"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a compilation of this work....by a number of writers". Chapman Publishing Co; Chicago, 1903. p. 121. NARCISSA WHITE KINNEY If we were asked to characterize Narcissa White Kinney we would write: The grand law of her being was to conclude whatsoever she undertook. No matter what its difficulties nor how small its worth, she held to it until she had mastered every detail, finished it, and made the result of it her own. Carefully she studied the matter in hand and with indomitable energy, perseverance and skill carried forward to completion the ideas she evolved and finally crystallized into living practical issues. Hence, whatever she did bore the ineffaceable impress of her personality. Mrs. Kinney came of good stock. She was Scotch-Irish by inheritance, and for grit and grace there seems to be no better combination. Her ancestors on both sides hail from "bonnie Scotland," but stopped on their way to America, for several generations, in the North of Ireland. Her mother's maiden name was Wallace, and family records show that she was a direct descendant of Adam Wallace, who was burned at the stake in Scotland for his religion. The thrilling account of his steadfast faith and triumphant death has been handed down to us through the somber records of "Fox's Book of Martyrs." At his death his two sons, David and Moses Wallace, fled to the North of Ireland, whence Narcissa's grandfather, Hugh Wallace, emigrated to America in 1796 and located in the western part of Pennsylvania. Her father's ancestor, Walter White, suffered martyrdom for his religion during the reign of Queen Mary, and four of her far-away grandfathers, two on each side of the house, fought side by side at the battle of the Boyne. Mrs. Kinney's father, George W. White, was a Christian gentleman of high moral character much respected by all who knew him. He was an intelligent man, a deep thinker, well posted in the literature of the day, in history, and especially in the sacred scriptures. He realized the advantages to be derived from a liberal education and labored hard to give his children the very best attainable in that early day. He spent the greater part of his life on a part of the old homestead taken up by his father. At seventy years of age he was suddenly killed in a railroad accident which occurred near his home in 1883. The mother, Susanna Kerr Wallace, was born in Ireland and came to America with the family when eighteen years of age. She was a woman of strong personality, very energetic and full of resources, deeply pious, and carried her religion into her every-day life in such a way as early to impress her children with their need of spiritual guidance. She was the mother of eight children, one boy and seven girls, all of whom honored their father and their mother in their lives. The youngest daughter, Maria, from early girlhood longed to become a missionary to the foreign field, and finally gained the consent of her parents to study medicine and so prepare herself for the work of a medical missionary. After graduating from a medical school in New York City, she took up work in the slums of the city for one year as a preparation for the foreign field. In 1886 she sailed for India under the board of the United Presbyterian Church, and on reaching her destination began work in Sialkote. In a few years she formulated plans, raised funds, and founded a medical hospital there, which has proven an inestimable blessing to the afflicted and diseased women and children in that benighted land, and is considered by the church as a powerful factor in civilizing and Christianizing those depraved and ignorant heathen. After eight years of arduous labor. Dr. White returned to America broken in health, with but little hope of ever being able to return; but after several years her health was restored, and in 1902 she again sailed for India to devote the remaining years of her life to her chosen work. Narcissa White, the subject of this sketch was born in Grove City, Pa., in 1854. She was the sixth daughter, the youngest of the family but one. She received her primary education in the Grove City public schools, and was later graduated from the State Normal School of Pennsylvania, with high honors, distinguishing herself as a writer and speaker and showing such marked ability as a teacher that she was immediately elected principal of the training school in Edinboro, Pa. She labored here for some time and was sent out through the state to organize county institutes, where she gave instruction in chart work and elocution So energetically did she prosecute her work that her health gave way and she was laid aside for two years. During these years the great temperance crusade was in progress, and its outgrowth, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which has now become such a powerful organization, was in its incipiency, but was claiming public attention. Miss White, among others, became interested in the movement, and after studying carefully its aims and methods, became profoundly impressed with the need and importance of its work and felt it her duty to work under the auspices of that organization. With her, a duty known was a duty performed. She at once joined the white ribbon ranks, was elected president of the Grove City Union, and in a short time county president, then state superintendent of scientific temperance instruction, and in that position did an immense amount of work. She visited county institutes and gave instruction in the scientific teaching of the effects of alcoholics and narcotics upon the human system, in such a logical way as to elicit warm commendations from educators