Harriet Williams Russell Strong (b. Russell) (1844-1926) was born in Buffalo, New York, and died in Whittier, California. She was an inventor, horticulturalist, businesswoman, music composer, conservationist, philanthropist, suffragist, and social activist. She moved with her family to Carson City, Nevada, in 1861 and attended the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia, California. She married Charles L. Strong in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1863. He was a mining superintendent and owned mining and farming lands in southern California. He died deeply in debt in 1883, leaving Strong to raise their four young daughters. In her effort to irrigate and thus save their ranch property in the San Gabriel Valley from financial ruin, Strong invented and patented several new methods of irrigation, water storage, and flood control. Her farms and orchards became extraordinarily successful, and her irrigation systems were widely adopted throughout southern California. She received awards for these inventions at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893 and also addressed a women's congress meeting there on the importance of business training for women. In 1918 she presented her water conservation concepts to a United States congressional committee and they later became instrumental in the design of the Hoover Dam and All American Canal. In the early 1890s she turned her attention to social causes, traveling throughout the United States with Susan B. Anthony to promote women's suffrage. She was the first female member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the first president of the feminist Business League of America, founder of the Ebell women's club of Los Angeles, vice president of the Los Angeles Symphony Association, and the first female trustee of the University of Southern California Law School. She started the Paso de Bartolo Water Company with all-women stockholders in 1900. In 1885, Strong wrote to Mary Baker Eddy to inquire about her healing method and in reply was sent a copy of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College curriculum. In 1886 she studied Christian Science with Minnie B. Hall De Soto in Oakland, California. She also took Christian Science Primary class instruction from Emma S. Davis. She and her daughter, Harriet R. Strong, joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 23, 1902, and her daughter, Nelle de Luce Strong, joined on June 10, 1902. Nelle was also a practitioner listed in The Christian Science Journal. Strong was one of the founders of the Christian Science church in Whittier, California. She has been inducted into both the National Women's Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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