Harriet C. Benedict was born around 1859 in Connecticut to Edwin and Cornelia Benedict. Her father was a carpenter who owned $800 of real estate and $200 of personal property by 1860. Her mother died on October 22, 1861, and her father married Mary E. Ambler soon afterward. Her father died on October 15, 1869, and by 1880, she was living with her aunt Emily Benedict in Newtown, Connecticut. She earned a living as a dressmaker. She and her aunt moved to Bethel, Connecticut, in the late 1800s, and she died there on August 12, 1909.