Martha Matilda Harper, the Greatest Businesswoman You’ve Never Heard Of
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Nearly 30 years before Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden launched their beauty brands, a former servant girl from Canada created the American hair salon industry, designed the first reclining salon chair, and went on to establish retail franchising as we know it today.
Born Sept 10, 1857 to Robert Harper and Beadie Gifford in Oakville, Ontario (Beadie was Robert’s third wife). Martha’s childhood was not a happy one. The family was ‘dirt’ poor. Many of the children born to Robert Harper did not surviving the birth process or died shortly thereafter.
When Martha was just seven years old, her father sent her away to be a servant to an uncle. She was sent 60 miles from home to begin a life of drudgery. At some point in time, Martha went to keep house for a German holistic doctor. This Dr. taught her his ideas of hair care. She embraced the doctor’s ideas and her own hair was the better for it. Before the gentleman died in 1881, he gave Harper his secret hair tonic formula.
1882 finds Harper immigrating to Rochester, New York; still as a servant for Luella Roberts, but she had a plan. Harper delighted her employer and Luella’s affluent friends with her hair skills and hair tonic. She worked as a servant for 25 years before she had saved enough money. In 1888 Harper used her life savings of $360 to open her first salon. That was the same year that G. Eastman launched Kodak in Rochester with $1 million in capital.
Martha designed the first reclining shampoo chair and for cutting the circle out of the sinks to rest the clients head. Among her customers were Alexander Graham Bell’s wife Mabel, Grace Coolidge and Bertha Honore Palmer. Ray Kroc of Mcdonald’s fame is credited with creating the franchising model - Harper beat him to it by 60 years.
Google Martha Matilda Harper to get the rest of the story, its fascinating. I’ve ordered a copy of her book.
SO—why did I choose to write about Martha? She’s related to the Ford, Peacock and Maxwell families from the White Lake/Furnace Falls area!
