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Peeking into Polk County’s past for Women’s History Month

  • Casey Chaffin
  • Mar 6
  • 3 min read

Since 1987, the U.S. has recognized March as Women’s History Month. Proponents for the designation say that the month gives people the time to recognize the achievements and contributions of women throughout history. 


One avenue for learning about women’s history in Polk County is the Polk County Historical Society and Museum. The historical society has records that go back to some of the earliest Oregon Trail travelers in the 1840s, according to Diane Weaver, a long-time volunteer at the Polk County Historical Society. 


Prior to settlements established by people coming from the eastern and southern regions of the U.S., the Willamette Valley was, and continues to be, home to indigenous communities, including the Kalapuya people and members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. 


In speaking with Weaver, two stories jump out at her as significant in women’s history in the area. 


The first is about Abigail Scott Duniway, a women’s rights activist and outspoken campaigner for women's suffrage. Her family traveled on the Oregon Trail from Illinois and settled in the Willamette Valley in 1852. Duniway lived and worked throughout Oregon during her life, including in Polk County. She was one of the first school teachers at the Eola School, in a small community on the edge of West Salem. 


Her activist spirit started with her family dynamic, Weaver said. 


“She did all the same work as her brothers and men in the family,” she said. This experience made her “knowledgeable but resentful.” Duniway felt that women made just as many economic contributions to the household and to society as men, without any of the attending rights or representation in government.


Duniway’s activism, along with that of many other women, secured women the right to vote in Oregon in 1912, eight years before the U.S. would codify women’s suffrage into the U.S. Constitution. 


“She was ahead of her time,” Weaver said 


The other notable case of both women’s and African American history in Polk County that Weaver noted was the custody battle between Robin and Polly Holmes and Nathaniel Ford. The Holmes couple were two formerly enslaved people, and Ford was the man who brought their family as slaves to the area in 1844. As Oregon was technically a free state, Ford no longer had legal claim to their bodies or labor once settling in Oregon. However, he retained custody of the Holmes’ children. 


Robin and Polly Holmes made history by suing Ford for custody of their children in 1852. 


“Ford was really prominent in state government, but they eventually won the right to their children,” Weaver said. 


The Oregon Supreme Court heard their case, and they regained custody of their children in 1853. Afterward, the Holmes family settled in Marion County. Weaver shared that she was learning about the case through the book, Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory, by R. Gregory Nokes. 


Weaver encourages community members to come out to the Polk County Museum in Rickreall to learn more about local history. Her and her sister, Bette Jo Lawson, the museum’s registrar, have volunteered at the museum for years, to make history more accessible to the community. The museum has no paid staff and is run entirely by volunteers, she said, and they’re always looking for more community support and engagement. 


The museum hosts monthly community events on the third Saturday of each month, from 1-3 p.m. Their next event, on March 21, is their annual “Family Day,” where families can come to the museum for free and participate in a range of historical activities. Weaver said family-friendly activities include corn-husk doll making, a weaving demonstration, and ice cream made from sheep’s milk, in honor of Polk County’s long history of sheep farming. 


Learn more about visiting or getting involved with the museum at polkcountyhistoricalsociety.org. 


More places to learn more about local history: 


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