Series looks at Hopedale in 1920s

George Albert Draper was the last of the three Draper brothers who had built up the company they inherited from their father when he passed in 1923. No doubt his finances were quite complicated, so it wasn’t until 1926 when the Milford Gazette reported the following:

“Accounts of the Boston First National Bank, recently filed at Worcester Probate Court as trustee under the will of the late George Albert Draper show a fund of $3,210, 531 [according to an inflation calculator, that would now have the purchasing power of $60,107,417] for the benefit of Helen Draper Ayer and a fund of $1,957,894 [$36,655,603 today] for the benefit of Wickliffe P. Draper.”

Other happenings significant enough to print in the Gazette that year include:

“A score of friends tendered Clayton Stevens (8 Soward Street) a necktie social Tuesday evening in celebration of his 17th birthday.”

“Principal W.A. Dennett (5 Dennett Street) and several pupils of the high school inspected Harvard College Saturday morning and attended the Harvard – Holy Cross football game in the afternoon.”

“A house call was sounded on the fire alarm Monday evening to search for John Nicholson (18 Prospect Street) who had been missing since morning. The boy was found in the woods back of the Hopedale House.”

 “Harry C. Steele (125 Hopedale Street), a well-known tenor soloist, and Mrs. Ethel Merryman, also of this town (not in street listing book) were arrested in Maine Saturday, when a check on the Fidelity Trust Co. went to protest. They were arraigned in Portland Monday, and the case was continued to give the authorities further time for investigation.”

“Notices have been posted at the Draper plant that all departments will operate tomorrow morning and that in the future the five full day per week schedule will be discontinued for the old 5 ½ day schedule. The plant was shut down yesterday but is in full operation today. With the resumption of the old schedule, pay day will be Saturday morning.”

Dan Malloy is the founder of www.hope1842.com, a website devoted to the history of Hopedale.