Albany, Oregon, and Abigail Duniway — Setting for My Work-in-Progress

I posted last year about Abigail Duniway, a historical figure I found while researching Safe Thus Far. Abigail played a very minor role in that novel, but she will feature more prominently in my current work-in-progress. In fact, I have set part of the book in Albany, Oregon, because Abigail Duniway lived there in 1867, the year in which this novel takes place.

Albany sits at the confluence of the Calapooia and Willamette rivers. The Hackleman and Monteith families arrived in the area in about 1848, and as the region developed, Albany became the county seat of Linn County, Oregon. The Monteiths were merchants and were pro-Union, aligning with the Republican Party. The Hacklemans were working-class Democrats who sided with the Confederacy. Wikipedia claims these two factions planted a hedge near Baker Street to separate their sides of town.

The Monteiths opened several mercantile establishments, funded by their profits from supplying miners headed to California. As a result, Albany became a major town in the Willamette Valley in the mid-19th century. It was incorporated in 1866.

As a commercial hub in Central Oregon, Albany was a stop on the daily stagecoach route from Portland to Sacramento, starting in 1860. It took six days to travel that route by stage. Steamboats stopped at the docks in town. Industries in the mid-19th century included foundries, blacksmith shops, furniture factories, tanneries, carriage factories, flour and saw mills, a twine factory, and creameries.

Abigail Duniway opened a millinery store in late 1866 in Albany, Oregon. Her partner in this enterprise was a Mrs. Jackson. They opened the millinery by November 24, 1866, because on that date, the Albany States Rights Democrat (a Southern-sympathizing weekly newspaper), wrote:

“It is with pleasure that we call the attention of our lady readers to the card of Mrs. Jackson & Mrs. Duniway….Mrs. Jackson has just returned from San Francisco with a fine assortment of the latest styles of fashionable millinery goods.
“These ladies solicit a liberal share of patronage from the fair denizens of Albany and the surrounding country without regard to politics or religion, assuring all that they will be served with goods in excellent style and at the most moderate prices.”

In addition to hats, the millinery shop sold bonnets, gloves, cloaks, lace ribbons and hose. They also did alterations and offered some laundry services.

Abigail Duniway wrote in her autobiography, Path Breaking, that she learned of incidents of spousal abuse and other injustices toward women in the course of managing the millinery store. These abuses encouraged Abigail to move to Portland and begin her own newspaper, The New Northwest, which she did in 1871.

But I am making use of Abigail’s presence in Albany in 1867 for my novel. She will get her dander up over spousal abuse in this book, and she will attempt to use her business as a haven for women who need financial and emotional support.

Later developments in Albany included the founding of Albany College in 1867 (the college moved into a new building in 1869), the arrival of the railroad in 1871, and a canal in 1872.

I can use the bustling development of Albany as a backdrop for my novel, along with Abigail Duniway’s character. The only drawback to using Albany as a setting is that many of my characters continue to live in or around Oregon City, which is seventy miles from Albany. That’s a two to three day trip by horse and buggy, though the steamships and stagecoaches moved more quickly.

What details of novel settings intrigue you as you read?