generally. All this work was gradually preparing her for the larger field she was soon to occupy. In 1880 she was called to the platform exclusively. She was made a national lecturer and organizer, and in that capacity visited every state and territory in the Union, also Canada and British Columbia. During these years Narcissa White had developed wonderfully. Naturally she possessed a keen, logical mind, a most persuasive manner, a quick, sparkling wit and a charming personality. Her face was handsome and expressive, one that would attract attention among the crowds. She had a lofty, graceful bearing and a fine physique. Her address was dignified, without a suggestion of haughtiness. She was gracious to everyone, yet without a trace of superiority. Her success as a platform orator was remarkable. She had developed into one of the most brilliant speakers in the entire coterie engaged in reform and educational work and was sought far and near and everywhere hailed with delight. Her presence was magnetic ; her voice, which she had carefully cultivated, was clear and penetrating, so flexible and sympathetic that she swayed her audience at her will. She brought to the platform such intense enthusiasm that it was contagious, and impelled her hearers to give assent to her earnest pleadings. As a champion of truth and righteousness and in shaping and carrying forward the great reforms of her day, she had no mean part. Her great heart was stirred to its very depths by the wrongs inflicted upon defenseless women and children, by the liquor traffic, and her deep sense of right and justice was outraged by the protection the traffic received from our national and civic government, so she threw her whole soul into the battle for prohibition and her strong personality and burning eloquence left their impress upon every community she visited in our great commonwealth. Miss White twice visited the Pacific coast in the interest of temperance and did most effective work in Oregon and Washington, particularly in securing temperance legislation. During these tours she met and formed the acquaintance of Marshall J. Kinney, at that time the proprietor of several of the largest fish canneries on the Columbia river. Mr. Kinney's family was among the pioneers of Oregon, known all over the coast. The father and five stalwart sons have been identified with many of the large industries which have attracted immigration to the northwest. In 1888 Miss White left the lecture field to become the wife of Mr. Kinney, and came to Astoria, "the city by the sea," to make her home. Here she soon found many avenues for work, and her fertile brain, ever active, among other things developed plans for elevating and Christianizing the hundreds of fishermen in the employ of her husband. Mr. Kinney, being in full sympathy with all her work, gave her free rein, and she opened a mission and taught those ignorant men and women many of them Russian Finns, new ideas of life. She opened to them the Scriptures and led many of them to the feet of the Master. Mrs. Kinney was a devoted Christian, reared in the United Presbyterian Church, and after her removal to Oregon a member of the Presbyterian Church. She was identified with all the activities of the church, and was especially interested in the foreign mission work in India, where her sister labored. In her will she left her wedding ring, a valuable diamond, to the India mission. It was to be sold and the money used for furthering the work there. Mrs. Kinney was also a philanthropist. She planned largely to promote education in Oregon by assisting in establishing libraries, organizing Chautauquas and summer schools, and repeatedly lectured before such assemblies and before the state universities and colleges. She was also the center of a large social circle of cultured and refined people. Her sparkling wit, quick repartee and winning manner made her a general favorite at all social gatherings. In 1894 she was elected president of the Oregon W. C. T. U., which position she held until about one year before her death, when her failing health compelled her to resign. She was a most efficient president, a model presiding officer, and possessed great executive ability. She was a careful financier, and had the faculty of imparting to her followers a measure of her own earnestness and enthusiasm. By her unselfish devotion to the cause she represented she inspired all with whom she labored to do their very best. She knew no such word as failure, so her administration was one of progression and wide influence. In the autumn of 1899 Mr. and Mrs. Kinney left Astoria and went to Portland to reside. She was not robust, but was not an invalid by any means, and in her new home was entering into such work as presented itself. She was apparently as well as usual when, without warning, she was stricken and yielded up her life forty-eight hours after she was taken ill. It seemed a strange dispensation of Providence that had called her away in the midst of her usefulness and at the very zenith of her mental power. These things we cannot fathom and may not question. We will not say, "God's ordinance Of death is blown in every wind ; " For that is not a common chance That takes away a noble mind. We know only that God called her, and she obeyed. We know, too, her consecrated life single-hearted, generous, pure and noble has left an influence which will rest like a benediction upon her adopted state and upon all who came in touch with her, and that it will go on and on, spreading and growing and blessing even generations yet to come. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2008 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.