Harriet F. Nevins
| Harriet Nevins | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1841 Boston, MA |
| Died | November 14, 1929 (88) Methuen, MA |
| Occupation | Philanthropist |
| Spouse(s) | David Nevins, Jr. |
| Children | Elise Nevins Morgan, Hiram Appleman |
Harriet Francoeur Nevins née Blackburn, (1841–1929) (her name also appears in print as "Harriette"), was an American philanthropist and animal rights activist born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Widow of David Nevins, Jr., she used her inheritance to leave a legacy to the people of the Bay State. She died November 14, 1929 at her home in Methuen, Massachusetts.
Harriet Nevins' father George Blackburn, was born in Bradford, England, there he learned the trade of mill machining. At nineteen he was part of a group of men sent to the United States to work in the developing industry. He worked at the mills in Webster, Massachusetts and in the Fitchburg Duck Mills. He married Nancy Hill Bugbee of Wrentham and they had three children: George, William Henry, and Harriet. By 1861, Blackburn had partnered with David Nevins, Sr. to rebuild the recently destroyed Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
In April 1862, 18-year-old Harriet married 22-year-old David Nevins, Jr. David Jr. and his brother increased the Nevins family fortune in the industrial boom of the late 19th century, and the couple moved to South Framingham.
Unfortunately none of their children survived to adulthood, but the couple did act as a guardian to a boy named Hiram Appleman, who later became a minister and adopted a young girl;Elise Nevins would later marry William Finley Morgan of Boston and go on to author books of a religious nature.
In 1894 David Nevins, Jr. built an elegant colonial revival shingle–style home on Nantucket for their summer retreat.
David Nevins Sr. died in 1881, and in 1890 Harriet and David Jr. moved to Boston to live with his mother, Eliza. For five years, the couple took care of Eliza in her Beacon Street home, but in 1895 the 78-year-old matron died. Three years later in 1898 David Jr. died while on a trip to Europe, leaving a 57-year-old Harriet a wealthy widow. Shortly afterward Harriet moved to the family farm in Methuen, which sister-in-law Julia had left after her husband Henry Nevin’s death in 1892.
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