Henrietta S. Duterte with one of her children who died in infancy.

Henrietta Smith Bowers Duterte (pronounced Dew-tier) was the first female undertaker in the United States. Born a free woman in Philadelphia in 1817, she was one of 13 children born to John Bowers and Henrietta Smith Bowers. Henrietta Bowers’ father became the sexton of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas.

Bowers grew up in Philadelphia’s “Seventh Ward,” one of the city’s most prominent African American neighborhoods. Seventh Ward was where scholar and activist W.E.B. DuBois lived and wrote “The Philadelphia Negro.”

Henrietta Bowers was a tailor who made capes, coats, and cloaks for the city’s middle and upper classes. In 1852, she married Francis Duterte, a Haitian-born local coffin maker. They had several children, but none survived infancy. Francis Duterte was a member of the Moral Reform Retreat, a local organization that supported the abolition of slavery and equal rights for women.

After the death of her husband in 1858, she defied the gender restrictions of her era by assuming control over her late husband’s business. In doing so, she became the first female undertaker in the nation. She conducted business in her own name.

Like her husband, Henrietta Duterte worked to abolish slavery. She became an agent of the Underground Railroad, often hiding runways in coffins or disguising them as part of funeral processions to ensure their safe passage through the city. She also supported the African American community through philanthropic projects. By the time of her passing in 1903 at 83, the company had become one the city’s most successful African American businesses, taking in about $8,000 per year by burying both Blacks and whites. Her nephew continued to operate the business until his death in 1927. She is interred in Eden Cemetery, the oldest black-owned cemetery in Pennsylvania.

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