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My Ninety Years: Her Story From the Dawson Gold Fields to the Halls of Parliament
Martha Black, My Ninety Years: Her Story From the Dawson Gold Fields to the Halls of Parliamen
166 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 18, 2023
This autobiography was first published in 1938 as “My Seventy Years” and later updated, edited by Flo Whyyard, and republished during her lifetime as “My Ninety Years” in 1976. Following Black’s death, it went through another iteration, published again as “Martha Black: Her Story From The Dawson Gold Fields to the Halls of Parliament”.
Black tells her fascinating story of growing up comfortably in Chicago and how she left that upper middle-class life behind for one of adventure in the North. She had met and married William Purdy and together they led a comfortable life, had two young boys and Martha was pregnant with their third son. When word got out that gold had been discovered in the Yukon, the couple left for the Klondike in 1898 along with Martha’s brother George and several other men, headed for a life of excitement and adventure. Martha was only twenty-three at the time, but financed with family money, she eagerly sought out adventure. Purdy however was not as committed to the rugged northern terrain as she was, a trip which would require they travel 92 kilometers on foot over the Rocky Mountains through the Chikoot pass to get to Dawson City. He never made it to the Yukon and instead headed to Hawaii. Their relationship did not make it through the separation, the couple never saw each other again and Martha later delivered her third son alone in a log cabin in the Yukon.
The trip was treacherous and Martha and her traveling companions lived through outbreaks of typhoid fever, smallpox, endured the biting cold and hiked for long stretches over rocky crevices, often slipping and falling. After a little over a year in the North, Martha returned home for a short spell, but bitten by “the northern bug”, quickly returned in 1901 and spent most of her remaining life living there. She formed a gold mining partnership, started a sawmill business in Dawson City and in 1904 married again, this time to lawyer George Black. Martha had a very traditional view of marriage believing that a couple should always be in complete harmony, so after the wedding she immediately transitioned to became an Anglican, an Imperialist and a Conservative. She was a forward-thinking woman in many ways, but this was not one of them!
George Black entered political life, became a commissioner of the Yukon territory, a Minister of Parliament and speaker of the House of Commons. When he became ill, she was elected at the age of seventy to replace him, only the second time a woman had ever been elected to the House of Commons. During her time in Parliament, she focused on issues that related to public health, pensions for the blind and conservation.
Martha had a keen interest in botany and became an expert on wildflowers of the Yukon and British Columbia. She collected and pressed wildflowers, filling in the backgrounds with watercolors, a process she called “artistic botany”. She received praise for these pieces of art, which the Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned for exhibits in their stations and hotels.
Martha died in 1957, in Whitehorse at the age of ninety-one. An adventurous woman, often dubbed “The First Lady of the Yukon”, she has written an interesting account of her life, especially her early years. It provides an important adjunct to the materials recorded about this time Canadian history and the accounts of lives lived, especially by women.
Black tells her fascinating story of growing up comfortably in Chicago and how she left that upper middle-class life behind for one of adventure in the North. She had met and married William Purdy and together they led a comfortable life, had two young boys and Martha was pregnant with their third son. When word got out that gold had been discovered in the Yukon, the couple left for the Klondike in 1898 along with Martha’s brother George and several other men, headed for a life of excitement and adventure. Martha was only twenty-three at the time, but financed with family money, she eagerly sought out adventure. Purdy however was not as committed to the rugged northern terrain as she was, a trip which would require they travel 92 kilometers on foot over the Rocky Mountains through the Chikoot pass to get to Dawson City. He never made it to the Yukon and instead headed to Hawaii. Their relationship did not make it through the separation, the couple never saw each other again and Martha later delivered her third son alone in a log cabin in the Yukon.
The trip was treacherous and Martha and her traveling companions lived through outbreaks of typhoid fever, smallpox, endured the biting cold and hiked for long stretches over rocky crevices, often slipping and falling. After a little over a year in the North, Martha returned home for a short spell, but bitten by “the northern bug”, quickly returned in 1901 and spent most of her remaining life living there. She formed a gold mining partnership, started a sawmill business in Dawson City and in 1904 married again, this time to lawyer George Black. Martha had a very traditional view of marriage believing that a couple should always be in complete harmony, so after the wedding she immediately transitioned to became an Anglican, an Imperialist and a Conservative. She was a forward-thinking woman in many ways, but this was not one of them!
George Black entered political life, became a commissioner of the Yukon territory, a Minister of Parliament and speaker of the House of Commons. When he became ill, she was elected at the age of seventy to replace him, only the second time a woman had ever been elected to the House of Commons. During her time in Parliament, she focused on issues that related to public health, pensions for the blind and conservation.
Martha had a keen interest in botany and became an expert on wildflowers of the Yukon and British Columbia. She collected and pressed wildflowers, filling in the backgrounds with watercolors, a process she called “artistic botany”. She received praise for these pieces of art, which the Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned for exhibits in their stations and hotels.
Martha died in 1957, in Whitehorse at the age of ninety-one. An adventurous woman, often dubbed “The First Lady of the Yukon”, she has written an interesting account of her life, especially her early years. It provides an important adjunct to the materials recorded about this time Canadian history and the accounts of lives lived, especially by women.
June 10, 2017
A memoir of Martha Louise Black who left Chicago to go across the Chilkoot Trail in 1898 to manage a sawmill in very early Dawson City. Her story of the early days of this gold rush era is very interesting, her family, work and eventually serving in Canadian Parliament combines to give the reader a first hand perspective of this frontier.
August 26, 2018
Fascinating story, could not put it down. Ties in a lot of history. Nothing but admiration for Martha Louise Black.
February 26, 2014
great woman of her time
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews