Martha Black

Martha Louise Munger Black OBE (February 24, 1866 – October 31, 1957) was a Canadian politician. Black was the second woman elected to the House of Commons of Canada.

Biography Black was born in on February 24, 1866 in Chicago, Illinois to George and Susan Munger. Of the five children her mother had over four years, Black was the only one to survive. She was followed by two younger siblings, George Jr. and Belle. Her father lost his laundry business in the Great Chicago Fire, but started over with great success, affording Black a comfortable, upper-class childhood. She was educated at Saint Mary's College in Indiana, a school operated by the Sisters of the Holy Cross.

Black married Will Purdy in 1887. Together the couple raised two sons, Warren and Donald. Black and Will made plans to join the Klondike Gold Rush in 1899, but Will backed out, departing instead for Hawaii. Black did not join Will in Hawaii, choosing to travel to the Klondike with her brother in 1898.

In 1898 she crossed the Chilkoot Pass into Canada, heading for the gold rush in the Klondike. She travelled with a party funded by her father and led by Captain Edward Spencer. The group, which included her brother George Jr. and cousin Harry Peachy, arrived in Dawson City by boat on August 5. They built a log cabin where she gave birth to her and Will's third son, Lyman, on January 31, 1899.

Black returned home to Chicago, and returned again to the Klondike in 1900. She earned a living by staking gold mining claims and running a sawmill and a gold ore-crushing plant.

In 1904, she married George Black, who later became Commissioner of the Yukon from 1912–1916 and Yukon MP.

Political career Black’s path to political life was an unusual one.

At the age of 69, she agreed to run for the Yukon seat in Canada's 1935 federal election, only because her husband, George Black, then the sitting Member of Parliament and former Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, had suffered a nervous breakdown.

George was unable to campaign, but his former colleague and law partner, R. B. Bennett, had an idea. Bennett, then serving as prime minister, urged Black to run in his place. She was buried in the city's Pioneer Cemetery.

Honours and awards In 1917, Black was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for a series of nearly 400 lectures on the Yukon that she presented in Great Britain.

In 1946, she was made an Officer of Order of the British Empire for her cultural and social contributions to the Yukon.

In 1997, Canada Post issued a $0.45 stamp in her honour.

Archives There is a Martha Black fonds at Library and Archives Canada. Records related to Black are also held in Special Collections & Archives at the University of Waterloo as part of the Martha Louise Black fonds.