Whereas it is convenient that the location of this Community should be known by some appropriate
    name; and whereas we have been hoping anxiously for a home suitable to our wants, which now our
    heavenly Father has providentially granted us; and whereas hope in His wisdom and goodness in the
    great support of our souls in beginning and carrying forward our glorious enterprise for the regeneration
    of human society amid the contempt of scorners and the fears of doubting philanthropists, ---Therefore

    Resolved, That our location, formerly called "the Dale," afterwards "the Jones farm," and latterly "the
    Hastings Daniels place," be hereafter called, known, and distinguished by the name of Hope Dale.
    Resolves, Third Annual Meeting of the Hopedale Community, Millville, Massachusetts, August 26,
    1841.

    Dam at the mill pond by Route 140. Milford is
    on the right side and Hopedale is on the left.

Route 140 near the Hopedale-Milford town line.

    Entering Hopedale sign done by a Memorial School student.

Hopedale in June 2013

Memorial Day Parade   

Hopedale History Ezine for June 1 - Utopia to Company Town   

Hopedale History Ezine for June 15 - NEAAU Swim Meet at Hopedale Pond   

Hopedale History Ezine for July 1 - Adam Mesmeheimer   

Recent Pictures Menu 2013          HOME    


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    Above - Freedom Street.  On the right - Cemetery Street.  An
    1898 map shows eight duplexes on a no longer existing
    section of Union Street, west of the railroad track. As the Draper
    business boomed in the early twentieth century, they moved
    the Union Street houses to make room for expansion.. Seven
    went to Freedom Street and became known as the Seven
    Sisters. It appears that the eighth sister was moved a shorter
    distance and is sitting on the bend of Cemetery Street.
    Evidently the tracks also were moved west of the location
    shown on the map.

Well, I'll take their word for it and leave it alone.

    I was a bit surprised when I saw this turtle trap in Hopedale Pond on June 1. I saw a
    about five of them in the Quinsigamond River a few years ago, but this is the first
    time I've seen one in Hopedale. It was a few feet off of the little peninsula that sticks
    out into the water about half way up the pond. When I was there again on Monday,
    the 3rd, it was gone.

    If you'd like to get into the snapping turtle business, here's one paragraph on it from
    the Massachusetts law on the matter.

    Commercial Taking of Snapping Turtles: Snapping turtles may be taken from the
    wild in Massachusetts in accordance with a permit issued by MassWildlife. There is a
    fee for such a permit, and special conditions may be imposed. No Snapping Turtles
    taken under such a permit shall be less than 6 inches in carapace length. More.   

    Hopedale High graduation - June 1. Click here
    to see more of it on YouTube.

    The old brookway between Dutcher Street and the pond has been
    covered by a very substantial and permanent stone drain, at a
    considerable expense. Report of the Park Commissioners, 1902.

Windy Sunday - June 2 - Adin Street

    The Fresh-Water Sun-Fish, Bream, or Ruff, Pomotis vulgaris, as it were, without ancestry, without posterity,
    still represents the Fresh-Water Sun-Fish in nature. It is the most common of all, and seen on every urchin's
    string; a simple and inoffensive fish, whose nests are visible all along the shore, hollowed in the sand, over
    which it is steadily poised through the summer hours on waving fin. Sometimes there are twenty or thirty
    nests in the space of a few rods, two feet wide by half a foot in depth, and made with no little labor, the
    weeds being removed, and the sand shoved up on the sides, like a bowl. Here it may be seen early in
    summer assiduously brooding, and driving away minnows and larger fishes, even its own species, which
    would disturb its ova, pursuing them a few feet, and circling round swiftly to its nest again: the minnows, like
    young sharks, instantly entering the empty nests, meanwhile, and swallowing the spawn, which is attached
    to the weeds and to the bottom, on the sunny side. The spawn is exposed to so many dangers, that a very
    small proportion can ever become fishes, for beside being the constant prey of birds and fishes, a great
    many nests are made so near the shore, in shallow water, that they are left dry in a few days, as the river
    goes down. Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers.

