XI
HARRIET PETTIT HOUSE
In former years a missionary’s wife was not under commission of the Board. Her status was similar to that of the pastor’s wife at home. It is not infrequent that the work of the wife is just as vital to the development of the church as that of her husband, but she receives no recognition in the official records of the church. Her honour is emblazoned where the eye cannot see it—in the hearts of the people. The wife of the pioneer missionary went out, not at the call of the Church, but at the call of the husband, with no promise of remuneration aside from the fabulous bridal endowment which the groom made at marriage “with all his worldly goods” and with no official rank to assure the preservation of her name on the roll of honour.
So it happens that the scanty reports from the early Siam mission seldom mentioned the name of Mrs. House. Yet one cannot read the letters of her husband without perceiving that she supplemented his educational work in a manner and to a degree that is worthy of special recognition. But apart from that, she succeeded finally in so organising and establishing female education in Siam that she has come to be regarded as the founder of permanent educational work for women in that country.
HER FAMILY AND EDUCATION
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.
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.