Bethenia Owens-Adair
The Student Teacher
“Nothing was permitted to come between me and this, (getting an education) the greatest opportunity of my life.”
Bethenia Owens-Adair – 1906
Tears streamed down twelve year old Bethenia Owens face as she watched her teacher pack his belongings into a faded, leather saddlebag and slip his coat on over his shoulder. She was heartbroken that the gracious man who introduced her to the alphabet and arithmetic would be leaving to teach school at a far off location. Bethenia’s brothers and sisters gathered around him, hugging his legs, and hanging onto his hands. Mr. Beaufort had boarded with the Owens family during the three month summer school term in 1852 and everyone had grown quite attached to him, especially Bethenia.
Mr. Beaufort smiled sweetly at Bethenia as she wiped her face dry with the back of her dirty hand. Streaks of grim lined her thin features and continued on into her hair- line. Her long, brown locks protruded haphazardly out of the pigtails behind each ear. The dainty ribbons that once held her hair in place were untied and dangling down the back of her soiled, well-worn gingham dress.
The teacher stretched out his hand to Thomas Owens, Bethenia’s father, and then gave her mother, Sarah a squeeze around the neck. He thanked them for their hospitality and then turned his attention to their nine children. He snatched the youngest child off of the floor, tossed her up, and gave the giggling infant a kiss. Mr. Beaufort said goodbye to everyone, but left his farewell to Bethenia for the last. “I guess I’ll take this one with me,” he told her mother. “All right,” Sarah replied playfully. “She is such a tomboy I can never make a girl of her anyway.”
Bethenia blinked away more tears. Mr. Beaufort took her hand in his and led her out the door. The two walked down the dusty roadway to the gate and continued on for a bit without saying a word. Finally, Mr. Beaufort stopped and bent down next to the faithful student. “Now little one,” he kindly said, “you must go back. You are a nice little girl, and some day you will make a fine woman, but you must remember and study your book hard, and when you get to be a woman everybody will love you, and don’t forget your first teacher, will you?” Mr. Beaufort scooped Bethenia into his arms, kissed her cheek, sat her down in the direction of her home, and went on his way. Bethenia hurried back to the house where she found a quiet spot to cry over the loss of the teacher she so worshipped.
“Of course they all laughed at me,” she remembered in her journal years later, “and often times afterward when I was especially rebellious and wayward, which was not infrequently, I would be confronted with, “I wish the teacher had taken you with him,” to which I never failed to answer promptly and fervently, “I wish he had too!”
Bethenia Angelina Owens was born on February 7, 1840 in Van Buren County, Missouri. She was the second to the oldest child born to a cattle family that emigrated to Clatsop County, Oregon in 1843. She was an athletic child who roughhoused with her brothers constantly, challenging them to various feats of strength. She did chores around the homestead that were ordinarily reserved for members of the opposite sex and took great pride in the fact that her father referred to her at times as his “boy.”
Bethenia was a great help to her mother. Although she was rambunctious and could hold her own against the boys, she was more than capable of looking after her younger siblings while her mother and older sister, Diana helped work the ranch. According to Bethenia’s journal, the job kept her busy. She often had one of her brothers and sisters in her arms and more clinging to her. “Where there is a baby every two years,” she wrote, “there is always no end of nursing to be done; especially when mother’s time is occupied, as it was then, every minute,
from early morning till late at night, with much outdoor as well as indoor work. She (Bethenia’s mother) seldom found time to devote to the baby, except to give it the breast.”
By her own account, Bethenia’s childhood was mostly idyllic. When the weather was agreeable she spent most of her time outdoors entertaining the little ones she cared for and running and playing with her favorite brother, Flem. She was fond of hunting hen’s nests and gathering eggs laid in the most unusual places. She also enjoyed visiting with a neighbor lady who taught her how to cook and sew and told her fairytales during the lessons. Bethenia did not realize her education was lacking until her parents suggested that the Owens children attend school, but she was excited about the prospect.
Children over the age of four were the first to be enrolled at the school in Clatsop County. Older boys and girls, 14 or 15 years old, came to class once their chores were completed and took them up again once they were dismissed for the day. School books were in short supply and many of the pupils had to share the limited copies of the readers and spellers with one another. The Owens clan took turns studying from the solitary book they borrowed from a family in a neighboring county.
