrage throughout the Northwest, and in 1871, started a newspaper in Portland called The New Northwest. She masterminded the suffrage campaigns in Idaho and Washington, but her efforts to win the right to vote in her home state proved more demanding. From 1884 to 1910, Oregon's male voters defeated suffrage five times at the polls. Finally, in 1912, the initiative passed. She was the first woman to register to vote in Multnomah County.

Notable: Duniway was the first woman to speak before the Oregon Legislature and the state's first woman publisher.

Quotable: "The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future."

Sources: Oregon Historical Society, Women of the West Museum

Bethenia Owens-Adair

Born: Feb. 7, 1840, in Van Buren County, Mo.

Died: Sept. 11, 1926, in Astoria. She is buried at Ocean View Cemetery in Warrenton.

Facts: A physician, teacher, feminist and social reformer, she was the first woman west of the Mississippi to hold a medical degree. Her family crossed the Oregon Trail in 1843, and she did not begin her formal education until she was 12. She was married at 14 to one of her father's farm hands but divorced her abusive husband by 16. She turned to millinery to earn her living and raise her son, George, who also became a doctor. Her business was successful, but after six years she decided to pursue a career in medicine. She attended an eclectic school in Philadelphia and then University of Michigan Medical School, finishing her degree in 1880, at age 40. She returned to Portland the following year and became the first woman to practice in Oregon. She married Col. John Adair in 1884, and the couple moved to Astoria, where she continued to practice medicine and help with the family farm.

Notable: She thought insanity and criminal action were hereditary and argued for mandatory sterilization of the criminally insane. Her famous work on the subject, "Human Sterilization: Its Social and Legislative Aspects," was published in 1922. Three years later, the sterilization statute was adopted as state law in Oregon.

Quotable: She was not afraid to drive great distances alone in her carriage to reach a patient. "At no time did I ever refuse a call, day or night, rain or shine."

Sources: Oregon Historical Society, Findagrave.com, Dameron-Damron family newsletter

Lola Greene Baldwin

Born: 1860

Died: June 22, 1957. Buried at River View Cemetery in Portland.

Facts: On April 1, 1908, she was sworn in as the first female police officer in the United States. Her primary mission was to protect young women from prostitution. She began this type of work in 1905 as an employee of Portland's branch of the Traveler's Aid organization during the Lewis and Clark Exposition. The goal of the organization was to encourage women who flocked to the city to avoid the pitfalls of prostitution. Her unit with the Portland Police Bureau, the Women's Protection Division, made a priority of protecting women from the effects of vice, rather than punishing them for it. She reportedly maintained an office away from the police department and declined to work in uniform. She also was involved in organizing a juvenile court in Portland. On May 1, 1922, she resigned her commission after influencing local, regional and national women's policing activities for 17 years, 14 of them as a paid municipal officer.

Notable: To learn about Baldwin, read "A Municipal Mother," by Gloria E. Myers. A Portland-based foundation that helps women who are recovering from prostitution is named in her honor.

Quotable: Baldwin's goal was "to make the path safe for the feet of the girl who desired to lead a clean, honest, useful life."

Sources: Lola Greene Baldwin Foundation, "A Municipal Mother"

Mercedes Deiz

Born: 1917

Died: Oct. 5, 2005, in Portland

Facts: She became the first black female lawyer in Oregon when she was admitted to the bar in 1960. She attended Northwestern School of Law at night while married and raising three children and working as a legal assistant. She finished fourth in her class and years later credited her husband with taking a large part in raising their children. "I am not a dependent woman," she said. "But I could not have done the things I did without Carl." In November 1969, then-Gov. Tom McCall appointed her as a district court judge, making her the first woman of color to become a judge in Oregon. The following May, in the primary, Multnomah County voters elected her to the post outright and she became the first black woman to be elected to the bench in Oregon. Oregon Women Lawyers give an annual award in her name to someone who makes an outstanding contribution to promoting women and minorities in the legal profession and in the community.

Notable: In 2000, on the 40th anniversary of her admission to the bar, she was recognized with the Award of Merit, the Oregon State Bar's highest honor.

Quotable: "Black has nothing to do with the color of the skin; it's a question of ethnicity. You are your race. A person has roots to whatever he or she comes from in one's ancestry. And I am a black lady."

Sources: Oregon State Bar Bulletin, Oregon Women Lawyers

Anna Hayward Duerksen

Born: May 6, 1886.

Died: July 27, 1972. Buried at Lee Mission Cemetery in Salem.

