FDR Presidential Library and Museum

Mead Art Museum

National Archives and Records Administration

By Megan Gorman

Lobsters. Louie Howe was focused on the lobsters. As he sat down at his desk in the spring of 1924, he prepared to write another response to the attorney in Maine, Ensign Otis. He knew that despite everything going on, this business endeavor was important to the Boss. And right now, the Boss— otherwise known as Franklin Delano Roosevelt— was struggling to recover from polio.

There were 14 main providers of lobsters in the United States, but the group that had stood out to FDR was Witham Brothers Inc., who had a plant in Rockland, Maine. The Witham Brothers had

Left to right: Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy came from varied economic backgrounds and therefore had very different personal financial lives.

been in the business since 1912 and had not only consistently turned a profit, but their profits rose year after year. They were looking to expand and needed cash, and it seemed like a good deal at the outset. Not only did they have a strong balance sheet, but their lobsters had the reputation of being high quality.

Furthermore, the Witham Brothers had patented their containers that allowed them to ship lobsters as far as San Francisco. The deal FDR had put together in early 1921 was simple: he would invest in the lobster company and acquire shares for approximately $ 10,000.

This capital infusion would allow them to provide fresh lobsters all around the United States. But by having control of one the biggest lobster farms in the country, they were also hoping that they could make a profit when the price of lobsters went up.

And FDR enjoyed investing in start-up ideas. True, his record on investing wasn’ t that strong. He had lost money on something called General Air that sought to establish a dirigible airship service between

New York and Chicago. But this one, he had told Howe, was a good one. Unfortunately, six months after making the investment, FDR was stricken with polio.

Howe studied the letter from the company. At this point, three years in, it was not looking good. The Witham Brothers had misread the situation.

They ran their business as a consolidator of smaller lobstermen. These smaller lobstermen were used to being paid cash right away. They didn’ t have the patience or cash flow to wait for the price of lobsters to rise. This misjudgment of the workers, along with haphazard accounting, had made this investment a mess for Howe to clean up. And now the attorney shared the bad news:“ It is my opinion, after working up every outlook for assistance, that nothing can be worked out here that will come anywhere near getting Mr. Roosevelt’ s money back for him, and that he would receive no cooperation or consideration from the other creditors if he attempted to go ahead and work out their problems along with his own,” wrote Otis.

30 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Fall 2026 | www. MoAF. org