Mr. Beaufort proved to be an exceptional educator for the young in the small Oregon community. Bethenia was smitten with him from their first meeting. “The new teacher was a find, handsome young man,” she wrote in her memoirs, “who held himself aloof from the young people of his age, and kept his person so clean, neat and trim that the country men disliked him.” He interacted with his students, not only during class time, but a recess as well. He played games with the children and gave them the individual attention needed to learn the daily lessons in reading and writing. He had a particular fondness for Bethenia. Not only did he help her with her school work, but he taught her a great deal about horses. She loved to ride and Mr. Beaufort coached her on the best way to lasso a horse and spring onto its’ back.
The innocent infatuation Bethenia had for her teacher knew no bounds. Her older sister and mother would periodically admonish her for “always tagging him around.” Bethenia wrote that her mother would scold her saying “You ought to know that he must get tired of you and the children sometimes.” Nothing could persuade her from following after Mr. Beaufort every chance she got, however. She would walk two miles to school with him each morning and late in the afternoon she would haul her siblings to the spot where the teacher would be grading papers.
It took Bethenia a long time to recover after Mr. Beaufort left the Owens’ homestead. Several years would pass before she would be able to attend school again. But the fire for learning had been ignited and would ultimately be the key to Bethenia’s success.
Although she would have much preferred to marry a man like Mr. Beaufort, two years after meeting her beloved teacher Bethenia found herself betrothed to one of her father’s ranch hands. She was barely fourteen when she made the acquaintance of Legrand Hill. He had been living in the Rogue River Valley for a year working his parent’s land. He was a handsome man, broad-shouldered and tall. When she looked into her eyes, she saw the promise of a long and happy life. Her parents had selected this man to be her husband and she trusted their decision. On their recommendation she eagerly placed her future in Legrand’s hands.
On May 4, 1854, the petite teenager, dressed in a sky-blue wedding dress, stood next to her groom and promised to be a faithful wife. After the ceremony the pair retired to their home in the middle of 320 acres of farmland Legrand had purchased on credit. The newlyweds lived four miles from Bethenia’s parents and in the beginning, all was right with the world.
Family and friends visited often, helping Legrand work the property and assisting Bethenia as she made repairs to their small log cabin.
Legrand was an avid hunter, and in between planting and tending to the livestock, he spent days in the forest bagging grouse and deer. Before long, Legrand’s hunting trips became an obsession. More often than not, he put off doing chores to track wild game. He idled away so much time Bethenia’s father was forced to complete the job of putting up a good winter house to protect his daughter from the elements. A mere nine months after the wedding, Bethenia had fully recognized in Legrand a “lack of industry and perseverance.”
Legrand was opposed to doing an honest day’s work and because of that, he was unable to pay the $150 mortgage on the farm. The Hills were forced to sell the land and move to Jackson County, Oregon, to live with Legrand’s Aunt Kelly.
Less than a year after the Hills were married, Bethenia gave birth to a boy. The proud couple named the child George. Legrand’s slothful ways, however, did not change with the advent of fatherhood. He continued to fritter away his time, leaving the responsibility of earning an income to Bethenia.
Her parents paid the young mother a visit and were appalled by the “hand to mouth” living situation in which they found their daughter and grandchild. Thomas managed to persuade his son-in-law to return to Clatsop County. He lured the less than ambitious Legrand back with an offer to give him an acre of land and material to build a house.
Legrand’s attitude toward work remained the same in Clatsop County. Against the advice of his father-in-law, he agreed to partner in a brick-making business. He turned what little money he and Bethenia had over to his two partners and then spent all of his time overseeing the venture. He decided against building a home for his wife and child and chose instead to move his family into a tent. A sustained torrential downpour halted the making of the bricks and eventually put an end to the business altogether.
In late November, Bethenia contracted typhoid fever. She was much too sick to care for her baby or work to keep food on the Hill table. Her parents stepped in and moved Bethenia and George out of the damp tent and into their dry home.
Thomas pleaded with Legrand to start construction on a house for his family, but he refused to do so until the deed to the land was turned over to him. When Thomas refused to give in to his request, Legrand became furious and decided to build a house in town instead.
He proved to be a poor carpenter and after four months the home was still not complete. Wife and child were moved in anyway.