Facts: Duerksen was one of the founders of Deaconess Hospital, a predecessor of Salem Hospital. A group of Mennonites came to Salem in 1916 and opened a 12-bed hospital in an old hotel on Winter Street. Sister Anna, a graduate of Evangelical Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, Mo., was one of four Mennonite sisters on the Board of Trustees. The sisters worked 20-hour days and received no salary until Social Security was launched in 1935. To them, it was a calling, not a job. Duerksen served as the hospital's only anesthetist. She lived in the basement and not only cared for patients, but cooked and did housekeeping. She married the hospital's gardener and worked at the hospital into the 1950s. In 1947, the Mennonites turned the hospital over to a board of Salem citizens, and the name was changed to Salem Memorial Hospital. It merged in 1969 with Salem General Hospital to create the hospital that exists today.

Notable: In 1957, Duerksen was recognized by the Oregon Nurses Association with a life membership for her long leadership in providing health care.

Quotable: Her legacy is well-documented in the annals of Salem Hospital. Ted Stang, a longtime local hospital administrator, met Duerksen after he came to Salem in 1968. She was in her 80s. He also heard many stories from the grandson of Deaconess Hospital's first administrator. "She was diminutive, quiet, unassuming," Stang said. "But boy, was she a powerhouse. People listened to what Sister Anna had to say, even though she was not the administrator. Sister Anna carried a lot of weight at that institution."

Sources: Salem History Online, Oregon Statesman, Salem Hospital

Sarah Winnemucca

Born: About 1844

Died: Oct. 17, 1891

Facts: Historians have referred to Winnemucca as the most famous Native American woman on the Pacific Coast. She used her language skills to try to be a peacemaker and was the first Native American woman to publish in English. Her book, "Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims," is an autobiographical account of her people and their contact with explorers and settlers. She was born and raised in Nevada but spent much of her life in southeastern Oregon as an interpreter for an agent at Malheur Reservation and as a scout and mediator for the Army during the Bannock War. She learned to read and write when her grandfather placed her in the home of a white family in Nevada. By the time she was 14, she could speak three Indian dialects, English and Spanish. She married at least twice, to an Army lieutenant and then an Indian Department employee. After the Bannock War, she received national attention by campaigning for Native American education programs and reservation reform — making more than 400 speeches. She even pleaded her cause to President Rutherford B. Hayes in Washington, D.C., where she reportedly received promises that were later broken. Winnemucca also opened and ran the first school in the West where Native American children could remain with their families and were not forced to stop speaking their native language.

Notable: On March 9, 2005, a bronze statue of her representing Nevada was unveiled in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. A town in Nevada carries her family name.

Quotable: "I would place all the Indians of Nevada on ships in our harbor, take them to New York and land them there as immigrants, that they might be received with open arms ..."

Sources: Oregon Historical Society, Wikipedia, "Native Peoples"

Chloe Clarke Willson

Born: April 16, 1818, in Connecticut.

Died: July 2, 1874. She is buried at Pioneer Cemetery in Salem.

Facts: Willson was the first teacher at the Oregon Institute, which was founded by Methodist missionaries and later became Willamette University. She devoted her life to bringing religion and education to Oregon, and particularly to educating the young women of Salem. She traveled with about 50 new missionary recruits to the Oregon Territory in 1839. The following year, at a new mission outpost in the Puget Sound, she met her husband, William H. Willson. In 1844, the couple was asked to move to the settlement called Chemeketa Plains, which would become Salem. Chloe had been chosen to open the Oregon Institute.

She was both teacher and housemother for five primary-grade students and remained the only teacher the first two years. The board of the institute chartered "Wallamet University" in 1853 and began offering higher education. Chloe left Salem for a time after her husband died, but she returned in 1863 to serve as Governess of the Ladies Department at Willamette University, the equivalent of Dean of Women.

Notable: Her husband is remembered as the founder of Salem because he filed the first plat of the city and held the original title to the land that now comprises Willamette University, the state Capitol and downtown Salem. Their name lives on today in Willson Park, directly west of the Capitol.

Quotable: "I feel the weight of responsibility which rests upon me in giving character to this infant institution," she wrote on Aug. 13, 1844, the first day of classes at the Oregon Institute. "O my Father ... thou seest the desire of my heart for the prosperity of this institution, but without thy blessing it can never prosper."

Sources: Salem Online History, "Journals of Brewer and Clarke"

Hallie Parrish Hinges

Born: Jan. 30, 1868.

Died: Jan. 25, 1950. She is buried at Lee Mission Cemetery in Salem.

