Grace Hartley Howe
Posted on January 20, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT
Grace Hartley Howe (1874 – 1955)
First female postmaster in the U.S.
Horseneck Beach Cottage
Grace Hartley Howe, a cousin of the infamous Lizzie Borden, came into her fortune early, and was both a socialite and activist in Fall River and Washington. Howe’s father, Dr. James Hartley, died in 1897 and left her $30,000, plus income from his properties, under the stipulation that she have nothing to do with the Bordens, except for her mother Mary Borden Hartley.
Howe, an 1893 graduate of the Fall River High School, and a graduate of Vasser College, married Col. Louis McHenry Howe, private secretary and friend to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Howes were very close to both Franklin and Eleanor both in Washington and in Westport.
After Roosevelt contracted polio, prior to his presidency, he spent time with the Howes in their Westport summer cottage on Horseneck Beach where Roosevelt believed the hot sand and swimming in the ocean would help him in his illness. Those visits sometime with Elliot Roosevelt brought the two families even closer. Eleanor and Grace became close friends. The Howe cottage is written up in the Roosevelt Archives and Carlton Manchester, Jr. in Pa and I writes about his grandfather, Frank Taber, taken Roosevelt to the cottage about a mile west of Plantes’ Pavillion in the lates 1920s. After Louis Howe’s death, Grace spent much time at the Cottage with family and friends.
Grace was active in Fall River and was Fall River’s first female postmistress – a position she held for 15 years until her retirement in 1951.
She organized the Bristol County National Foundation for Infantile Paralysi in 1934. She served as a director of the Family Welfare Association, Fall River Historical Society, Ninth Street Day Nurservay and as trustee of the Pulib Library and Bristol County Agricultural School and Bradofr Durfee Technical Institute. She was active in Democratic Party politics throughout her adult life. In addition she was active in many other clubs.
Grace and Louis Howe had two children, Hartley Howe (who married Rosella Senders) and Mary Howe (who married Robert Baker, Sr.).