A Hard-worked Woman
Originally published in Oregon Quarterly
Winter 2002
So when exactly was it that the Pioneer Mother sat down to read a book?
The woman who sat — emphasis on the sat — for Alex Proctor’s statue of the Pioneer Mother was an anonymous New Jersey lady undoubtedly grateful for the model’s fee she earned during the worst days of the Great Depression. But the statue, installed on the UO campus in 1932, was meant to honor a real Oregon pioneer, Lucinda Cox Brown, the sainted grandmother of university vice president Burt Brown Barker. Mrs. Brown came across the Oregon Trail in 1847, when the going was the toughest, traveling with her children and husband. Mr. Brown died and was buried along the way, leaving his wife to fend for herself. She laid claim to and worked a section of Willamette Valley farmland, raised her children, and survived the rigors and perils of pioneer life alone. It is ironic that the prolific sculptor choose to honor this hard-working woman by casting her as a sedentary figure. It is unlikely that Lucinda – or her composite compatriot below – spent much time relaxing in a chair. A Pioneer Mother’s life was not about sitting.