Facts: Hinges was a vocal performer in Oregon for nearly 60 years, most famous for her performance during President Theodore Roosevelt's visit to Salem on May 21, 1903. Roosevelt called her the "Oregon Nightingale" when he heard her sing, and the nickname stuck. She studied music at Willamette University, graduating from the Willamette Conservatory when she was 18. She also studied in New York for a year. Music always was a big part of her life. She performed at her first public concert when she was 6, in the basement of First Methodist Church. Her audiences later expanded to political dignitaries. In 1891, she sang for President Benjamin Harrison, and in 1900, she performed for Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. But her biggest moment came when Roosevelt visited Salem. Thousands gathered at Willson Park to see the president. Before he spoke, the 35-year-old soprano sang the national anthem. Roosevelt told Gov. George Chamberlain that Hinges had one of the most beautiful voices he had ever heard and asked if she would sing again. Hinges responded with a favorite of the time, "The Flag Without a Stain," and witnesses claimed that the president wiped tears from his eyes.

Quotable: "Truly, she is the Oregon Nightingale," Roosevelt said.

Notable: Hinges' grandfather was Methodist missionary Josiah L. Parrish, whom Parrish Middle School is named after.

Source: The Statesman Journal, Salem Online History, "Marion County History," Volume XV

Thelma Payne Sanborn

Born: July 18, 1896, in Silverton

Died: Sept. 7, 1988, in Los Angeles

Facts: She was the first Oregon woman to compete in the Olympics and the first to win a medal. She won the bronze in the 3-meter springboard diving competition at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. The U.S. swept the medals in that event, with Payne missing silver by seven-tenths of a point. She was the U.S. women's springboard champion in 1918, 1919 and 1920, and trained at Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland. She reportedly incorporated ballet into her training regimen. After competing in the Olympics, she was a longtime swimming and diving coach at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. She taught the children of several famous people to swim, including John Wayne and Bing Crosby. Payne was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of fame in 1983, among one of the early classes that included Bobby Doerr, Mel Renfro and Steve Prefontaine.

Notable: Sanborn said in a 1987 interview that she was one of the models for the red-suited diving girl introduced by Jantzen in 1920 and later plastered on billboards.

Quotable: "In those days, we had nothing to go by. We had to actually see someone perform a dive and then try to do it ourselves. It was the only way."

Sources: Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, The Associated Press, Oregon Sports Hall of Fame

Cornelia Marvin Pierce

Born: Dec. 26, 1873, in Monticello, Iowa

Died: Feb. 12, 1957

Facts: Marvin was the leader of the Oregon State Library for 24 years, almost singlehandedly building one of the finest state library systems in the nation. She came to Oregon in 1905 for the position of secretary of the Oregon Library Commission, which later became the State Library. She instituted many innovative programs, including the first books-by-mail service in the country. In a day when many Oregonians lived isolated lives without telephones, newspapers and other regular sources of information, her innovation was a lifeline for thousands of rural Oregonians, particularly women. She resigned as State Librarian in 1928 to marry Gov. Walter M. Pierce. He was elected in 1932 to Congress, and she became his secretary, researcher and speech writer. Their political partnership was one he readily recognized, often reminding his constituents that they had two representatives for the price of one.

Quotable: "The only thing I have ever done to make the world a better place to live is to promote libraries."

Notable: At the end of her life, she bequeathed most of her estate to Reed College, a private Portland liberal-arts school. The $300,000 gift still supports a Cornelia Marvin Pierce chairmanship in American history at Reed.

Sources: "Cornelia Marvin Pierce: Pioneer in Library Extension," "Library Trends," Oregon State Library

Maurine Brown Neuberger

Born: Jan. 9, 1907, in Cloverdale, Tillamook County.

Died: Feb. 22, 2000, in Portland.

Facts: She remains the first and only woman from Oregon to serve in the U.S. Senate. She and her husband, Richard, were known as a political team. They gained notice in 1951 as the first married couple in the nation to serve together in a legislature — he in the Oregon Senate and she in the House. He won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1954, and she served as his aide. When he died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1960, she won a special election to fill the vacancy and then the general election to serve the next term. She focused on environmental and health issues, including sponsorship of one of the first bills to require warning labels on cigarette packaging. Back home, she took on Oregon's then-powerful dairy industry about a law forbidding the sale of yellow margarine. She donned a striped apron, pulled out a mixing bowl and showed her colleagues in the House — all men — just how much work it took to mix food coloring into the lard-white butter substitute. The ban was lifted, and her demonstration became part of the state's political lore.

Quotable: "Before she puts her name on the ballot, she encounters prejudice and people saying, 'A women's place is in the home.' She has to walk a very tight wire in conducting her campaign. She can't be too pussyfooting or mousy. Also, she can't go to the other extreme — belligerent, coarse, nasty."

Notable: After serving in the U.S. Senate, she taught at Boston University and Radcliffe and was part of the social and academic circle surrounding the Kennedy family.

