Martha Black

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

Born Martha Louise Munger in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of George and Susan Munger,was educated at Saint Mary's College (Indiana). The school was run by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Martha is the only one to survive of the 5 children her mother had over 4 years. She had two siblings in her family, George Jr. and Belle. They were born after Martha. Her father operated a laundry that was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. They were a very wealthy family.

Martha married Will Purdy. He had an offer to go to Hawaii. Martha never saw him again. She gave birth to their child after went away in 1899 in a log cabin.

In 1904, she married George Black, Commissioner of the Yukon. In 1989 she crossed the Chilkoot Pass into Klondike (Dawson City, Yukon). She returned home in Chicago, but in 1900 she went back to Klondike. She earned a living by staking goldmining claims and running a sawmill and a gold ore-crushing plant. In 1935, she was elected to the House of Commons for the riding of Yukon as an Independent Conservative taking the place of her ill husband.

She published an autobiography, My Seventy Years, in 1938. In 1946, she was made an Officer of Order of the British Empire for her cultural and social contributions to the Yukon.

In 1917, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for her series of lectures on the Yukon that she presented in Great Britain.

In 1997, Canada Post issued a $0.45 stamp in her honour. Also, she was the second woman in history to be in the Parliament of the Yukon.