Cannon, Harriet Starr (1823–1896)

Superior of the first American Episcopal religious community. Born on May 7, 1823, in Charleston, South Carolina; died on April 5, 1896, in Peekskill, New York.

Harriet Starr Cannon, orphaned at 12 months, would later earn distinction for her work with poor children, prostitutes, homeless women and children, and orphans. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1823, she was raised by an aunt in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she was educated at local schools and received private instruction in music. In 1851, in her late 20s, Cannon moved in with her older sister in Brooklyn, New York, and gave music lessons to make a living. Her sister died only four years later, in 1855, and the loss to Cannon was great. In February 1856, she entered New York City's Episcopal Sisterhood of the Holy Communion, organized by Anne Ayres , and she became a full member in February of the following year. A ward in the recently established St. Luke's Hospital, which was staffed by the order, came under her charge in 1858; due to escalating disagreements with the rule of the order, however, she was asked to leave St. Luke's in 1863. Cannon was not alone in her opinion that the order's rule needed to be more traditionally monastic, and several others left with her.

Ayres, Anne (1816–1896)

Protestant religious. Name variations: Sister Anne. Born in London, England, on January 3, 1816; died at St. Luke's Hospital in New York, New York, on February 9, 1896; came to the United States in 1836.

In 1845, as Sister Anne, Anne Ayres became the first member of an American sisterhood in the Protestant Episcopal Church; she then founded the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion (1852), which was affiliated with the Church of the Holy Communion in New York City. The sisters did not wear habits and took vows, renewable in three-year terms, to remain celibate and to care for the poor.

In 1858, Ayres became the head of housekeeping and nursing at the newly constructed St. Luke's Hospital in New York. With William Augustus Muhlenberg, she also opened St. Johnland, a refuge for orphans, the homeless, and the handicapped, on Long Island in 1865. Ayres wrote Evangelical Sisterhood (1867) and Life of William Augustus Muhlenberg (1880).

In September, this small group was then invited by Bishop Horatio Potter to run the House of Mercy, a rescue house and reformatory for young women. The Sheltering Arms orphanage came under their care a year later, as did St. Barnabas' House for homeless women and children in February of 1865. In the same month, the informally associated sisters founded the first Episcopal religious community in the United States (1865), called the Community of St. Mary. Elected the community's first superior in September of 1865, Cannon took her life vows in February 1867.

The Roman-Catholic-like rule of Cannon's order prompted great suspicion, leading to the sisters' dismissal from both St. Barnabas' (1867) and Sheltering Arms (1870). Nonetheless, they proved successful with St. Mary's School in New York City (opened in 1868). The establishment of many helping institutions followed, including St. Gabriel's School in Peekskill, New York (1872), St. Mary's School in Memphis, Tennessee (1873), Kemper Hall in Kenosha, Wisconsin (1878), and St. Mary's Free Hospital for Poor Children in New York City (1870). Serving immigrant communities, city missions were established in New York (1880) and Chicago (1886). Also among the projects undertaken by Cannon's order was the management of the House of Mercy, a place of refuge for young prostitutes.

In her 70s, Harriet Starr Cannon died on April 5, 1896, at St. Mary's convent in Peekskill, New York.