By Bill Kleppel
Another treasure was found while sifting through the miscellaneous files of the History Rooms at the Adriance Memorial Library. Today, I’ll introduce you to a local outspoken suffragette and social reformer who ran her own dairy cattle farm. Her previously unearthed memoir was written in the year before her death at the age of 89.
The document gives us a glimpse into her astounding life, as well as her family’s fascinating history. Yet, most of the story is dedicated to her crusade to take down crooked financial swindlers before, during, and after the great Stock Market Crash of 1929.
Her name was Grace Roberts.
Grace Van Braam Roberts was born on May 12, 1869 to Dr. Charles Henry Roberts, a prominent Poughkeepsie dentist, and Katherine Aymer Freeman, in the town of Lloyd, New York, located in Ulster County. She was a graduate of Vassar College.
In 1890, Grace founded Ulsterdorp Farms on her father’s estate in Lloyd. Soon afterward, she created the Halfway House Dairy Farm. This is where she developed her lifelong interest in cattle ranching. She would continue to manage the dairy farm until two months before her death in 1958.
Grace was a member of the Ulster County Branch of the American Woman Suffrage Association. In the 1920s & 1930s, she was Chairman of the New York State Women’s Committee for Law Enforcement. This organization was crucial in helping enforce Prohibition laws.
She was the founder of the Highland Public Library, and a founder of the School Nurse Service of Highland. Grace also spent time as the Town of Lloyd School Board President. She was a member of the Daughters of Cincinnati, Colonial Dames, Colony Club of New York, and the American Jersey Cattle Club.
Grace is a descendent of Colonel Owen Roberts, an Englishman who fought for the American Revolution while living in South Carolina. As a member of the 4th South Carolina Continental Regiment in 1779, Colonel Roberts had his leg shot off in the Battle of Stono Ferry, just outside Charleston. He died soon after in the presence of his son, Major Richard Brooks Roberts, who fought for independence for the remainder of the war.
Her maternal great-great-grandfather, Everadus Van Braam, was an 18th Century diplomat who represented the Dutch East India Company in China. Later in life, he was instrumental in the settlement of the colony of New Jersey.
The memoir begins with Grace and her brother, Owen Roberts, sitting at the Stanford White designed Metropolitan Club on Fifth Avenue and 60th Street in New York City. The two siblings were having lunch while discussing business and the buying and selling of stock.
Grace lived for a time at two addresses in New York City and enjoyed her life there. She resided at 550 Park Avenue and 20 East 68th Street. Grace reminisces of her love for great steamships and how she watched them cross into New York Harbor from the windows of tall buildings in lower Manhattan.
Grace was given her first stocks by her father at the age of nine (Ontario & Western, and Chesapeake & Ohio). She learned to track and monitor them as they matured and gained in value. She recognized their importance at an early age and trusted the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
It was to her consternation, during the 1920s, that she became a victim of improprieties by the powerful brokerage house Hayden, Stone & Co.
Grace tells the story of her broker’s insistence to purchase stock (Atlantic Gulf and West Indies), while he knew this company was failing rapidly. Both branches of the brokerage firm, New York and Boston, performed this swindle of selling “house stock” to customers, while knowing full well of the company’s certain demise.
Grace was implored by friends and relatives to let the matter go, even after Hayden, Stone & Co.’s wrongdoing was apparent. Yet, she persisted in taking the firm to court. She gave testimony to a Senate sub-committee in Washington, D.C. regarding bad practices perpetuated by members of the NYSE, and eventually won her court case. She was given $16,000 in restitution.
Grace continued her battles with the NYSE for over 12 years. In a Time magazine article during the D.C. hearings, from July 4, 1932, she was described as “… no ordinary sheared bleating lamb, but a shrewd woman who was once a very active trader…” The article continued by recognizing Grace Roberts as, “…a woman who would leave no Hayden, Stones unturned.”*
Much more detail about Grace Roberts crusade against the NYSE are within the pages of this engrossing memoir. What is just as exciting are the people who make appearances throughout her family’s story and her own. Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph Kennedy Sr., Judge Alton B. Parker, and many more are mentioned.
Grace Roberts’s memoir, as well as other significant finds from our miscellaneous history files, will be made available to the public. They add to the riches that make up our Local History Rooms, so please stop by and explore along with us.
References:
Roberts, Grace. “Written by Grace Roberts During the Last Year of Her Life; Age 89.” Adriance Memorial Library.
*“Business: Adjourned.” Time, Time Inc., 4 July 1932, content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,743938,00.html.
Grace Roberts Memoir JPEG Photos
- Grace Roberts as a young woman from Vail Brothers Photography Studio Collection
- Grace Roberts as a child with unidentified boy from Vail Brothers Photography Studio Collection
“Grace van Braam Roberts (1869-1958) - Find a...” Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/224862705/grace-van_braam-roberts. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.
The New York Times. (1958, Jul 29). GRACE ROBERTS, 89, FORM_ER' SUFFRAGIST. New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/grace-roberts-89-form-er-suffragist/docview/114433268/se-2
Robert Family Crypt, Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery
Author Photo; 2023