Sources: Oregon History Project, Harvard Square Library

Mercedes Bates

Born: 1916

Died: Aug. 16, 1997, in Minneapolis

Facts: Bates is one of the most important women to graduate from Oregon State University. She is credited with helping make Betty Crocker a household name. She was a vice president of the General Mills food company, in charge of the Betty Crocker division. The fictional character was created in 1921 and evolved into an American cultural icon under Bates' direction. After graduating from Oregon State in 1936 with a degree in food and nutrition, Bates began working at the Southern California Gas Co. and became supervisor of home service. She then moved to the Globe Mills food company before opening her own business in Hollywood as an advertising food consultant. She later joined the staff of McCall's magazine as food editor before moving to General Mills in 1964 as director of the Betty Crocker kitchens. Two years later, she rose through the ranks to become vice president and the first female corporate officer of General Mills. She held that title until retiring in 1983.

Notable: She donated $3 million to Oregon State in the early 1990s, helping establish a nationally renowned Bates Family Study Center on campus. At that time, it was the largest one-time donation ever made to OSU. The facility opened in 1992 and was the first of its kind in the United States. It houses programs of research, instruction and outreach designed to benefit individuals and families.

Sources: Oregon State University, OSU Alumni Association

Nan Wood Honeyman

Born: July 15, 1881.

Died: Dec. 10, 1970. She is interred at River View Cemetery in Portland.

Facts: Honeyman was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress from Oregon in 1937. She married David Honeyman in 1908, raised three children and was active in civic and humanitarian organizations before becoming involved in politics. She served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1933, which ratified the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, repealing prohibition. She was a state representative from 1935 to 1937 before being elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Congress. Her bids for re-election in 1938 and election in 1940 failed. While working in the Pacific Coast office of the U.S. Price Administration, the Multnomah County commissioners appointed Honeyman to the Oregon Senate in 1941 to fill a vacancy, and she served until her resignation in 1942. She was U.S. collector of customs in Portland from 1942 to 1953.

Notable: After graduating in 1898 from St. Helens Hall (later incorporated in the Oregon Episcopal School), she continued her education at the Finch School in New York City, where she began a lifelong friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt.

Sources: Oregon Blue Book, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Carolyn Shelton

Born: Around 1877.

Died: Unknown.

Facts: Shelton was governor for a day in 1909, according to the Capital Journal. The newspaper ran a banner headline proclaiming her head of state Feb. 27, 1909, following the resignation of Gov. George E. Chamberlain and the delay in swearing in Secretary of State Frank W. Benson, the next in line. Chamberlain resigned his seat after being elected to the U.S. Senate. In a hurry to get to Washington, D.C., he left his resignation with his private secretary, Shelton, about 9 a.m. that Saturday. The papers weren't to be filed until 4 p.m. Monday, and Benson couldn't be sworn in right away, so there effectively was no governor except Shelton. The Capital Journal pronounced her "the first woman to govern any state." The newspaper reported Sunday that Benson assumed control at 10:10 a.m. Nowhere in state records is Shelton mentioned as governor. Barbara Roberts officially would become the first female governor of Oregon when she was elected and served from 1991 to 1995.

Quotable: "I want to fill the governor's shoes, and he really has a small foot," Shelton was quoted as saying in the Capital Journal. "I fear the principal trouble will be in trying to fill his hat."

Notable: "Time" magazine reported July 26, 1926, that Chamberlain, 72, married Carolyn B. Shelton, 49, in Norfolk, Va. Shelton was clerk to the Senate Military Affairs Committee when Chamberlain was chairman during World War I. Chamberlain's first wife had died the previous year.

Source: The Capital Journal

Mary Purvine

Born: Feb. 26, 1881.

Died: June 10, 1965. She is buried at City View Cemetery in Salem.

Facts: She graduated from medical school at Willamette University in 1903 and was one of the first female doctors in Oregon. She left Salem after graduating at age 22, and launched her practice in the small Eastern Oregon town of Condon, where her brother and future governor of Oregon, Jay Bowerman, practiced law. Purvine returned to Salem after four years and began a medical practice specializing in obstetrics. She and her husband, Ellis, had three children. Her son, Ralph, followed in her footsteps and became a doctor. Mary Purvine was a member of the staffs at Salem General and Salem Memorial hospitals. She maintained a practice in Salem for more than half a century, working for many years out of her home on University Street SE. She practiced medicine until she was well into her 70s.

Notable: Her book, "Pioneer Doctor," was published in 1958.

Quotable: "Woman doctors were few in the early days of my practice. Those were the days when the only two professions a good woman was supposed to engage in were teaching school and keeping house."

