Mary Goodell Grant

Mary Goodell Grant (; July 9, 1857 – April 12, 1941) was a prominent socialite and local Denver civic leader who was also the first lady of Colorado during the Colorado governorship of her husband James Benton Grant.

Early life Born Mary Matteson Goodell in Joliet, Illinois, on July 9, 1857, she was the second-eldest of five daughters born to Roswell Eaton Goodell and Mary Matteson Goodell . Her maternal grandfather, Joel Aldrich Matteson, was a former governor of Illinois, who had just ended his tenure as governor months before her birth. Her maternal ancestry can be traced back to Mayflower pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Alden, who were her great-great-great grandparents through her maternal grandmother Mary Fish Matteson.

Her family were Protestants. While their personal home was in Joliet at this time, during part of her childhood, she and her family appear to have lived in the Springfield, Illinois, of her grandfather Joel Alrich Matteson, particularly in the period after the American Civil War. From 1870 until 1873, she and her family resided abroad in France and Dresden, Germany. When they returned in the United States, they moved to Chicago, Illinois. In Leadville, she and her four sisters attracted the attention of many eligible suiters. In their adulthood, she and her sisters, who were often collectively referred to as the "famous Goodell sisters", were notable figures in Colorado's social scene. They are considered to have been civic leaders in their own rights and each married a man of prominent stature. The sisters also received a reputation of beauty and fashionable dress. She also served as vice-president-general of the national organization of Daughters of the American Revolution from 1917 until 1920. She also held membership in Society of Mayflower Descendants, Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America, Descendants of Colonial Governors, and Daughters of 1812.

Grant was widowed on November 1, 1911. She continued to live in the oppulent house they had built until selling it in 1917 to Albert E. Humphreys and his wife, Alice Boyd. Grant remained in Denver and died there on April 12, 1941 in the company of her two sons. She was buried alongside her late husband at Denver's Fairmount Cemetery.