Collection is open for research.
Speech acquired prior to 1947 (RL2025-025-RETRO); letter to Fred Lockley gift of Fred Lockley, March 1947 (RL2025-026-RETRO); letters from Jesse Applegate acquired prior to 1949, most likely in the late 19th or early 20th century (RL2025-027-RETRO). Other materials in the collection likely acquired in the early or mid-20th century.
Bethenia Owens-Adair was born in 1840 in Van Buren County, Missouri, and came with her family to the Oregon Territory in 1843. At age 14, she married Legrand Henderson Hill, and she became a mother at age 16. At age 19, she divorced Hill, took back her birth surname of Owens, and pursued an education. She supported herself and her son George as a domestic worker, a teacher, a milliner, and then as a physician. In 1874, she graduated from the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania, becoming one of the first women working as doctors in Oregon to hold a medical degree. In 1880, she earned a second medical degree from the University of Michigan.
Owens-Adair practiced medicine in Roseburg, Oregon; in Portland, Oregon; and in Clatsop County, Oregon. Later, she worked in North Yakima, Washington, where her son was also a physician. She retired from medical practice at the age of 65. In 1884, she remarried to John Adair; the couple divorced in 1907.
Owens-Adair was active in multiple reform causes, including the temperance movement, the women's suffrage movement, and women's education. She was also active in the eugenics movement and advocated for the involuntary sterilization of people she described as "unfit." Her advocacy led to the passage of involuntary sterilization laws in Oregon; the final incarnation of the involuntary sterilization law passed in 1923 and remained in force until its repeal in 1983. Owens-Adair died in 1926.
Source: "Bethenia Owens-Adair (1840-1926)," by Jean M. Ward, Oregon Encyclopedia,
Due to fragility of the originals, researchers are asked to use the preservation copies or digitized versions of the
Bethenia Owens-Adair papers, Mss 503, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Other materials at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library relating to Bethenia Owens-Adair include her autobiography, "Dr. Owens-Adair: Some of Her Life Experiences" (call number 92 A191d); and a biography, "Women Doctor of the West, Bethenia Owens-Adair," by Helen Markley Miller (call number 92 Ad11m).
The collection consists of the papers of Bethenia Owens-Adair, one of the first women doctors in Oregon with a medical degree. Papers consist of: letters from Jesse Applegate, written from 1869 to 1878 (both originals and reproductions); a handwritten speech by Owens-Adair in support of women's suffrage (original and preservation copy); a pro-eugenics booklet by Owens-Adair, titled "Human Sterilization" (original and preservation copy); a 1921 letter from Owens-Adair to Fred Lockley; and two empty envelopes sent to the Cumming family. The collection also includes a microfilm copy of the suffrage speech.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.