Sources: Oregon Statesman, Statesman Journal, Salem Online History

Winema 'Toby' Riddle

Born: Around 1850.

Died: 1920, on the Klamath Reservation.

Facts: She was one of the first American women to be distinguished by Congressional act for her actions in a time of war. The Native American woman, who married a white settler named Frank Riddle, was rewarded a government pension of $25 per month for helping save lives during the Modoc War of 1872-73. She and her husband acted as interpreters, messengers and mediators between her people and the U.S. Army. She is perhaps best known for having warned Gen. Edward Canby about the Modoc plot to kill him during peace negotiations. The general ignored the advice and was killed April 11, 1873. On the same day, Winema was credited for saving the life of Alfred Meacham, a Methodist minister and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon. Meacham was wounded and about to be scalped when Winema yelled that the soldiers were coming, sending the Modoc warriors running. Meacham was the one who pressed Congress to give her a pension, which she received until she died.

Notable: The Winema National Forest in Southern Oregon was established in 1961 and named after her.

Sources: Trover Studio collection, courtesy of the Oregon State Library

Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver

Elizabeth Lord

Born: Nov. 12, 1887, in Salem.

Died: Oct. 9, 1976. She is buried at City View Cemetery in Salem.

Edith Schryver

Born: March 20, 1901, in Kingston, N.Y.

Died: May 20, 1984. She is buried in her family plot in Kingston, N.Y.

Facts: Lord and Schryver became the first female professionals to open a landscape-architecture firm in the Northwest in 1929. They designed more than 250 gardens from Eugene to Seattle. Schryver was considered the design genius and Lord the plant expert and businesswoman with connections. Lord grew up in Salem and was the daughter of a former Oregon governor, William Lord. Schryver grew up in New York and attended the Lowthrope School of Landscape Architecture in Massachusetts, where Lord also studied. A few years after Schryver graduated, she set sail for a garden tour of Europe, where she met Lord. The friends traveled and studied together for several months and then Lord brought Schryver to Salem. Two of their most notable imprints on Salem are the gardens at Historic Deepwood Estate and Bush's Pasture Park.

Quotable: "We were free-swinging career girls, and nobody ever questioned us," Schryver told the Statesman Journal in 1980.

Notable: The Lord & Schryver Conservancy works to preserve and interpret the legacy of the two women.

Sources: Statesman Journal, Lord & Schryver Conservancy

Minnie Hill

Born: 1863 in Albany.

Died: January 1946 in San Francisco.

Facts: Hill was the first female steamboat captain west of the Mississippi. On Dec. 1, 1886, at age 23, she was granted a master's and pilot's license. She had been working with her husband, Charles O. Hill, on various boats for several years and became "thoroughly conversant with the steamboat business," according to "Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest." When Charles and Minnie bought the 112-foot Governor Newell in 1889, Charles went down into the engine room while Minnie took the pilothouse wheel. They specialized in moving scows laden with jetty stone from a quarry east of Vancouver, Wash., downstream to meet a U.S. Army Engineer tow boat, which took the loads to Astoria. The stone was used to build the south jetty at the mouth of the Columbia River. Minnie was a captain for 14 years. At least two movie producers supposedly tried to get her to consent to filming her life story, but she refused.

Notable: She reportedly was the only woman on the Pacific Coast licensed to command a steamer until 1907, when a second-class master's and pilot's license was granted to a woman in the Puget Sound area.

Quotable: Her son, Herbert W. Hill, on her passing the examination given by two U.S. inspectors: "Father always said it was much more difficult than the examination he took because the inspectors wanted to refuse her a license with justification."

Sources: "Quarterdeck Review" of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, "Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest," The Sunday Oregonian

Beatrice Morrow Cannady

Born: Jan. 9, 1889

Died: Aug. 19, 1974, in the Los Angeles area

Facts: Cannady was a pioneer woman attorney and an outspoken advocate for civil rights in the early 1900s. She was editor of The Advocate, an African-American newspaper published in Portland between 1903 and 1936, regularly challenging racial discrimination and becoming the unofficial spokeswoman for the city's small black community. She helped found the Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, known as the NAACP, and craft the state's first civil-rights legislation, which would have mandated full access to public accommodations without regard to race. Although that piece of legislation failed, in 1925 she worked on the successful campaign to repeal Oregon's notorious exclusion laws, which prohibited African Americans from settling in the state.

Quotable: "Not even the pulpit has been as effective for the advancement of our group, and for justice, as the press."

Notable: She ran for state representative in May 1932 but was not elected. She later moved to Los Angeles and entered the real estate brokerage business.

Sources: Oregon Historical Society, Stanford University's Women's Legal History Web site, Association for African American Historical Research and Preservation

Edith Green

Born: Jan. 17, 1910, in Trent, S.D.

