Helen Barten (Brewster) Owens
Born: Pleasanton, Linn County, Kansas, on April 2, 1881. Married: Frederick William Owens, Pleasanton, Linn County, Kansas, on June 22, 1904. Died: Martinsberg, Berkeley County, West Virginia, June 6, 1968.
Helen Barten Brewster was born to Robert Edward and Clara (Linton) Brewster, in Pleasanton, Linn County, Kansas, on April 2, 1881. When Helen was young, Robert gave her a book on illustrious women, written in 1852. Clara was president of the Linn County Woman’s Suffrage Association, in addition to being a schoolteacher. She took Helen with her to the Linn County fair in 1893 where she distributed copies of the painting of temperance leader Frances Willard and “her political peers.” The painting, conceived and designed by Henrietta Briggs-Wall, Hutchinson, was painted by W. A. Ford on commissioned for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, with the provocative message illustrating that women ranked among the lowliest members of society without the vote. Helen’s experience at the fair made a memorable impression.
“I couldn't help inherit the vital interest for equality for women from my mother who took time from her household duties and teaching to get petitions signed and to talk to women's groups and others on the women suffrage movement way back then,” she told a reporter in 1960.
Brewster earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas in 1900. She joined the KU golf club as she began work on a master’s degree in mathematics, which she completed in 1901, with the thesis, “Collineations of space which leave invariant a quadric surface." While completing her second degree, she taught mathematics at Lawrence High School. That summer, Brewster was appointed to a fellowship at KU. She taught classes at Pleasanton’s Normal Institute, training teachers for the classroom, tutored Pleasanton High School students, and joined a KU graduate club, serving on the executive committee. That fall she began work toward a doctoral degree. She married Frederick William Owens, a fellow student and mathematician, in Pleasanton, Linn County, Kansas, on June 22, 1904. The couple soon relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where Frederick taught mathematics and Helen taught at a preparatory school, while both pursuing doctoral degrees. Their first daughter, Helen, was born in Chicago in 1905. Frederick received his doctoral degree in 1907, and the family moved to Ithaca, New York, where Frederick joined the Cornell University faculty. A second daughter, Clara, was born in 1908. Helen earned her doctoral degree in 1910 with the dissertation, "Conjugate line congruences of the third order defined by a family of quadrics."
While teaching at a New York preparatory school, Helen became active in the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, elected chair of resolutions committee in 1910. She returned to Kansas in 1911 to support the Kansas suffrage amendment in the upcoming year. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, asked Helen to serve as her personal representative in the Kansas campaign. Helen campaigned in 96 of 105 counties as part of the coordinated statewide efforts. The measure passed with 52 percent of the vote. She was hired assistant professor of mathematics at Wells College in Aurora, New York, in 1914. She continued to fight for the New York woman’s suffrage amendment, which was defeated in 1915. During one of the suffrage rallies, her husband and daughter were injured in an automobile accident. The New York measure finally passed in 1917.
Helen taught mathematics at Cornell University for five years. When Frederick was hired to teach at Pennsylvania State University in 1926, the family moved to State College. She was hired as associate editor of the American Mathematical Monthly in 1935. She began research and surveying women in mathematics and science. She organized a luncheon to honor these women in 1937. Helen taught at Penn State, from 1941 to 1949, when both she and Frederick retired.
Frederick Owens died in State College, Centre County, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1961. Helen died in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia, on June 6, 1968.
Entry: Helen Barten (Brewster) Owens
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: December 2024
Date Modified: December 2024
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
