Mary Hannah Sowle (1893-1955) 

WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT

Mary Hannah Sowle (1893-1955) 

2023 Main Road 

“Downtown Mary Sowle, the sea was in her blood” 

Mary Hannah Sowle (1893-1955) was born and died in Westport Point, Ma.  She was the daughter of Joseph Hicks Sowle and Clementine Manchester, both from prominent and sea-faring families.  Her great grandfather was Captain Barney Hicks, who was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.  Her two grandfathers were sea captains:  Captain George Manchester and Captain Edward Sowle.  Her uncle Captain Gideon Sowle was master of a whaling ship. 

Ms. Sowle went to the Moses Brown School in Providence where she roomed with Mary Hicks (Brown)who later married Percy Brown.  She did not go to high school.  Ms. Sowle never married, never held a job, and lived at her birth home all her life which is now 2023 Main Road and took care of her parents in their old age.  After the death of her parents, she took care of her aunt Emily Manchester in her home.  After they all died, she lived alone. She was known in her day as “downtown” Mary Hannah Sowle because Mary Almy Wing Sowle (1898-1981) was living in the “north” of the Point.  She is buried in Westport Point along with generations of her family. 

Ms. Sowle wrote with co-author Katherine Stanley Hall The Village of Westport Point which to this day is a reference book. 

Ms. Sowle was a teacher in Sunday School and very active at the Westport Point Methodist Church.