Died: April 21, 1987, in Portland. She is buried at Pioneer Cemetery in Corbett.

Facts: Green was a Democrat in the United States Congress who helped push through legislation that led to Title IX. A former school teacher, radio commentator and lobbyist, she became an important figure in Oregon politics when she was elected to Congress in 1955. She served 10 terms and focused on women's issues, education and social reforms. In her first term, she proposed the Equal Pay Act to ensure that men and women were paid equally for equal work. The bill was signed into law eight years later. She is most noted for her work developing the legislation that was to become Title IX, which prohibited sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions. She introduced a higher-education bill that contained provisions regarding gender equity in education. The hearings on that bill, together with significant input from Rep. Patsy Mink and Sen. Birch Bayh, eventually resulted in the passage of Title IX in 1972.

Quotable: Sen. Mark Hatfield called Green "the most powerful woman ever to serve in the Congress."

Notable: Linfield College annually presents the Edith Green Distinguished Professor award to a faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching and related faculty roles. Her name also lives on at the Edith Green Wendell Wyatt Federal Building, an 18-story office tower in downtown Portland.

Sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Mary Eyre

Born: April 9, 1897.

Died: Dec. 22, 1999, at the age of 102. She is interred at City View Cemetery in Salem.

Facts: Eyre was a revered educator who taught for 40 years at Salem High School. Among the 6,000 or so students who sat in her classes were current teachers and politicians, including retired U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield. She was a strong role model for a generation of up-and-coming women including Norma Paulus, who praised Eyre's work for equal rights for women, open government meetings and the preservation of historic buildings. Eyre came to Salem in 1904, when she was 6. She graduated from Willamette University in 1918 and began her teaching career in Salem in 1922. She taught history and government, economics and sociology, retiring in 1962. In addition to her contributions as an educator, she was involved in local government. She was a precinct committee member and president of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, and ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for the state Senate in 1962.

Quotable: She said she ran for the legislative office because she "wanted to try out some of the things I had been teaching over the years."

Notable: The Salem-Keizer School District named an elementary school in her honor in 1977. Mary Eyre Elementary is in Southeast Salem.

Sources: Statesman Journal, Salem Online History

Fern Hobbs

Born: May 8, 1883

Died: April 10, 1964

Facts: Hobbs was sent by Gov. Oswald West in January 1914 to declare martial law in Copperfield, perhaps Oregon's most notorious "bad" town. Copperfield was established in 1908 to house the mining and railroad crews working at Snake River. It had three saloons, including one owned by the mayor and another by a city councilman, and a population of 84 when Hobbs was dispatched. West had vowed personally to clean up the vice-ridden town but was warned that he would be shot if he tried, so he sent his private secretary. Described as a diminutive woman — 5-foot-3 and less than 100 pounds — Hobbs arrived with a small National Guard contingent and read the governor's orders to close the saloons and resign from city council. The orders were refused, Hobbs left town that afternoon and the National Guard placed the town under martial law. More troops eventually arrived and confiscated liquor and gambling devices. The town, about 75 miles northeast of Baker City, later was destroyed by fire and today is known as Oxbow.

Sources: Oregon State Archives, The Oregon Journal, The Oregon Statesman

Marie Dorion

Born: Unknown

Died: Sept. 5, 1850. She was reportedly buried at St. Louis Catholic Church in Gervais.

Facts: She was the only woman among the overland expedition financed by John Jacob Astor in 1811-12 to establish a fur-trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River. The courageous Native American accompanied her husband and two small children on the journey. Like her predecessor on the Lewis and Clark expedition, Sacagawea, Dorion earned respect from the men. She never complained about the hardships along the journey and kept pace despite caring for two children and giving birth to a third. The epitome of Dorion's courage was noted after the expedition had reached what would later be named Astoria. She and her family returned with a trapping party to the Snake River, where Indians attacked and killed all but her and her two sons. They escaped by hiding in the brush. In the wake of the tragedy, including the death of her husband, she and the boys survived more than 50 days in the bitter cold of the Blue Mountains.

Quotable: Roger Howard, who lives near the church in Gervais, on the legend of Marie Dorion: "She should be as famous as Sacagawea."

Source: Statesman Journal

Betty Roberts

Born: Feb. 5, 1923.

Now: June 25, 2011.

