Hopedale History
May 2026
No. 451
The Debutante, The Dancer and Mr. Draper
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Twenty-five years ago – May 2001 – A Hamas suicide bomber kills six people in Netanya, Israel. The Israeli government responds with the first use of airstrikes against Palestine since 1967.
Sherpa Temba Tsheri, 15, becomes the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest
Fifty years ago – May 1976 – The Judgment of Paris pits French vs. California wines in a blind taste-test in Paris, France. California wines win the contest, surprising the wine world and opening the wine industry to newcomers in several countries.
President Gerald Ford defeats challenger Ronald Reagan in three Republican presidential primaries: Kentucky, Tennessee and Oregon.
One hundred years ago – May 1926 – Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett claim to be the first to fly over the North Pole. Both men are immediately hailed as national heroes, though some experts have since been skeptical of the claim, believing that the plane was unlikely to have covered the entire distance and back in that short an amount of time. An entry in Byrd’s diary, discovered in 1996, suggests that the plane actually turned back 150 miles short of the North Pole, due to an oil leak
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The Debutante, The Dancer and Mr. Draper
By Mike Cyr
Imagine if you would, Hopedale and Franklin 119 years ago.
The Draper Corporation was at an apex. The owners and powerful businessmen lived in elegantly designed and carefully crafted homes. Back then displays of wealth were subtle; well-tailored but conservative clothing. It was important to keep tradition over novelty. Those of us who lived in Hopedale in the Post Draper period saw the hallmarks of this lifestyle. We know a lot about the Draper Family and the infamous broken engagement of Bristow Draper and Alice Marjorie Ray. We don’t know very much about the jilted Miss Ray. The other thing we don’t realize is how really a big deal this breaking of the engagement was for Gilded Age, Victorian Society.
Franklin Massachusetts 1907. Meet the Ray Family. The Ray family is to Franklin what the Draper family was to Hopedale.
The Ray family dominated 19th and early 20th century Franklin. The family owned and operated numerous textile and textile related mills, with 14 mills in Franklin alone. In 1876 they established The American Woolen Company. Then in 1884 the family opened and operated the Franklin Water Company and in 1901 Ray Fabric Mills.
So just to be clear, this was not an engagement of two crazy kids whose parents are well off. This was a power merger, a US Gilded Age style of 14th Century European arranged marriages.
The wedding was to be performed at The Draper Memorial Church in Hopedale in June 1907. Preparations were extensive -trousseau, gifts, wide social attention. The couple had already approved plans and had begun construction on their Back Bay Mansion.
Then came March of 1907. The weather was typical spring, March the 1st was 14 while by the end of the month it was 71 with the winter’s snow lingering in small piles. Bristow Draper is in New York, no doubt conducting some business. Enjoying New York City entertainment away from the overbearing eyes of being in leading Boston Industrial and Political circles, Bristow found himself at Wallack’s Theater at 30th and Broadway and catching Sam Bernard’s Revue with a lineup of gorgeous female dancers including Miss Luana Queena Sanford. She used Queena as her stage name. The troupe would travel between NY, Boston and Chicago.
Was this a chance after show meeting? Or was this something that had been going on for a while?
This just has all the Hallmarks of a 1930’s movie, perhaps the basis of the movie “The Broadway Melody of 1929”. Remember Bristow and Alice did have an extended engagement.
Queena was born in Greenwich (Fairfield County) Connecticut on May 8th, 1885. Her parents were Frederick W Schnautz and Delia Caulfield.
Queena had joined a Vaudeville Group whose lead was Sam Bernard’s Revue. Sam Bernard was a major stage comedian from the 1890s to 1910s. He worked with the big show producers of the day like Flo Ziegfeld Jr.
The show that Bristow was seeing was this trip was “The Rich Mr. Hoggenheimer,” a musical farce about a wealthy comical character navigating through high society. Can anyone see Bristow in the character?
The scandal erupts! That last week in March 1907 Telegrams went out. Bristow is announcing that the wedding to Miss Ray of Franklin and Boston High Society is off and he has wed Miss Luana Queena Sanford of Vaudeville Fame and they have eloped! Imagine the shock, the shame.
The news went out over the wires all over the east. The scandal was nationwide!
Our two star-crossed lovers were not welcome to come back. They were banished to Seattle. Living in a “small cottage” and keeping out of the headlines.
After a fair amount time had passed the couple were allowed back to Hopedale and for those in Hopedale who knew Queena, she was always fondly spoken of for the kindnesses she showed during the Depression.
Alice Marjorie Ray seems to have just faded into obscurity. There were no future wedding announcements. It may take a trip to the Franklin Public Library to find out. As for Bristow, not only was he forgiven by his family, he eventually became the president of Draper Corporation.
As you saw above, Mike thought a trip to the Franklin Library would provide answers to what became of Alice Margery Ray. However, in spite of having been built by the Ray family and originally named the Ray Memorial Library, they had nothing on Alice and very little of the rest of the family. Mike continued his search online, and fortunately found a good deal about her life after Bristow. You’ll see that in the ezine for June.
Hopedale News – May 2001
Hopedale News – May 1976
Hopedale News – May 1926
