October 15, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, focusing on philanthropist, entrepreneur, economist, business theorist, historian, and founder of Babson College, Roger Ward Babson. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue my series on “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who,” featuring millionaire philanthropist, entrepreneur, economist, business theorist, historian, and founder of Babson College, Roger Ward Babson (1875-1967). He was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to prosperous merchant Nathaniel Babson and Ellen (Stearns) Babson.
This photo collage shows: (top) Roger Ward Babson during three phases of his life; (bottom) one of the inspirational messages Babson had carved on boulders at Dogtown in Cape Ann, Massachusetts, during the era of the Great Depression.
Roger has a double line connecting to Mayflower passengers John Howland and his wife Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland, who sailed over with her parents John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley.
Here is a photo of the replacement John Howland gravestone which includes the correction that Howland “married Elizabeth, daughter of John Tilley.” Leon H. Abdalian, photographer. Credit: Boston Public Library, courtesy of Digital Commonwealth.
Roger Ward Babson’s Lineage:
- John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley
- Desire Howland and John Gorham
- John Gorham and Mary Otis, daughter of John Otis and Mary Jacob
- Shubael Gorham and Mary Thatcher, daughter of John Thather and Lydia Gorham, daughter of John Gorham and Desire Howland, daughter of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley
- John Gorham and Elizabeth Allyn, daughter of James Allyn and Susanna Lewes
- Elizabeth Gorham and Daniel Rogers, son of John Rogers and Susannah Whipple
- Lucy Rogers and John Low, son of John Low and Sarah Gee
- Elizabeth Gorham Low and Nathaniel Babson, son of William Babson and Ann “Nancy” Rogers
- Gustavus Babson and Susanna Stanwood “Susan” Low, daughter of Capt. David Low and Lucy Bennett
- Nathaniel Babson and Ellen Frances Stearns, daughter of Granville A. Stearns and Frances Maria Wise, and a direct descendant of Isaac Stearns (1596-1671) and Mary Barker (1604-1677), passengers on the Arabella, who settled Watertown, Mass.; her grandmother was Mary Putnam (1799-1839), a descendent of Thomas Putnam, notorious figure of the Salem Witch Trials, who married Hiram Stearns (1802-1892)
- Roger Ward Babson married on 29 March 1900 Grace Margaret Knight, daughter of Rev. Richard Knight and Jane Cummings. He married 2nd on 1 June 1957 Nona Margaret Dougherty, daughter of Daniel Dougherty and Ellen Kellecher
Here are photos of the cenotaph placed at Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, erected by the Pilgrim John Howland Society in 1958, memorializing the children of Mayflower passengers John and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland.
Like his ingenious ancestors, Roger Babson found ways to make his own coin. In January 1956 an article entitled “What I See for 1956,” written by the 80-year-old economic genie, ran in many newspapers in the country.
Roger Ward Babson, aka “The Seer of Wellesley Hills,” a true Yankee genius, made more money out of statistics than anyone else in the United States. He pioneered the field of investment guidance, and predicted the 1929 stock market crash.
He tells readers he preferred pedaling vegetables over playing as a young child, and when tuberculous struck him he never let that interfere with his budding enterprise.
In the Sarasota Herald-Tribune article, Babson talks about his business models and how he incorporated Newton’s law of action and reaction into many of his personal and business endeavors. This article reports:
With his wife, the indomitable Yankee went on to found Babson’s Reports and the non-profit Babson Institute in Wellesley, Mass. These organizations preach their founders’ view that prosperity inevitably gives way to depression, that patience is the key in both financial and family affairs, and that there is no substitute for thrift. Indeed, one of Babson’s books is titled, “Twenty Ways to Save Money.”
The accompanying article presents Babson’s outlook on America’s economic situation; but he maintains extraordinary interests in other subjects, too. For example, he founded the Gravity Research Foundation at New Boston, N.H., in the belief that gravity can be overcome and its powers harnessed in public utilities.
(Read more from the New Boston Historical Society.)
In 2019 Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, unveiled a life-size statue of Roger W. Babson that welcomes everyone entering the new Centennial Park located on the campus.
Babson was a notable figure in Cape Ann, Massachusetts, for his preservation of the abandoned village of Dogtown. He commissioned Finnish stonemasons to carve words of inspiration and advice into the boulders dotting the area during the Great Depression.
Also, numbers were inscribed on rocks near some of the old Dogtown cellars with an accompanying map to identify the families that once lived there. However, Babson found himself in a drama battle from one Yankee lady still residing in the area…
Stay tuned!
Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.
Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Related Articles: