Helen Reed de Laporte

De Laporte was born Helen Reed in 1864 to Thomas Reed and Julia A. Van Keuren Reed. She was the great-granddaughter of Abram VanKeuren Jr., who owned Springbrook Farm.^[1] De Laporte grew up on the Springbrook estate, and her parents enlarged the main house several times.^[1] De Laporte later inherited the property and sold it to the Rhinebeck Realty & Development Company, who in turn sold it to the Dutchess County Agricultural Society.^[1]

She was educated at the DeGarmo Institute in Rhinebeck.^[2] She graduated from Vassar College in 1886.^[3]

De Laporte was an educator, employed as a teacher at the DeGarmo Institute.^[2] She was elected to serve on the Rhinebeck School Board, becoming the first woman to be elected to a board of education in Dutchess County.^[3]

She founded the Chancellor Livingston Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.^[3] In 1930, de Laporte deeded the General Richard and Janet Livingston Montgomery House to her chapter to be used as a meeting house and a museum.^[4][5] She served as a delegate to the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution's Continental Congress at Memorial Continental Hall in Washington, D.C. in April 1933.^[6]

De Laporte helped organize local Memorial Day observances in her town.^[7] She gave various addresses about preserving historical properties in the area and worked to establish family lines tracing back to patriots of the American Revolution.^[8][9]