Only 12 Pennsylvania women have been elected to Congress

Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti wouldn’t be the first woman from Northeast Pennsylvania to go to Congress if she wins election in November. But the first — and only — served long ago. Her name was Veronica Grace Barrett Boland, who also made state history back in 1942. She and her husband lived in Scranton’s Hill Section, and she served as his secretary. He was U.S. Rep. Patrick Boland, a former Lackawanna County commissioner and Scranton school director who ran a respected construction company wi...