Harriette Eliza Cushman, born in 1890, grew up in New York State. At Cornell, she studied chemistry and bacteriology, then, in 1918, earned a poultry science degree from Rutgers University.

So, Harriette knew anything chicken—and turkey: the ideal approaches of breeding, culling, grading birds and eggs, housing, feeding, and overall health.

In 1922, the Montana extension service hired her as America’s initially female state poultry specialist. For 32 years, Harriette also employed education, economics, and advertising to considerably strengthen Montana’s poultry business.

Operating six and a half days a week and clocking up to ten,000 miles a year on trains about the state, Harriette taught Montanans ideal practices for increasing and promoting birds and eggs.

Early on, she helped develop a wholesale cooperative, garnering Montanans the ideal costs in the nation for turkeys and eggs. Harriette’s perform mattered specially through tough instances and specially for females.

Small by tiny, money from flocks permitted farmwives to make improvements for themselves and their households. It was Harriette who introduced poultry into four-H. And she was specially glad to perform on Montana’s Indian reservations.

In appreciation, the Blackfeet adopted her as a tribal member. When she grew old, Harriette invited close friends and colleagues in advance to collect right after her death AND to contribute in her honor to Indian education at Montana State.

Death came in 1978, and the celebration was a superior one particular. More than one hundred persons gathered to spend tribute to Harriette Cushman.