Abigail Scott Duniway, born Abigail Jane Scott, was born in Illinois on October 22, 1834 to John Tucker Scott and Anne Roelfson Scott. Motivated by the mass western migrations, John Tucker Scott moved his wife and twelve children to Oregon in 1852. Anne Roelfson Scott and their youngest child, Willie, succumbed to illness on the journey. Abigail Scott Duniway kept a journal of her family's experience and later used this as the basis for her novel, Captain Gray's Company--the first book to be commercially printed in Oregon. After their arrival, John Tucker Scott married Ruth Eckler Stevenson and had two more children, Rhoda Ellen and Charles Wood Beecher.

Benjamin Charles Duniway married Abigail Jane Scott on August 2, 1853. The couple met in Cincinnati, Oregon (present day Eola) and moved to Benjamin's Clackamas farm after the wedding. Later, they moved to a farm in Yamhill, near Lafayette, Oregon. The couple had six children: Clara, Willis, Hubert, Wilkie, Clyde, and Ralph. Abigail also adopted her grandson, Charlie (Hubert's son conceived out of wedlock), but he died in infancy.

Abigail Scott Duniway soon became the family's financial provider after a team of horses ran over Benjamin Charles Duniway in the fall of 1862, leaving him unable to work on the farm. She moved to Albany, Oregon and started a school, boarding pupils in the Duniway home. She also started a millinery business and stopped teaching when this became profitable. Around this time, she began thinking and writing about women's suffrage.

In the 1870s, Abigail Scott Duniway spent most of her energy on the newspaper she founded, the New Northwest. The newspaper was a family project and her sons were assigned specific tasks in its production. Hubert and Willis became her partners in 1879, which lasted until 1886 when Willis left to start a farm in Idaho. In 1887, Abigail Scott Duniway sold the paper, but continued to contribute to various publications including the Chicago InterOcean, Pacific Monthly, and other suffragist and local Portland, Oregon papers. She was a prolific write with a number of serialized stories and novels.

Abigail Scott Duniway continued her work in suffrage by writing and giving lectures. Her efforts were rewarded in 1912 when Oregon passed a suffrage amendment. Governor Oswald West gave Abigail Scott Duniway the honor of writing the amendment's proclamation, which he signed.

The Duniway and Scott families had active roles in the frontier print industry during the 19th century. Harvey Scott, Abigail's brother, was editor for the Oregonian, Wilkie Duniway became the State Printer, and Willis Duniway was a printer for a number of Portland papers.

Abigail Scott Duniway's other children pursued careers and interests outside the print industry. Clyde became president of the University of Wyoming, University of Montana, and Colorado College; Ralph became a prominent Portland attorney; and Hubert went into lumber export. Clara, Abigail's only daughter, succumbed to tuberculosis at a young age.

Abigail Scott Duniway published her autobiography, Path Breaking, in 1914 and died on October 11, 1915.