Lenore E. Flower

Lenore E. Flower, notable genealogist and suffragette, was born on November 8^th, 1883. The daughter of Mary Elizabeth Dunbar and Milton Embick, Lenore grew up in Boiling Springs. She studied writing and history at Irving College, an all-girls college located in Mechanicsburg. After her graduation from Irving, Flower went to work for the Pennsylvania Commissioner of Health, and lived near Harrisburg in Susquehanna Township with her husband, Clarence Flower. By 1910, Lenore had already given birth to her first child, and was expecting to have another. During this period Flower’s hosted Native Americans from the Carlisle Indian School work outing program. In 1915 after the birth of her second child, Clarence and Lenore moved to Carlisle.

During the period between 1900- 1920, Lenore was a key speaker for the suffragette movement. A powerful orator, Lenore spoke at public and private meetings, arguing for women’s right to vote. She continued to be active in the movement despite her move to Carlisle and having two more children. When the 19th amendment extended the right to vote to women in 1920, Lenore opted to stay in the public light, running for the Carlisle School Board, the first woman to run for Public office in Cumberland County. During this period Lenore became associated with the Civic Club of Carlisle, eventually becoming its president in 1918. During her presidency of the organization, she oversaw a number of public works projects, including the planting of World War I remembrance oaks and the development of education programs at the local YMCA.

Lenore’s longest running project was her genealogy collection. In 1922, Lenore started collecting family genealogies after being asked to research the Wallace Family, natives of Carlisle. Lenore would become the state genealogist for the Pennsylvania Daughters of the American Revolution. Lenore would work on her genealogy record for the rest of her life, with it containing over 1100 families at the time of her death in 1974. Lenore died on January 29^th, 1974 at the age of 90. She is buried in the old graveyard in Carlisle.

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