Ida Harris

1875 - 1960

Ida was active in the Harvard Woman’s Club and in the Harvard Historical Society. She chaired a committee to gather material to update the history of Harvard from 1880 to 1940. That manuscript was only recently published.

Ida Harris was born Ida Augusta Hapgood on June 16, 1875, in Acton. She graduated from the Concord High and Training School and became a primary school teacher. In 1899 she married Elwyn Harris of Acton, and in 1928 the couple moved to 15 Old Littleton Road in Harvard. They also owned a large farm on Littleton County Road, where they cultivated apple orchards and raised poultry. They had no children.

Ida was active in the Harvard Woman’s Club and in the Harvard Historical Society. Starting in 1937, Ida chaired a committee of fellow members of the society whose mission was to update the history of Harvard and “preserve for posterity such material as is now available but which, with the passing of the present inhabitants, might be forever lost.” Collecting essays and records from different people on a wide variety of subjects took a number of years. For unknown reasons, the manuscript was never published until 2023, when former society president Joseph Theriault digitized the material and made it available for purchase.

Ida Harris died in 1960 and was buried with her husband at Mount Hope Cemetery in West Acton.