Posted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Kate Cory Grinnell (1850-1939) Namesake of Westport’s famous whaling brig burned by the confederate raider Alabama during the Civil War 2029 Main Road, Westport Point Kate Cory was five years old when the whaling ship built by her father A.H. Cory was launched in 1856. She is thought to have […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Janet Lansing Wicks Gillespie Grindley (1913-2005) Author Scotch Pine Lane and 1935 Main Road, Westport Point Jan was born Janet Lansing Wicks in East Orange, NJ in 1913. Her father Reverend Robert Russell Wicks later moved to Holyoke where she lived most of her childhood except for summers at Westport Point. […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Charlotte Fitch (1911–2011) Teacher 24 Cape Bial Lane, Westport Point Charlotte Hackstaff Fitch, born August 13, 1911, in Verona, NJ, died April 30, 2011, at her home in Westport Point, MA. Her parents were Frederick Douglass and Charlotte Hackstaff Waring. She lived in New Jersey until her career at Smith College […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Alice Gardner Esser (1869-1962) Owner of restaurant and boarding house 1834 Main Road, Westport Point Israel and Alice Gardner Esser came to Westport in the 1920s. Other than Stevens family who lived next door to them, they were the only family of color that lived on the Point. Their property served […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Helen E. Ellis (1889-1978) Woodcarver, historian 1874 Main Road, Westport Point Helen E. Ellis (1889-1978) is perhaps more notable for her contributions to historic preservation in New Bedford than here in Westport. She was not a historian in the traditional sense, but her appreciation of the past and her skills embraced […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Katherine “Kay” Noyes Trafford Earle (1900 – 1957) Community caretaker 11 Valentine Lane, and 143 Lower Drift Road, Westport Point Kay Trafford Earle was born in 1900 in Worcester, Ma, daughter of Charles A. Trafford (in the insurance business and born in Fall River) and Emily C. Gifford (born in […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Sarah Scudder Ashley Delano (1904-1994) Preservation activist 1838 Drift Road Sarah was born in Chicago in 1904, the daughter of William Marshall Scudder and Helen Rotch Swift. She summered in the south coast to visit her grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Rotch Swift, the daughter of William J. Rotch, Jr. of New Bedford. […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Georgia Perry Codin Benefactor to local artists 1980 Main Road, Westport Point Eldest of six children from the John Perry Westport farming family, Georgia Ann Perry Codin was born September 30, 1916 in Oakland, California. Early in life while attending Westport schools Georgia showed an aptitude for her artistic talents. While studying the arts in Boston […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Ruth Cadman (1762 –1845) Teacher 2032 Main Road, Westport Point Ruth was born in Newport, RI., the daughter of Christopher Cadman and Hannah Seabury. Ruth never married. Her older sister May married the wealthy merchant and whaler, Isaac Cory, Sr. in 1769 but many of the Cadman family kept their ties […]
Continue ReadingPosted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT Clara Buffum (1873-1938) Bookbinder 21 Cape Bial Lane, Westport Point Noted craftsman in the art of fine bookbinding, Clara Buffum bound many famous and valuable books including a first edition of Chaucer. Like a true craftsman, she scorned modern shortcuts in bookbindery and revived the ancient method of using the […]
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