Hopedale History
June 2026
No. 452
Another Bride – Part Two
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Twenty-five years ago – June 2001 – Tropical Storm Allison hits Texas, severely flooding Houston and killing 23 people.
United Kingdom general election: Tony Blair and the Labour Party win a second landslide victory.
Germany enacts a program to compensate Holocaust survivors that were subject to slave labor.
Fifty years ago – June 1976 – The Boston Celtics defeat the Phoenix Suns 128–126 in triple overtime in Game 5 of the National Basketball Association Finals at the Boston Garden. In 1997, the game is selected by a panel of experts as the greatest of the NBA’s first 50 years.
Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the U.S. military, following the murder of the U.S. Ambassador.
One-hundred years ago – June 1926 – What is now known as the SAT— originally the Scholastic Aptitude Test— was administered to college and university applicants for the first time, with 8,040 students sitting for a standardized examination of their verbal and mathematical skills at more than 300 testing centers. The SAT had been prepared by a committee organized by the College Entrance Examination Board and headed by Princeton University psychologist Carl Brigham, with 315 questions that the students had 97 minutes to answer.
President Calvin Coolidge signed the Naval Aircraft Expansion bill into law, creating the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics to oversee the United States’ naval aviation forces.
News above is from Wikipedia. For Hopedale news from 25, 50 and 100 years ago see below this textbox.
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Another Bride, Another Groom,
Another Sunny Honeymoon
The Debutante, The Dancer and Mr. Draper
Part Two
By Mike Cyr
When we were last discussing the broken engagement of Mr. Bristow Draper and Miss Alice Ray, we talked about how the “Broken Betrothal” caused quite the Social Uproar. Before continuing with part two of our story, I really need to tie up some loose ends with Bristow and Queena.
In part one I had indicated that they had gone to Seattle. This gave rise to a few recollections that Bristow had only travelled as far as New Hampshire, where he worked as a regular floor operative. Indeed, both might be correct. If you noticed the final Newspaper article we included in part one near the end it was mentioned they were at the Savoy in Seattle. That article was from The Hagerstown Morning Herald Hagerstown MD on June 5th, 1907.
Dan has been doing some sleuthing work and found some references from The Woonsocket Call, where the couple headed west, undoubtingly, to let things cool down. They also tracked the couple down to NH or perhaps VT.
Here’s what some research has found. The Draper family did have ties to Seattle. Bristow’s younger brother, Eben Sumner Draper Jr. and some college friends joined an exploration vessel out of Seattle and headed for the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. Later in life, Eben explicitly returned to the city to marry a Seattle resident, Hazel Marjory Archibald, in 1926.
Quite often, when eastern high-society figures were suddenly disowned and traveling across the country during a scandal, they heavily relied on newly opened, premier luxury high-rises like the Savoy Hotel, which was actively marketing its modern amenities in 1907, as temporary residences or transit hubs before securing a more permanent housing arrangement.
Because of the intense media circus surrounding their March 1907 elopement, a trip to Seattle is about as far from Boston as you can get. The old saying that, “time heals all wounds”, may apply here. A short stay in Seattle, perhaps moving back a little closer to family while inching back into good graces. This appears to be the plan which Bristow and Queena carried out.
After a short time, the Draper’s moved to Burlington, VT. They took up residence within Burlington’s Hill Section, right near downtown. The address is 67 Buell Street. This was a typical Mill House for employees of a mill. The mill he was working for was Queen City Cotton Mill.
One of those interesting back stories is that Queen City Cotton Mills was a major customer of Bristow’s family business. In August 1894, the Draper Corporation shipped 729 of their revolutionary, newly invented “Northrop Looms” from Hopedale, Massachusetts, straight to the Queen City Cotton Mills. The Mill opened at 128 Lakeside Avenue in January 1895.
The Northrop looms were twice as productive as earlier looms, churning out sateen and cotton twill. To add to the drama, Bristow’s father was an actual corporate director and major investor in the Queen City Cotton Company! Somehow, Bristow managed to blend in entirely unrecognized by the local management.
Bristow to his credit worked as a regular laborer and mill hand. He spent over three years walking from his Buell Street home down to Lakeside Avenue, wearing overalls and jeans, carrying a lunch basket. He worked a 12-hour shift usually 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM for a weekly wage of $10.00 per week. The Burlington Sentinel noted that he managed to become a highly reliable spinner at the mill, despite starting with zero manual labor experience.
While living in anonymity in Vermont, Bristow and Queenie gave birth to their first child, Benjamin Helm Bristow Draper Jr., in early 1908.
Somehow news of the birth of a Grandchild reached Governor Eben Draper. In April 1909, The Governor made a surprise visit to the Buell Street home. Meeting his 15-month-old grandson broke the ice and initiated a slow family healing process. The Boston Sunday Post of April 25, 1909, wrote about the meeting with some literary license.
The unannounced arrival happened on a spring afternoon, Queenie was sitting on the “little vine-clad porch” of their rented cottage at 67 Buell Street, gently rocking her 15-month-old son, Benjamin Helm Bristow Draper Jr.
A carriage pulled up to the curb and out stepped the Governor of Massachusetts—a formal, imposing industrial tycoon. Queenie, who had been completely vilified by Boston high society, suddenly found herself face-to-face with her powerful father-in-law right on her own front porch. According to archived news dispatches preserved on hope1842.com, the initial meeting on the porch was incredibly tense. Governor Draper had originally vowed never to look at Queenie.
However, the sight of his grandson changed the dynamic. The group moved inside from the porch into the tiny, four-room cottage just as Bristow returned home from his shift at the mill, still wearing his grease-stained work clothes. It was here that the “Coo” That Ended the Feud occurred.
With the family gathered around the baby’s cradle, the 15-month-old baby looked up at his grandfather, smiled, and made a happy, unintelligible “baby coo” noise. The stiff, formal Governor leaned over the small crib. The ice broke entirely. Governor Draper and his wife reportedly burst into tears, immediately reached out to Queenie, and “rained kisses” on the baby.
Governor Draper publicly declared that by enduring years of hard, manual labor without complaining, Bristow had “proven his manhood.” The Governor officially blessed the marriage, restored Bristow’s inheritance, and welcomed Queenie into the family elite.
In June 1910, after more than three years of hard labor in the Vermont mills, Bristow was officially forgiven by his parents. The couple left Vermont and moved into the luxurious Westcott Cottage back in Hopedale, Massachusetts. Bristow rejoined the family business, eventually rising to become the President of Draper Corporation.
Now we must ask, “Whatever happened to Alice?” That question will be answered in the Hopedale history ezine for July.
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Hopedale News – June 2001
Hopedale News – June 1976
Hopedale News – June 1926