Facts: Roberts was the first woman appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals (1977) and the first woman appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court (1982). She was married and raising four children in the 1950s, when she signed up for college courses and graduated from Portland State University in 1958. She taught high school and by 1962 had a master's degree in political science from the University of Oregon. She then enrolled in the night program at Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College, continued to teach and was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. She graduated from law school in 1966, the same year one daughter graduated from Stanford University and a son from high school. She married a lawyer and legislative colleague two years later, and they established a successful legal practice. She then became the lone woman in the Oregon Senate and in 1974, ran a strong statewide campaign for governor but was narrowly defeated in the primary. The Democratic Party named her to fill a vacancy on the ballot for the general election against U.S. Sen. Bob Packwood, and again she was narrowly defeated. The Oregon Women's Political Caucus named her the 1975 "Woman of the Year" for setting a precedent for other women to run for statewide office.

Notable: She helped found Women's Investment Network-PAC to recruit and support women to run for the Legislature and Oregon Women Lawyers to promote women and minorities in the profession. Her memoir was submitted it to the Oregon State University Press.

Sources: American Bar Association, Oregon Women Lawyers, "Images of Oregon Women"

Sue Miller

Born: July 18, 1948, in Peoria, Ill.

Now: Co-founder and former executive director of Family Building Blocks, a child abuse prevention program.

Facts: Miller was the first female mayor of Salem, serving from 1983 to 1988. She was active in her neighborhood association and the local transit district board before running for office. She defeated two sitting city councilors (one man and one woman) in the primary and then went on to serve three terms. Being the first female mayor didn't seem like a big deal at the time, perhaps because Norma Paulus had laid the groundwork for women to become political leaders in Salem. Paulus served in the Oregon Legislature before becoming the first woman in Oregon history to win a state office in 1976, when she was elected Secretary of State. "If Norma hadn't been so successful," Miller said, "it would have been a lot harder. She had kind of tilled that ground for others to follow, and I've always thanked her for that." As mayor, Miller was most noted for her work in helping the city purchase 22 acres of waterfront property on the Willamette River, which today is Riverfront Park.

Quotable: "It was an amazing privilege to be mayor of Salem. I will always be indebted to the people who allowed me to do that."

Notable: She helped start Abiqua School, a private Salem elementary school that opened in 1993.

Sources: Sue Miller, Salem Online History

Maj. Gen. Jeanne Holm, USAF

Born: June 23, 1921.

Died: Feb. 15, 2010, in Annapolis, Maryland.

Facts: Holm was the first female general in the Air Force and the first two-star general in the Armed Forces. A native Oregonian, she was among the first women to enlist in the military in 1942, in what was called the Women's Army Corps (WAC). She started as an Army truck driver but soon became an officer. She spent most of World War II training thousands of WACs. She left active duty after the war and went to Lewis & Clark College in her hometown of Portland. She then returned to active duty and joined the Air Force. She was the war plans officer at one of the major bases in Europe during the Berlin Airlift and began her rise through the ranks. She was Director of Women in the Air Force from 1965 to 1973. She was promoted to brigadier general in 1971, the first woman to be appointed to that grade in the Air Force. Two years later, she became the first woman in any branch of service to reach the rank of major general, or two-star general. She retired in 1975 after a 33-year career in the Air Force and went on to serve as Special Assistant on women's issues for President Gerald Ford. She also held positions during the Carter and Reagan administrations and is recognized as a driving force behind women achieving opportunities and equal rights in the military.

Notable: Holm authored three books.

Quotable: "There was an enormous desire to be part of the war effort. My father had been in the Marine Corps in World War I. My two brothers already had been called to active duty, both in the Navy. I realized I would like to serve in the military if there was a way I could do it."

Sources: Veterans History Project, Air Force Link, Jeanne Holm, National Women's Hall of Fame

Norma Paulus

Born: March 13, 1933.

Died: Feb. 28, 2019. She is interred at Belcrest Memorial Park in Salem.

Facts: Paulus was the first woman in Oregon history to win a state office in 1976, when she was elected Secretary of State. She served two terms and instituted the first vote-by-mail system in the nation. Her three decades as an elected official began in 1970, when she served in the Oregon Legislature. She sponsored environmental legislation, civil rights and ethical changes. She was the Republican candidate for governor in 1986, but lost in a closely-contested race to Neil Goldschmidt. Four years later, Paulus was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction and led a comprehensive restructuring of the state's public school system. She spearheaded work to set rigorous academic standards for all students and to increase accountability with state testing standards. In 1996, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley named her to the National Assessment Governing Board. A New York Times profile described Paulus' work in Oregon as the most cutting-edge school reform in the country.

Quotable: "I know I have made government more accountable. It's been a really rewarding experience to be involved in Oregon's state government because in our state, one person can still make a difference."

Notable: Paulus never went to college. She was admitted to Willamette Law School in 1956, based on her test scores and the personal recommendation of State Supreme Court Justice Earl C. Latourette. She was his private secretary, and he encouraged her to apply. She continued to work full time and graduated with honors in 1962.