    Early in the year, the playground was surveyed for two ball grounds, which were fitted with
    home plates and bases, and a tennis court was also laid out, and furnished with the best
    attainable posts and nets. Seats were later purchased for use both for this Park and the
    Ballou Park. A temporary band stand was placed on the playground lot, it being understood
    that later on, when the necessary changes in grade are made, a permanent band stand will
    be located on the lot across the road. Report of the Park Commissioners, 1901.

    The photo above was taken on June 4. As you can see in the Park Commission report, in
    the early years the entire park was often referred to as the playground. There's a photo that
    shows the temporary bandstand in the location where the present bandstand is, but
    evidently they were planning to put the permanent one on the other side of Dutcher Street.

June 8

    Neighboring towns pictures for June.
    Water over dams on the Blackstone
    River on June 8, after about four inches
    of rain the day before. Click here for
    more of high rivers on June 8.

    A groundhog family has been living under my
    shed. Maybe I'll be lucky and they'll be content
    just to eat the clover in the lawn. Maybe.

Fire Station - Flag Day

Work on the railroad crossing at Greene Street will be going on soon.

    June 14 - High water again on the Mill River.
    This view is by the Draper parking lot.

    Dump capping project - Click here for more.

    Earlier in the story, I mentioned the dump being my play yard. Today, if you go into the old dump
    area where the Little League field is now, that was the center of the dumping area. Just as you go
    into the dump now on the left, we had a ball field. My brother's group, ten years older, had made
    and abandoned it, so we took over. All the kids that lived in the Seven Sisters were excellent ball
    players from the ages of seven to sixteen. We played ball in the summer from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. We
    played non-stop, and everybody played. No supervision. We played, we argued, we had fistfights,
    and we played. When we had eight or ten kids, we'd pick sides and start to play. As a kid showed
    up, he would be placed on a team that was short-handed. When kids had to go home for lunch, or
    if their sisters would come and get them to go home, when they came back, the could be on the
    opposite team. At times there would only be four or five kids on a team, and sometimes there
    would be as many as sixteen to eighteen kids on one team. No relief players. We all played. Most
    of us learned a great lesson from this - how to stand up for yourself. If you got into a fight, when it
    was over, win or lose, we'd forget about it. We would go home still friends. Now the dump was my
    paradise. One afternoon around 5 p.m. all the kids had gone for supper. I had an hour to kill until
    the kids came back. I was ten years old. Without a father, I did pretty much what I wanted to do. I
    used to come out in summer at 8 a.m. and go home around 9 p.m. Draper had a steam whistle
    that blew every day at 8 a.m. when the factory opened. It also blew at 12 noon for lunch, at 1 p.m.
    when it was time to go back to work, and at 9 p.m.. The 9 p.m. whistle meant all kids sixteen and
    under had to be home, or on their way home. You could not hang out on the streets.

    To kill some time, I went big game hunting in the dump, killing rats with 10" x 10" pieces of steel.
    Drapers used to throw the pieces of steel away. You would throw them at the rats, trying to spear
    them. This was big sport for years. Some of the boys and a lot of men had .22 rifles and spent
    hours shooting rats. John Cembruch   

More high water in the area - Woonsocket Dam, Blackstone River.

    June 17 - While my son DJ was here he took a walk down by Hopedale
    Pond shortly after a thunderstorm and got the two photos above.

Downpour - June 18

    Hammond Road was the site of the last of the Draper Corporation housing developments. The houses were built
    there shortly after World War II. The street was named for Lowell Hammond, the first Hopedale serviceman killed in
    the war.

    HOPEDALE - May 12 [1942] - The horror of war and its frightful consequence became a stern reality to the entire
    community last night when the sad news was received of the killing on May 8, "somewhere in the Far East," of Lowell
    K. Hammond, 26, machine gunner on a light bomber, and son of Mr. and Mrs. Leon R. Hammond, 8 Union Street.

    The boy, the first war victim in this immediate section lost his life "in action" and "in defense of his country." The
    action is presumed to have taken place in Australia as Hammond was last heard from by his mother eight weeks
    ago when he wrote her that he had arrived there after a safe voyage. Milford Daily News - Click here for more.

    Track work between the Parklands entrance
    and the crossing at Freedom Street.