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Mary Rotch

A leading intellectual and deep religious thinker, Mary Rotch (1777-1848) remained true to her belief in the Light Within.

Marian Shaw Smith

Marian Shaw Smith (1866-1913) sailed the worldโ€™s oceans as a whaling captainโ€™s wife, log keeper, photographer, navigator, correspondent, and business partner.

Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard

A distant cousin of Nathaniel Hawthorne, prolific writer Elizabeth Stoddard (1823-1902) was born in Mattapoisett.

Elizabeth Taber

Known as โ€œMarionโ€™s Fairy Godmother,โ€ Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Taber (1791-1888) became the townโ€™s most significant benefactress.

Mary Ann Hathaway Tripp

The first American woman to visit China and one of the first to circumnavigate the globe, Fairhavenโ€™s Mary Ann Hathaway Tripp (1810-1906) sailed with her husband, Captain Lemuel Carver Tripp, on several merchant voyages between 1833 and 1845.

Florence Waite

The humble philanthropist Florence Waite (1861-1946) left the bulk of her estate worth more than $7.5 million in todayโ€™s dollars to be carefully distributed among more than 20 hometown organizations, many of which she had helped for decades.

Helen Worthing Webster

A pioneering doctor and champion of physical activity for women, New Bedfordโ€™s Helen Worthing Webster (1837-1904) graduated from New England Female Medical College in Boston as a Doctor of Medicine.

Charlotte White

Charlotte White (1775?-1861), born to a Wampanoag Native American and a former slave, connected with the Native American and African American communities, worked for poor relief, and practiced folk medicine and midwifery during her lifetime in Westport.
Sylvia Ann Howland Green Wilks

Sylvia Ann Howland Green Wilks

Like mother, not so much like daughter. Sylvia Ann Howland Green Wilks (1871-1951), daughter of infamously miserly Hetty Green, willed the bulk of her inheritance to libraries, hospitals and other charities. Although she developed many of her motherโ€™s idiosyncrasies, Sylviaโ€™s final philanthropy allowed most of her motherโ€™s fortune to ultimately work for good.

Betsey B. Winslow

A New Bedford teacher for more than 20 years, Betsey Baldwin Winslow (1836-1925) was elected to the New Bedford School Committee, serving in that capacity for nearly 39 years โ€“ the longest serving member in the history of the School Department.
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