Hopedale History Ezine for April 2026

Hopedale History
April 2026
No. 450
Draper Company, 1915

Hopedale in April  

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Twenty-five years ago – April 2001 – Israel occupies an area in the Gaza Strip, killing two people. Israeli forces withdraw the same day after the United States denounces the attack.

The Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-32 lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the first space tourist, American entrepreneur Dennis Tito, and two Russian cosmonauts.

Fifty years ago – April 1976 – Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in California.

The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson‘s 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

One-hundred years ago – April 1926 – An assassination attempt against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini fails.

Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party, for the next five years.

Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran, under the name “Pahlevi.”

News items on this page are from Wikipedia. For Hopedale news from 25, 50 and 100 years ago, see below this textbox.

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Draper Company, 1915

Milford Daily News

In an extend article on the Draper Company of Hopedale, printed this morning in the Boston Globe, a deal of information relative to the company’s standing is given, together with some points of its history and financial success.

Fifteen years ago, or even 10 years ago, the Globe says, the Draper Co., the most successful manufacturers of cotton machinery, and one of the largest in the world was a tight little property, in which the prosperity was shared only by the Draper family and others in a slightly larger circle of famous Hopedale inventors and innovators.

Within 10 years, however, the circle has grown and today the steady production of Northrop looms by the Draper Co. is bringing handsome returns to approximately 500 stockholders, most of whom live in Massachusetts.

The holders of the $2,000,000 preferred stock receive regularly 8 percent yearly, and holders of the $6,000,000 common stock have received dividends averaging about 20 percent annually for many years, but at present are receiving quarterly dividends of only 3 percent. The common stockholders, however, were made glad with a 25 percent extra cash dividend last year.

The Draper Co. is now conducting the great loomage business in a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Maine in 1896, the first of the following year taking over the business which had been under the control of former Hopedale firms – the Hopedale Machine Co., the Hopedale Machine Screw Co., the Dutcher Temple Co., and George Draper & Sons.

There is much historical data, and then the article goes on to say:

“Hopedale, after some little legislative debate, (actually it was a really big deal) was made a town distinct from Milford, and it is now a town built around the Draper plant and the Draper estates. The company has at different times made large layouts on houses for employees. Beginning in 1900, the company made a complete reconstruction of the plant, bringing all the buildings into a connected group, with central power and transportation facilities. Only the wood-working plant and the pattern safe are isolated from the main group for reasons of fire protection. The entire plant covers about 20 acres.

“According to a statement of the Draper Co. made last January, there are in the United States, including orders received up to date, 269,680 Northrop looms. Of the looms installed up to last year, nearly 140,000 are in the southern states, and in this section of the country the proportion of Northrop looms compared with other looms installed is larger than the proportion in other sections. South Carolina, with 75,062 of these looms last year, had more than a quarter of the total number installed.

“In New England there were 108,045 Northrop looms last year, and in the middle and western states, 12,188. In the northern section of the country, the proportion of other looms replaced by Northrop looms has been of recent years about 75 percent of the total installments in that section.

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