Sources: Oregon Blue Book, Statesman Journal, Salem Online History

Barbara Roberts

Born: Dec. 21, 1936, in Corvallis.

Now: The Portland resident continues to serve on the boards of several nonprofit organizations.

Facts: Roberts was inaugurated as Oregon's first woman governor on Jan. 14, 1991. The descendant of Oregon Trail pioneers and a fourth-generation Oregonian, she began her career in public service as an advocate for the educational rights of her autistic son. Her efforts resulted in one of the nation's first special-education laws and propelled her rise in politics to the governorship. She served on the Parkrose School Board, the Mt. Hood Community College Board and the Multnomah County Commission before her election to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1981. During her second term, she became Oregon's first woman House majority leader. In 1984, she was elected secretary of state, the first Democrat elected to that post in more than 100 years. She was re-elected in 1988. She ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for governor in 1990, and was elected to succeed Gov. Neil Goldschmidt. During her four-year term, Roberts was recognized as an advocate for public education, human rights and services, environmental management and streamlining state government.

Quotable: "You are looking at a woman who raised two children - one of them autistic - by herself. You are looking at a person who struggled for years to make ends meet. You are looking at a part-time student still working and committed to earning my college degree. And you are looking at a woman who got actively involved because she saw a wrong that needed to be righted. And today you are looking at the governor of the greatest state in the union. Am I proud? You bet I am. Will I make a difference for Oregon? I've never wished more for anything." - Excerpt from her inaugural address in 1991.

Notable: During her term, Oregon was recognized in 1993 by financial World Magazine as the seventh-best managed state in the nation. Her personal and political memoir "Up the Capitol Steps: A Woman's March to the Governorship" published in 2011.

Sources: Oregon State Archives, Statesman Journal

Stacy Allison

Born: Oct. 18, 1958.

Now: Is a motivational speaker and owns and operates Stacy Allison General Contracting, a residential building company that specializes in the restoration and remodeling of older homes. She lives in Portland.

Facts: Allison was the first American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1988. She grew up in Woodburn and graduated from Oregon State University in 1984. Her first climbing lesson was on a 50-foot Douglas fir on the Corvallis campus, and she was hooked. She tackled rocks first, then mountains. She was part of the first successful women's ascent of Ama Dablam in 1983. From the summit, she could see the rising crest of Everest and set her sights on the world's tallest mountain. Her first attempt was unsuccessful because of a snowstorm that left the climbing party trapped in a snow cave for five days. But the following year, in 1988, she was triumphant. On Sept. 29, at the age of 29, after 29 days on the mountain, she made history by becoming the first American woman to stand on top of the 29,035-foot mountain. She went on to lead a successful expedition in 1993 at K2, the world's second tallest mountain.

Quotable: "Climbing has inspired me, shaped my life, and changed it. Climbing has given me confidence and strength. It has taught me how to be resourceful, how to challenge myself and trust myself enough to take risks. To look beyond the ordinary and to transcend myself."

Notable: She's written two books: "Beyond The Limits: A Woman's Triumph on Everest" and "Many Mountains to Climb: Reflections on Competence, Courage and Commitment."

Sources: "Beyond the Limits," EverestHistory.com, Oregon State University

Susan Castillo

Born: Aug. 14, 1951

Now: She is retired and lives in Eugene.

Facts: Castillo was the first Hispanic woman to be seated in the Oregon Legislature and the first to be elected to a statewide office. Prior to entering politics, she enjoyed a career as a broadcast journalist. She graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in communications and worked for Oregon Public Radio and later for KVAL-TV in Eugene. Her political career began in 1996, when she was appointed by the Lane County commissioners to fill a vacancy in the Oregon Senate, then won re-election in 1998. She became vice-chairwoman of the Education Committee, dealing with such issues as charter schools, teacher tenure and school reform. She served in the Senate through 2002, and then was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction. She held that office from 2003 to 2012, overseeing a department serving more than a half-million students in more than 1,200 schools. She was an advocate for students of color and those from low-income households, supporting increased Head Start coverage, full-day kindergarten, and English for second-language learners. After resigning, she joined the nonprofit education organization Project Lead the Way as its western regional vice president.

Quotable: "I grew up in a household where my mother dropped out in the eighth grade and was very challenged throughout her life on the kind of work that was available to her. Growing up and seeing your parent experience that, you really do make that connection between education and opportunity."

Notable: In 2004, she was named one of the "100 Most Influential Hispanics" in America by "Hispanic Business."

Sources: Oregon Department of Education, Oregon Blue Book, Oregon Encyclopedia