Helen F. Spalding

“ Coburn's position among women in the field of journalism has thus become a distinctive one. As a writer she observes keenly, thinks carefully, feels truly, judges unharshly, depicts clearly. As a woman, strength of character, dignity of effort, and womanliness without shadow of turning, are the qualities by which her life is crowned. ”

“ Coburn's characteristic work appears. Her strict training in the school of pioneer experience, her acquaintance with the men and the women who have builded this commonwealth, her familiarity with the personal hopes and individual hardships that have been woven into the texture of the community, from the early settlements to the Oregon of today, singularly fit her for the work to which she is assigned—that of treating local incident and local interests in editorial comment. ”