Hopedale Pond in April 2015   

    Hopedale High baseball team, 1927   

    Now and Then - O'Grady's Mobile Station   
     
    During the past two weeks, additions have been made to the following pages: Adin Ballou (Milford News
    obituary.)     Park Street School (Building Committee report, my memories, etc.)     Milford, 1890 (Article from
    the Massachusetts Gazetteer.)     The "Iceout" (The date when the ice was gone from the lower end of
    Hopedale Pond.)      Deaths   
     
                                                        <><><><><><><><><><>

    About 50 couples attended the private dancing party in Town Hall Saturday, for which Collin's orchestra
    furnished music. The hall was beautifully decorated with palms and cut flowers from the conservatory of
    Eben S. Draper and the affair proved one of the most successful and enjoyable of the season. Milford Daily
    News, December 13, 1912.

    Rushing from his bench at the Draper Corp. plant yesterday, John Stanas, one of New England's finest
    swimmers, rescued a five year old boy clinging to the side of a capsized canoe. Milford Daily News, June 22,
    1933

                                                         <><><><><><><><><><>

                                                              Hopedale, 1915

    It appears that Hopedale in 1915 was a booming town. It had been nearly twenty years since the Draper
    Company (which became the Draper Corporation in 1916) had sold its first Northrop looms, and demand for
    them was high. We can get a few hints about the town back then from the town report for that year.

    Town reports in the early years generally included a few pictures, and for 1915 there were front and rear
    views of the recently completed Park Street School. There were also three floor plans of the building. The
    increased Draper business had resulted in the company building homes on Maple Street, Jones Road,  Oak
    Street,  Lower Jones Road, Inman Street, Elm Street, Beech Street, in the previous several years. (The word
    "Lower" wasn't added to Jones Road for many years. They were sometimes referred to as North Jones and
    South Jones, with the expectation that they would eventually be joined.) The need for more classroom space
    after all of that home building had been met by the Park Street School.

    The selectmen in 1915 were Edwin Darling, Lewis Gaskill and Samuel Kellogg. They were also Overseers
    of the Poor, the Board of Health and the Fence Viewers. Darling was an amateur photographer and several
    albums and about 100 of his glass negatives were donated to the Bancroft Library by Hester Chilson some
    years ago. Gaskill was a selectman for many years, perhaps so that South Hopedale (although known then
    and for years after as South Milford) would be represented. Sam Kellogg may have been the best known
    man in town. The best known whose last name didn't begin with D, anyway. There were some years when,
    at the same time, he was police chief, fire chief, and highway superintendent.

    In 1915, Sam Kellogg had thirty-seven policemen under him. The report for that year doesn't indicate which
    of them, if any, were full time and which were auxiliaries. It may have been that none of them were full time.
    After the big strike at the Draper Company two years earlier, the main concern must have been to have plenty
    of police available in case of another such dispute.

    Some of the town positions listed in 1915 no longer exist. We still have a tree warden, but a century ago, in
    addition to that, there was a forest warden, a surveyor of lumber, and five measurers of wood and bark.
    There were also three field drivers, three engineers of the fire department, a fire policeman, four public
    weighers, two weighers of coal, an inspector of cattle and slaughtering, an inspector of meats and
    provisions, a burial agent for deceased soldiers and sailors, a superintendent of gypsy and brown tail moth
    extermination, and an agent of the Board of Health to sign burial permits.

    Among the items on the Town Warrant that year, and for many years before and after, was ,"Shall licenses be
    granted in this Town for the sale of intoxicating liquors?"  The vote was Yes, 3 -  No, 84. Hopedale remained
    a "dry town"  until 1970.Two other articles were for appropriating money for furnishing and landscaping the
    new school. Other articles concerned pay for damages resulting from the building of the new streets,
    resurfacing of Hopedale Street,  the perennial need to repair the Hope Street bridge, and matters connected
    to the proposed new fire station on Dutcher Street. It was also voted to authorize a street light on Daniels
    Street and "...the sum of $22.50 be raised and appropriated therefor."

    Because of the building of the new school, the Park Commission was considering creating a new opening
    in the town park wall on Northrop Street. They had also received requests for the construction of a third
    tennis court. Their budget included an expense of $40.68 for bird feed. The chestnut blight was taking a toll
    in the Parklands, and many of the trees were taken down. The total number of swimmers recorded at the
    pond was 7,103.  

    Anna Bancroft presented the Bancroft Library with a Victrola which was used for some years for Sunday
    afternoon concerts at the library. Her sister, Lura Bancroft Day, left $25,000 to the library in her will.
    The Board of Health had $300 in their budget, but spent only $100.93. The Overseers of the Poor had a
    $2000 budget. $742.76 was left at the end of the year.

    Among other things, F.G. Atwell, the superintendent of schools, included several paragraphs in his report
    about smoking by boys, three pages on inefficiency in education, and a few paragraphs on the Washington
    trip. Warren Gaskill, the truant officer, reported six cases of truancy. There were eight members of the
    graduating class. Among the names that would still be familiar to some were Mort Dennett, who was town
    clerk for many years, and Raymond Piper, who was killed in France when his plane crashed during the
    summer following the end of World War I. Dennett's name survives at the Griffin-Dennett Apartments, and
    Piper's name is on the veteran's memorial at Hopedale Village Cemetery.

                                                                  
Ezine Menu                                 HOME   

Deer near Mendon Street - April 6.

    They were okay with an income tax,
    but not with votes for women.