Harriet Williams Russell Strong Leaves Lasting Ripple Effect for Water Conservation
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
We have such a unique opportunity today to honor World Water Day during Women’s History Month! It only makes sense, then, to learn what we can about Harriet Williams Russel Strong. She was a pioneer of water conservation and dry land irrigation, women’s rights activist, inventor, and so much more.
Widowed at 39 with 4 daughters and an estate with a fortune that had dwindled to debt, Harriet Williams Russel Strong had no option other than to innovate her family’s way out of despair. Without any formal education, she went on to learn all she could about agriculture and the science of water conservation. 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.” She absolutely earned it.
After rescuing her estate from failure and becoming financially successful, Harriet Williams Russel Strong would go on to urge Congress to take advantage of her patents in conserving water across the US. Her inventions, including a certain type of multi-dam process, would continue to be used in a growing number of 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. At the time, it was unorthodox that all of these accomplishments came from a woman, to which she even claimed was the reason the Hoover Dam project was put on hold for some time.
So, once Strong sold her estate, she devoted much of her time to encouraging other women to seek empowerment through knowledge. She spoke at women’s business meetings throughout Los Angeles, and spoke alongside Susan B. Anthony at conferences for the National American Women’s Suffrage Association where she was a member. Before women even 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. We’re feeling inspired just writing this!
Source: Harriet Strong portrait on USPTO
Determined to make her community prosper, Harriet drove change in a way that inspired others to do the same. One of her daughters, Hattie, once said of her; “she had the brains to think up a way out and the courage and perseverance to carry her ideas to completion.” Today, we all want to be a little more like Harriet. Without her innovations in water conservation and irrigation, California would not be the food producing powerhouse that it is today. Not only that, but her place in history as a female pioneer of water sciences and women’s rights has left us all inspired to find solutions to today’s climate and agriculture issues, and beyond!
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