Below - Hopedale High Class of 1909.

    Hopedale Has Become Hoops Heaven - Milford News article on HHS girls' basketball.

    What’s this gizmo?   

    Julius Firmin – Growing up in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire  

    I’ve made additions during the past two weeks to Hopedale Pharmacy Little League teams, 1950s.    
    Ezine Menu       Draper Gym     

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    Twenty-five years ago – March 1988 –  George H. W. Bush defeats Robert Dole in numerous
    primaries on Super Tuesday.

    Jesse Jackson becomes temporary Democratic presidential front-runner when he defeats Michael
    Dukakis in Michigan caucuses.

    Iraqi forces in Kurdistan kill and injure thousands in gas attack.

    Fifty years ago – March 1963 - Wesley Burton named fund chairman of Hopedale Combined
    Charities. General chairman is James Ronan. Other officers include Robert Metcalf, Charles
    Mongeon, John McKeon and Mrs. John Coniaris.

    C. Victor Pepper defeats Zeny Dec in selectman contest. Nancy Gannett retains seat on school
    committee.

    Lee Harvey Oswald, using the name of "A. Hidell", mailed a money order in the amount of $21.45 to
    Klein's Sporting Goods of Chicago, along with a coupon clipped from the February 1963 issue of
    American Rifleman magazine, to purchase a rifle that would be used eight months later to kill
    President John F. Kennedy

    Ernesto Miranda arrested on rape charge. Case results in the 1966 Supreme Court Miranda “right to
    remain silent” decision. (Miranda was retried and convicted. He was paroled in 1972 and stabbed to
    death in 1976.)

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                                   Report of the School Superintendent, 1909

    The loss of good teachers is always regrettable, but certain to occur when Cupid or higher salaries
    bid for favor. At the end of the school year, four efficient and highly regarded teachers resigned for one
    or the other of these reasons.

    Many of our pupils are engaged in various lines of industrial activity which seem safe and sane
    regardless of what the final solution of the problem of industrial education may be. The ninth grade
    pupils have a typewriter which is available for use whenever they have time to devote to it. By the end
    of the year probably two-thirds of them will have acquired a fair working knowledge of the machine.
    A printing outfit, costing about two hundred and fifty dollars, has been installed, and it is confidently
    expected that the results will justify the expenditure. Miss Smith has fitted herself to give instruction in
    the essentials of the art of printing, and the pupils, both boys and girls, are making fine progress.
    Both the printing and the typewriting tend to improve the work in English. They cultivate neatness,
    accuracy and skill. They appeal to the mechanical tastes, especially of the boys. There is also a
    sense of the useful and a suggestion of business which may prove valuable as a seasoning for
    some of the more abstract subjects.

    In the spring, Miss Smith organized a group of pupils to carry on a flower mission garden. The plan
    and purpose were alike commendable, but none of us quite appreciated the magnitude of the
    undertaking, Nevertheless, many beautiful flowers were sent to the sick, both at home and in the
    Milford Hospital as well as to other friends more remote. A food sale was held in the fall, which netted
    forty dollars with which to carry on the work next season.

    The division of basketry has done good work under the leadership of Miss Thayer. The occupation
    proved interesting and profitable. It was not easy to secure trained assistants for this kind of work, but
    Miss Thayer has since been giving instructions to a class of ladies, and it is understood that they
    have kindly consented to help her organize and conduct the work after the manner of the sewing class.
    The sewing class was organized by a committee of ladies of which Mrs. Dutcher is chairman. This is
    the largest group of workers, comprising about sixty girls. Miss Edith Badger of the domestic science
    department of Framingham Normal School was secured as instructor, and seven ladies are very
    kindly assisting in this work, each having immediate supervision of six or eight girls.

    The stamp savings system was introduced into the schools in June, and the results have been most
    gratifying. Two-thirds of all the children in the grades have stamp books, and have purchased stamps
    to the amount of $342.23. The net savings during five months now invested in stamps amounts to
    $181.37. In addition to this, 39 pupils have opened new savings bank accounts, and 35 have added
    to bank accounts previously opened. The children are not only encouraged to save, but they are taught
    to spend wisely.

    A vital question with some people during the past year seems to have been whether or not our high
    school fits for college. The answer depends entirely upon what interpretation is placed upon the
    question. If a student enters the high school expecting to devote much of his time and most of his
    interest to sports and pleasures, he is not likely to be prepared for college at the end of four years. But
    on the other hand, if a pupil has done creditable work in the grades, and is willing to help himself by
    doing his part in the high school, he will find there is all the assistance he needs to thoroughly
    prepare himself for college. In the last analysis, a student must fit himself for college if he is ever
    really fitted at all. No high school can do it for him, and no high school should be expected to.

    There are young people who love knowledge and seek it from every source as naturally as plants
    grow toward light. These should take a college course, if possible, and the high school should supply
    all necessary assistance in the way of equipment, courses of study, and instruction. Out high school
    has done all this. But there is a far larger class of young people who will never go to college. There is
    no reason, however, why they may not become eminently worthy and useful citizens, and these have
    claims upon the high school, equal, at least, to those of the former class- claims which should not be
    ignored either by the public of by the high school itself. It is quite as important that the majority be fitted
    for life as that the minority be fitted for college.

    Respectfully submitted, F. G. Atwell,
    Superintendent of Schools

    There were seven graduates of Hopedale High School in 1909. They all had names familiar in
    Hopedale and the area well into the twentieth century, including Damon, Durgin, Henry, Tracy, Noyes,
    Smith, Harding and Welch. Click here to see the complete report of the superintendent, the graduation
    program, a list of teachers, a page of school statistics, the report of the truant officer, a picture of the
    graduating class, and the honor roll. If you had ancestors in Hopedale at that time, you’ll want to check
    and see if they were as smart as you are. Remember though, that was before grade inflation.

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