Miss Harmon's School for Young Ladies

Abby Maria Harmon was the youngest child of Daniel Williams Harmon, fur trader and author of Harmon's Journal, and his partly native wife Lisette Duval.  She was born in Vermont in 1838, after Daniel had left the fur trade.  Daniel moved his family from Vermont to Montreal in 1842, and in 1843, when Abby Maria was just five years old, he  died of smallpox.  The Harmon family had been accompanied by their eldest daughter Polly's husband Calvin Ladd,  and it is probable that the Ladds and the Harmons lived together while the children were growing up.  The 1861 census shows Abby Harmon living in Montreal on Beaver Hall Road, and lists her occupation as teacher.  She was then 23 years old.

At some point Abby Maria moved to Ottawa and began her own school.  It was a great success, attracting young women from upper class families (apparently Sir John A. MacDonald's granddaughter was a student at one point).  According to Urbsite,

"Maria Harmon had started a small co-educational school for the children of lumber kings at a private home in Uppertown during the mid-1860s, when public education in Ottawa was still a dodgy business. The school moved to Wellington Street a few years later and became girls-only. Miss Harmon's went into a larger stone structure at 49 Daly Avenue (a building still used by the Union Mission for men). The date of the incorporation refers to the establishment of its final phase at Elgin and Maclaren."

Here is a photo of the school exterior:

And here are some interior shots:

A very uncomfortable-looking classroom in Miss Harmon's School

A much more inviting classroom with lots of sunlight

The music room.  Music was a school specialty.

The dining room.  I love the beautiful paneled doors.

Abby Maria's drawing room, where she would entertain.

These photographs were taken in 1894 by the photographer William James Topley, and they can be found, along with several others of the interior of Miss Harmon's School, on the LAC (Library and Archives Canada) website.

This is what the website Ottawagraphy has to say about Abby Maria:

"Following forty years of teaching, Miss Harmon, President of the Harmon School for Girls, founded Harmon Home in 1891. Miss Harmon’s school increased in success, to grow from a day school for girls to The Harmon Home and Day School for Young Ladies with School and Music. It earned recognition throughout the Dominion and the United States. Her curriculum reflected the educational trends of the period, emphasizing music, elocution, literature and other appropriate subjects. Miss Harmon was also the President of the Women’s Foreign Mission Society of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church [Jeffs 1994]."

I also found a report in the Ottawa Daily Citizen, June 20, 1889, on a Harmon School recital.  Here is a partial transcript:

"A large and influential audience greeted Miss Harmon yesterday afternoon at the closing exercises of her deservedly popular school.  The drawing-rooms presented a charming appearance with the floral decorations, and groups of sweet-looking young girls dressed in white.  They merited the applause which they received, for every part of the programme was well carried out, and gave pleasure to all who were present.  

A very excellent programme was offered by the students, both musical and literary, including some admirable selections...The recitations, both in French and German, were distinctly rendered,  and the pronunciation of the young ladies in each language showed that they had received careful instruction from their teachers, Mons. Guignard and Fraulein von Janstch.  The musical numbers were well rendered, the careful fingering and expression showing that they were well and thoroughly drilled.

....After the distribution of prizes Mr. Jas. Fletcher, Dominion Entomologist, who has taken a great interest in developing a taste for botany among the oldest schools, delivered a most interesting, practical address, in which he spoke in the higher terms of the literary excellence of the compositions read, and of the work done in the school.  He gave the young ladies some good advice about studying, that "earnestness, perseverance and method" were essential qualities for every true student to possess, without which success could not be achieved..."

It beats me why the Dominion Entomologist was promoting Botany as a subject.

The article concluded by giving a list of prizes. It appears that Miss Harmon's School for Young Ladies taught and gave prizes for practical arithmetic, mental arithmetic, algebra, physical geography, botany,Ancient History, English history, Scripture history, penmanship, grammar, composition, rhetoric,  Music, Latin, French and German.  Except for the sciences, it sounds like a very complete and real education, not simply a finishing school.

But wait!  Miss Harmon's School is mentioned in Ellen Easton McLeod's book  In Good Hands:  The Women of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild.  

"Rosina J. Barrett's Ottawa School of Art Needlework also trained women for the workforce.  Barrett, who had a diploma in Art Needlework from the Chicago World's Fair, also taught "Kensington Embroidery"  at Miss Harmon's  Home and Day School for Young Ladies and Little Girls.  Incorporated in 1892, Miss Harmon's School added china painting to the curriculum for 1903 and 1904, but seems to have folded, soon after."  (pg. 75)

China painting?  Kensington Embroidery?  That seems a little less academically rigorous. 

Abby Maria was apparently well loved by her former students, but her story ends sadly.  Despite her great career success, she committed suicide by drowning herself on September 19, 1904.  Her remains were taken to Montreal and buried in her mother's grave (she was the only Harmon child to outlive her mother, to whom she was very close).  Abby Maria and Lisette are buried together in the Mount Royal Cemetery in area G 11.