Louisa Flowers

Louisa Flowers (1849–1928) was a civic leader in Portland, Oregon.

Life[]

Louisa Thatcher was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1849.^[1][2] In 1882, she married Allen Ervin Flowers in Victoria, British Columbia, and moved to Portland.^[1] They had four sons: Lloyd, Elmer, Ralph, and Ervin.^[3] Allen Flowers worked at the U.S. Customshouse and became the porter-in-charge on the Portland to Seattle run of the Northern Pacific Railroad.^[2]

When Flowers moved to Portland, she and husband Allen joined the city’s small African American community, which numbered fewer than 500 people.^[4] They purchased a farm in the Lents area where they raised horses and grew raspberries; their house became a gathering space for Portland’s small Black community and they hosted members of the three early Black churches.^[1]

Community involvement[]

Flowers was instrumental in establishing Portland’s Black community on the east side of the Willamette River and developing the lower Albina area.^[5] Her family’s civic leadership and economic prosperity helped them become pillars of Portland’s small African American community.^[1] She served on Bethel AME deaconess board and was a charter member of both the NAACP and the Williams Avenue YWCA.^[1][6]

She was a member of the Rosebud Club (also called the Old Rose Club), which was Black women’s club that eventually became part of the Oregon Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.^[6] One important activity for the club was to raise money for a scholarship fund to help young women attend college.^[1]

Death and legacy[]

Flowers died in 1928 and was buried at Lincoln Memorial Park in Portland, Oregon; she had lived in Portland for 45 years.^[3][6] In recognition of her contributions to the city, the housing agency Home Forward named one of its properties after her; it is in the area known as Lower Albina and is on land she purchased near NE First Avenue and NE Schuyler Street.^[1][4]

References[]