This is a transcription of the Miss Harriett Eliza Daniels biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 187.
Harriett Eliza Daniels
IN these days of progress, when women are engaging in all lines of business activity, the woman who gives practical business instruction to others is especially worthy of recognition. Miss Harriett Eliza Daniels, of the Daniels and Downs private school for shorthand, book-keeping, etc., at Manchester, though a native of Massachusetts, has been a resident of Manchester since early childhood. She is the daughter of Joel and Eliza (Roach) Daniels, one of her ancestors being Asa Walker, of Ashby, Mass., a soldier of the Revolution. She was educated in the Manchester public schools, graduating from the High school with excellent rank. With a strong liking for business she became bookkeeper in her father’s store, but left this position for that of money-order clerk in the Manchester postoffice under Postmaster J. G. Dearborn, during President Cleveland’s first term, where she served efficiently and made many friends. While here engaged she took up the study of shorthand in her leisure moments, thoroughly mastering the Pitman system. On leaving the postoffice she took desk room with A. J. Lane, and opened an office for general stenographic work and typewriting. Her success was marked, and she determined to open a school of stenography and typewriting in connection with her business, receiving both young ladies and gentlemen as pupils, and in the spring of 1892, Mrs. Clara Bennett Downs was associated with her, and the present successful school established, giving thorough instruction in stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, and general business. It has been largely patronized, and many of its graduates are expert stenographers and accountants. Miss Daniels is characterized by remarkable energy and enterprise, and has been extensively engaged in court and general stenographic work. She was a founder of the Manchester Shorthand Club, has been secretary from its foundation in 1892, and was a member of the World’s Fair Auxiliary Corps, Congress of Stenographers. She is secretary of Ruth Chapter, No. 16, Order of the Eastern Star.