Martha Black (1866 – 1957)

Martha Black was a Canadian businesswoman, naturalist and politician, the second woman to be elected to Canada’s Parliament. Born in Chicago, she left behind the strictures of high society to join the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Martha gave birth to her third child in Dawson City, Yukon, in 1899 and went back to Chicago soon after. She returned to the Klondike with her three sons in 1900, staking mining claims and operating a sawmill and a gold ore processing plant. When her politician husband became ill in 1935, Black ran in his place and was elected Member of Parliament for Yukon. She remained in office until 1940, when her husband was re-elected. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1946.