Flora M. McDonald was born on October 21, 1834, in North Carolina to John and Janette McDonald. Her father was a carpenter who owned $1,500 of real estate by 1850. The family lived in Cumberland County, North Carolina. She never married, and she lived in her parents’ household until at least 1870. By 1880, she was living in her brother Lauchlin’s household in Rockfish, North Carolina. She died in Rockfish on September 24, 1899.