Bethenia continued to struggle with her health. The fever had left her weak and unable to do everything she once did. George was sickly too, but was nonetheless a big eater. Legrand had little or no patience with his three-year-old son’s ailments. He spanked him quite frequently for whimpering, and in many instances, was generally abusive toward the toddler. “Early one morning in March,” Bethenia recalled in 1906, “after a tempestuous scene of this sort, Mr. Hill threw the baby on the bed, and rushed downtown. As soon as he was out of sight, I put on my hat and shawl, and gathering a few necessaries together for the baby, I flew over to my father’s house.”
Sarah Owens applauded her daughter’s courage in leaving Legrand. “Any man that could not make a living with the good starts and help he has had, never will make one,” she told Bethenia. “And with his temper, he is liable to kill you at any time.” Bethenia remained at her parent’s home even though Legrand made numerous appeals to win her back. “I told him many times,” she later wrote in her journal, “that if we ever did separate, I would never go back and I never will.”
After four years of living in a difficult marriage, Bethenia filed for divorce. Many Clatsop County residents were shocked by her actions, and her sister advised Bethenia to “go back and beg him on your knees to received you.” The forlorn mother refused. “I was never born to be struck by moral man,” she insisted.
It was difficult at first, but Bethenia and George’s life away from Legrand and his tyrannical behavior proved to be best for mother and son. George thrived under his grandparent’s roof, basking in the constant attention he received from his many aunts and uncles. Bethenia used the time and the renewal of her health to attend school in the nearby town of Roseburg. She could barely read or write and believed the only way to improve her condition in life was to get a full education. At the age of 18 she enrolled in school and shared a third grade class with children who were ten and eleven years younger than her.
She eventually moved out of her parent’s home, and in addition to continuing on with school, focused on a way to support herself and her son. “I sought work in all honorable directions, even accepting washing,” Bethenia noted in her journal, “which was one of the most profitable occupations among the few considered “proper” for women in those days.”
Bethenia’s parents objected to her living on her own. They wanted their daughter to stay home and let them care for her and her baby, but she refused. She did accept the sewing machine her parent’s gave her and after teaching herself how to use it, added mending to her list of services for hire.
In the fall of 1860, Bethenia traveled to Oysterville, Washington to visit a friend and decided to stay in the area awhile and attend school. Well-meaning family members urged her to return to Oregon, but she wouldn’t agree to do so until after she completed the basic primary grades. “I now know that I can support and educate myself and my boy, and am resolved to do it,” she noted in her journal. “And furthermore, I do not intend to do it over a washtub either.”
Bethenia worked her way through primary school by doing laundry for ranch hands. Through books and diligent studying she overcame the hardships associated with a failed marriage and single parenthood. In 1874, she wrote, “Thus passed one of the pleasantest and most profitable winters of my life, while, whetted by what it fed on, my desire for knowledge grew stronger.”
An urgent plea from her sister ultimately persuaded her to leave Oysterville and move back to Clatsop County. Bethenia agreed to help her ailing sister in exchange for the chance to attend and teach school in Astoria.
“Don’t you think I could teach a little summer school here on the plains?” she asked Diana. “I can rise at four, and help with the milking, and get all the other work done by 8 a.m., and I can do washing mornings and evenings, and on Saturdays.” Diana encouraged her to try and Bethenia quickly hopped on her horse and made the rounds to the various neighbor’s homes looking for students.
According to Bethenia’s recollections, “I succeeded in getting the promise of sixteen pupils for which I was to receive $2 for three months. This was my first attempt to instruct others. I taught my school in the old Presbyterian church – the first Presbyterian church building ever erected in Oregon. Of my sixteen pupils, there were three who were more advanced than myself, but I took their books home with me nights, and, with the help of my brother-in-law, I managed to prepare the lessons beforehand, and they never suspected my incompetence. From this school I received my first little fortune of $25; and I added to this by picking wild black berries at odd times, which found a ready sale at fifty cents a gallon.” By 1861, Bethenia had earned enough money to purchase her own plot of land in Astoria and build a house.
No amount of hard work could deter Bethenia from achieving her goal of getting an education. She passed from one class to another, moving on to more advanced courses along the way. She admitted that she made it through not because she was the most cleaver, but because she was determined and perseverant. “At 4 a.m. my lamp was always burning,” she wrote in her memoirs, “and I was poring over my books – never allowing myself more than eight hours sleep.”
