Introduction
Flora Dunlap was the president of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association, in 1913. She also headed the Roadside Settlement House, in Des Moines, Iowa. Flora was the first woman to ever serve on the Board of Education of Des Moines. She was a friend of Jane Addams.
Biography
Flora was born in 1872 to Mary and Samuel W. Dunlap. Growing up in Circleville, Ohio, she attended school in nearby Columbus. She graduated from Cincinnati Wesleyan College, later earning herself an apprenticeship at the Kingsley Settlement House a year later. Following the apprenticeship, Flora went on to live in the Goodrich House in Cleveland, as well as the Hull House in Chicago. Dunlap found the widespread fame of the Hull House to be “…a stimulating, an absorbing, and a bewildering place in which to live and work.” However, she wished to work in a smaller city rather than staying in Chicago despite her love for the establishment. It was at that point that Jane Addams had referred Flora to the Roadside Settlement house in Des Moines.