Harriet Williams Russell Strong was a pioneer of water conservation and dry land irrigation, women’s rights activist and inventor.
In 1883, Harriet Williams Russell Strong—a graduate of Miss Mary Atkin’s Young Ladies Seminary, and mother of four became a young widow after her husband lost money in a business venture and took his own life. She had been away from home due to spine-related health issues. Once able to return home, Harriest was determined to defend the family’s 220-acre Rancho del Fuerte—the ranch of the strong—from creditors.
I had the courage of ignorance and plenty of determination to back it up.
Harriet Williams Russell Strong
Harriet threw herself into learning all she could about the business of agriculture. She read through scientific books and journals while enlisting the help of other local ranchers who could answer her questions about water, soil, crops, and marketing. “I had the courage of ignorance and plenty of determination to back it up,” she would later say.
In 1887, she began to develop multiple patents for water irrigation and storage that helped save her estate of walnuts (a notoriously difficult crop), oranges, and pampas grass. Her success in growing walnuts in California even won her the title “Queen of Walnuts of Whittier.”
Her inventions, including a multi-dam process, would continue to be used in many projects like the Hoover Dam and the All-American Canal. Harriet’s innovations became increasingly important for water source conservation, ensuring flood mitigation and dry land irrigation and generating electricity with hydropower dams.
Before women had the right to vote, Harriet Williams Russel Strong was a prolific member of local governments; she was a driving force for the Los Angeles Flood Control Act of 1915 and held the first female delegate’s seat at the US Chamber of Commerce convention.
Her now-profitable farm, which she had successfully defended from foreclosure, made Harriet a wealthy woman, but her drive for self-preservation had strengthened into a force for social change. During the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893, she spoke at a business training for women, urging them to learn all they could.
“When the majority of women understand the business methods of the world,” she said, “they will be asked to assist in the affairs of government.”
Harriet Williams Russell Strong
