Hopedale History
    April 15, 2011
    No. 178
    Trees

    Hopedale in April   

    The UNIVAC at Draper, and a few of the early computer guys.

    Cotton Chats, 1953  Fishing at Nipmuc Rod & Gun, bowling, building the Hopedale Golf Course, and the
    Textileers.

    Here in the month of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War are pages on three Hopedale men who
    served in it.    General William F. Draper  (The Battle of the Wilderness).   Charles Johnson  (His burial in
    South Carolina and the stone with his name in the Hopedale Village Cemetery).   Gilbert Thompson  
    (Thompson served in the war, but the article is mainly about his life after it.)

    Since baseball season has started, I thought some of you would be interested in the Wikipedia article on Dick
    Bresciani.

    Eugene Newhall’s White Mountain vacation, 1910.   Newhall worked for Draper Corporation, served as
    president of the G&U RR, was the town tax collector from 1913 to 1947, was an active member of the
    Unitarian Parish, and was a trustee of the Community House.

    Here are a couple of links to interesting sites on child labor, sent by Karen Stevens.   Lewis Hine Project    
    Child labor in Winchendon     Yankee Magazine article on child labor in Winchendon        

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    Most of the trees mentioned in the 1966 Milford News article below were familiar to me. I well remember the
    huge elm on the Narducci yard on Northrop Street, that I passed daily, on my way to Park Street School, or the
    park or the pond. I also remember the elms of Dutcher Street, and of their decades of dying and being taken
    down. There are still some great beeches in the cemetery and elsewhere, and some gingkos on Adin Street.
    Katsura? That was a new one on me, but about two weeks after first reading of it in the article, I saw one at the
    park on Hill Street near the gym in Whitinsville.

                                                    Winter Has Been Kind to Many
                                                   Of Hopedale’s Cherished Trees

    So far, in spite of heavy snow, freezing cold, and bitter wind, most of the rare old trees in Hopedale have come
    through the winter with little damage, Tree Warden W. Chester Sanborn reports. There will undoubtedly be
    some damage before spring arrives, but this may be confined to the more common species of trees, the tree
    warden hopes. Homeowners know how much damage snow and ice can do to evergreens. The same
    problems hold true for heavier-branched trees.

    Among the town’s more unusual trees is a large white birch at the home of George Cadorette at 112 Dutcher
    Street, which is about three feet in diameter. Another is the large elm near the Nicholas Narducci home at 25
    Northrop Street, which has a spread of 115 feet. A tree in Town Park located in center field off the baseball
    diamond is also a huge, branch spreading type. Several times in past years the Park Commissioners have
    been requested to remove it because of interference with baseballs.

    There is a spreading red beech tree at the Village Cemetery said to have been imported from Italy and of
    which there are not many of its size and beauty in the area.

    Sanborn points out the katsura tree on the property of Mrs. Carlton Scott at 37 Adin Street is the only one of its
    kind outside the Arnold Arboretum. Others rarely seen are the gingko trees on the properties of William
    Gannett (36 Adin at that time), the former Dr. John Coniaris place (41 Adin Street), and the Graceland
    Convalescent Home on Adin Street. (The house at the corner of Adin and Dutcher.) Sanborn also said he had
    planted two of this type in town park and at the Edwin Howard property at 116 Adin Street. Another, he said, not
    seen too frequently is the hop hornbeam at the John Hutchinson yard at 50 Freedom Street.

    One of Hopedale’s finest displays of trees, now dwindling because of the Dutch elm disease, are the stately
    elms on Dutcher Street, which at one time numbered 147 and spanned both sides of the street from Adin
    Street to the Cape road. Thirty-seven of these trees were removed when the highway was widened from the
    upper section two years ago.

    Adin Street, another one of this town’s pretty sights, running from the Milford line into the town’s center, is
    shaded by many maples. These, too, are showing the effects of verticillum wilt caused by the drought.

    Sanborn as the town’s veteran tree warden keeps a wary eye on the town’s trees, especially during the winter
    season. His diligent work, knowledge, and wide experience in this field has saved many of Hopedale’s trees
    over the past 20 years. Milford Daily News, February 4, 1966   

                      
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Katsura tree - Whitinsville