Harriet Pettit House was born in Waterford, New York, Dec. 23,
1820. Her ancestry was Scotch and English. On the mother’s side the
line goes back to William Mitchell and his wife, Agnes Buchanan,
who emigrated from Glasgow to New England in 1755. The male line
in America began with the Englishman Abraham Waterhouse, who came
to New England, 1729, and “who sleeps with the pilgrim settlers
at Saybrook, Conn.” Her paternal grandfather, John Pettit, one of
the original settlers of Waterford and a member of the first board
of village trustees, came from Chester, Conn., whence a few years
later he brought his bride, Rebecca Waterhouse.
[Illustration: HARRIET PETTIT HOUSE]
Their son, John, is said to have been the first child born in the
new settlement. He became a cabinet maker. Following his father’s
example, he sought a wife in Chester and married Sarah Parmelee
Mitchell, who was his “second cousin, once removed.” Of this
ancestry and marriage was born the future woman missionary. The
family comprised Mary Jane (dying in infancy), Eliza Ann, Mary
Jane, Harriet Maria, John Mitchell, William Frederic and Sarah
Frances, all of whom were born at Waterford except the last. The
mother was a member of the Waterford Presbyterian Church, and the
two older daughters united at an early age. In 1832 the family
moved to Sandy Hill, New York, where resided an uncle, General
Micajah Pettit. While living there Harriet made a profession of her
faith at the age of seventeen. During residence in that village
she became acquainted with Stephen Mattoon and the young woman who
later became his wife, with both of whom she was destined to be
associated in Siam. The first appearance of her name in the journal
of Dr. House is a casual entry that Mrs. Mattoon had received
(1851) a letter from her friend Harriet Pettit. After nine years
the family returned to Waterford in 1841.
Harriet’s elementary education was the best afforded by the private
school system of the period. In 1840 she entered the Emma Willard
Female Seminary at Troy, New York. There she studied for a year,
and then entered upon what proved to be her life work of female
education. Her first year of teaching was in a young ladies’ school
in New York City. For two years she served as governess for a
family in Charleston, South Carolina. It was while there that she
wrote to her youngest sister a most remarkable letter of religious
importunity. In the winter of 1843 a great revival had aroused the
little church at Waterford under the pastor, Rev. Reuben Smith, in
which sixty-nine were converted. Among these were her father and
two brothers, all of whom united with the church. Having received
news of this awakening, Harriet sent to her sister, the only member
of the family not yet in the Church, a letter carefully printed so
as to be legible to the girl of ten years. It was a letter with a
purpose. It was an affectionate entreaty for the sister to become
a Christian. Concisely but clearly she explained what it meant to
be a Christian, and then gently and with fervour urged a prompt
decision for Christ. That letter was not void of its purpose, and
all these eighty years since it has been treasured by the recipient
as a memento of a loving, consecrated sister.
The Pettit family did not remain long in Waterford after their
return. In 1844 they moved to Newark, New Jersey, and there became
identified with the Second Presbyterian Church, of which at the
time the pastor was a relative, the Rev. Ebenezer Cheever, who had
formerly been their pastor also at Waterford. Thereupon, Harriet
came to Newark and set up a small school for girls in her home.
In 1848 she was called to be assistant in the female seminary at
Steubenville, Ohio. In the fall of 1851 she returned to Newark
and opened, under her own management, a “Select School for Young
Ladies,” which she continued up to the time of her marriage. During
these later years she was active in the work of the Second Church,
serving as joint superintendent of the Sunday school. On Oct. 24,
1855, her father died, leaving Harriet alone with their mother and
her youngest sister.