Bethenia’s thirst for knowledge did not subside after she graduated from high school. The fondness she had as a youngster for nursing and caring for sick friends and family, sparked a desire to study medicine. Her superior talent in hat design and dressmaking helped her to raise the necessary funds to attend medical school. She became truly committed to the calling after witnessing an elderly doctor’s inability to care properly for a small child. “The old physician in my presence,” she wrote years later, “attempted to use an instrument for the relief of the little sufferer, and, in his long, bungling, and unsuccessful attempt he severely lacerated the tender flesh of the poor little girl. At last, he laid down the instrument, to wipe his glasses. I picked it up saying, “Let me try, Doctor,” and passed it instantly, with perfect ease, bringing immediate relief to the tortured child.”
That momentous event set in motion the course of Bethenia’s new profession.
Words of encouragement for Bethenia’s new aim were few and far between, however. In fact, once she made her career plans known, only two people supported her. One was a trusted physician, who loaned her his medical books; the other was a judge, who applauded her ambition and assured her that she “would win.” Most of Bethenia’s family and friends were opposed to her becoming a doctor. They sneered and laughed and told her it was a disgrace for a woman to enter into such work. Bethenia disregarded their warnings and criticism, and pressed on toward her objective.
Bethenia began her studies at the Philadelphia Eclectic School of Medicine in 1870. Students at the college learned ways to treat the sick using herbs, mineral bathes, and natural medicines. Upon graduation she opened a practice in the Portland area. Several patients sought out her unorthodox method of dealing with sickness and pain, and in no time, her business was making a profit. Bethenia could then afford to send nineteen-year old George to the UC Berkley Medical School. He graduated in 1874.
Although Doctor Owens’s eclectic medical practice was prosperous, she was not satisfied. She pined for more knowledge in her chosen field.
On September 1, 1878, she left Portland for Philadelphia to seek counsel from a professor at her former college. She was advised to attend the University of Michigan, and she left at once to enroll. Her daily schedule was filled with lectures, clinics, laboratory work, and examinations. Bethenia was so engrossed in her studies that she did not hear the bell ring between classes. She never tired of the learning process and she never suffered with a day of sickness.
In June of 1880, Doctor Owens received her second degree. After graduation she traveled with one of her classmates to do field work in hospitals and clinics in Chicago. In the fall of that same year, she returned to the University of Michigan, accompanied by her son. Together, the mother and son doctors attended advanced lectures in obstetrics and homeopathic remedies. At the conclusion of the lectures she and George took a trip through Europe. Afterwards, she settled briefly in San Francisco. It was there she met her second husband.
Before she met Colonel John Adair, Bethenia maintained that she was fully committed to her profession and not interested in marriage. A brief courtship with the handsome Civil War veteran changed her mind. The two were married on July 24, 1884, in Portland, Oregon.
Three years after the wedding, the Adairs were expecting their first child. Bethenia boasted in her journal that she was happier than she had ever been before. Her elation would not last long. “At the age of forty-seven,” she wrote, “I gave birth to a little daughter; and now my joy knew no limit, my cup of bliss was full to overflowing. A son I had, and a daughter was what I most desired…For three days only, was she left with us, and then my treasure was taken from me, to join the immortal hosts beyond all earthly pain and sorrow.”
Bethenia found solace from the grief of her daughter’s death in caring for the sick in her Portland practice. No matter what the weather conditions were, and knowing that there was no other doctor within a 200-mile radius, she never refused a call from a patient. She attended to all those in need, at times traveling through dense undergrowth and swollen rivers.
Never content with being solely a physician, Bethenia became a student again in 1889 and enrolled in a Chicago medical school, seeking a post-graduate degree. After she completed her studies, she returned home to her husband and the teenage son they had adopted. Her practice continued to grow, and before long she found she could not keep up with her professional work and maintain a home for her family.
She chose the practice over her marriage and sent John away to a farm they owned in Astoria. The Adairs’ marriage ended in 1903.
At the age of sixty-five, Bethenia retired from her practice. Her focus shifted from day-to-day medical treatment to research. In addition to her research, she worked as a lobbyist for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She remained a staunch social and political activist until 1926, when she died of natural causes at the age of eighty-six.
The impact Mr. Beaufort had on Bethenia’s early years lasted a lifetime. According to her memoirs, he instilled in her a love for learning and was the example of the kind of educator she herself eventually became.
