Flora Black (1870-1951)
Summit Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On this farm lived Flora Black, a civic leader active in the county and Commonwealth. Here on October 14, 1914, she organized the Society of Farm Women of Pennsylvania. In the ensuing years, groups in many Pennsylvania counties became Society affiliates, in furtherance of its aim to strengthen the role of farm women and promote better conditions in farm homes across the Commonwealth.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On this Somerset County farm in October 1914, Flora Black founded the Society of Farm Women of Pennsylvania, giving rural women a formal organization of their own in an era when farm households ran on their unpaid, largely unrecognized labor. The society spread county by county across the Commonwealth, working to improve conditions in farm homes and to raise the standing of the women who kept them. Black herself remained a civic leader in county and state affairs for decades.
Why it matters
It records an early, homegrown chapter of American women's organizing, showing how rural women built institutions to claim a voice in their communities.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- ¡ Flora Black
Related events
- ¡ Founding of the Society of Farm Women of Pennsylvania (1914)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
World War II Connellsville Canteen
Connellsville, PA ¡ est. 1994
From 1944 to 1946, some 800 women of all ages staffed a canteen at Connellsville's B&O Railroad station, greeting roughly 600,000 servicemen and women passing through by rail. Around the clock they provided food, drink, and even rides home to troops far from their families. Their volunteer effort was one of countless home-front acts that sustained the nation's armed forces during World War II.
American Red Cross
Johnstown, PA ¡ est. 2014
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam failed and sent a wall of water into Johnstown, killing thousands in one of the worst disasters of the era. Days later, Clara Barton arrived with volunteers of the American Red Cross, the humanitarian society she had founded, to meet the survivors' needs. Over five months the Red Cross opened feeding stations, built shelters, and gave medical care to some 25,000 people.
St. Xavier's
Unity Township, PA ¡ est. 1946
When the Sisters of Mercy sailed from Ireland in 1843, they established at this convent and academy their oldest foundation in America. From this quiet Westmoreland County house, the order sent women outward as nurses and teachers, seeding schools and hospitals across a growing nation. It is a monument to immigrant faith and to the outsized role Catholic sisterhoods played in early American education and care of the sick.
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Greensburg, PA ¡ est. 2021
In 1870 Mother Aloysia Lowe and a small band of companions came from Cincinnati to found the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, making Greensburg their permanent home in 1882. Rooted in the tradition of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the sisters built a far-reaching ministry of teaching and healing, serving scores of schools and hospitals across a dozen states. In 1918 they founded Seton Hill College â now a university â and by 1960 had carried their mission overseas to Korea.