Hopedale History October 15, 2014 No. 262 Seance Hopedale in October Hopedale Pond in October Working in the Shop - Twenty-one photos of Draper workers at their machines and benches. The end of swimming at Hopedale Pond. Additions to existing pages during the past two weeks: The 1913 Strike (Postcard view of Eben and Bristow Draper, standing with Boston police at the Statue of Hope.) John Steel (Article about his brothers.) Now and Then - The Griffin-Dennett Apartments (Attempt to establish a housing authority defeated at Town Meeting in 1960.) Harrison Block (Old photo and a paragraph from the National Register Nomination added.) Sacred Heart Church (MDN clipping - "Start to Remodel Old Schoolhouse.") Now and Then - The Dutcher Street School (Several articles written around the time when it was closed.) The Upper Charles Trail - Milford (A few photos added to the page showing parts of the now completed "missing link.") <><><><><><><><><><> The Milford Electric Light & Power Co. is installing 45 new 40-watt electric lights in this town, some in the Mendon Hill section, some on the upper end of Dutcher Street, some between Spindleville and South Milford, and some in the main part of the town. With the new service the town will have a system of 225 electric street lights and will be one of the best lighted towns of its size in the state. Milford Gazette, August 20, 1915 If I didn't see a future to it, I wouldn't have bought it. Philip Shwachman, Draper complex owner, Milford Daily News, February 24, 2006 <><><><><><><><><><> During the days of the Hopedale Community there was quite an interest in what was called "the spirit world," and it appears that séances were held frequently. Thanks to Rev. Patricia Hatch for sending a link to a book with the following of memories of one of the séances. A Trip to the Spirit World Wonderful are the various phases of spirit power, and I am here going to narrate one of our Friday séances, which I was told to defer until now, although it took place in 1870. When Mrs. T. came in on the 8th of April she mentioned that a well-known friend of hers (in Massachusetts) had recently passed away, and that she had been a good deal engaged in writing on the subject to other friends. After I had mesmerized her for some time, she saw a purple light and presently she exclaimed, "Oh, I do think this is Mrs. D, dear me! -- It was only a glimpse, she seemed to pass just before me. She looked exactly as she used to look except that she stooped a little -- I see the main street at Hope Dale, -- just as it used to look, -- from top to bottom. I see a face I know so well, and yet for the life of me I can't remember the name. -- Oh! it is Edmund Soward. I think he is in the spirit world. I'm sure he is. -- he died of consumption about fifteen years ago. Oh! yes, he had on something like a cloak, which he has taken off to show me his jacket of green baize. He used to be called a walking cyclopedia, because he knew something of everything -- He was a great friend of Mr. and Mrs. D; he always dined there when they had friends who had need of intelligent conversation. He is going down the street from the school-house, and I am going with him. -- I am passing some houses that I don't remember, where there used to be flowers and some nursery trees. -- and the houses need painting very much. We go straight past where Mrs. D lived, straight down, till we come to a house with a long running piazza. -- I see! -- there is a circle, a spirit circle; I see the people sitting in front, -- I see four people whom I know sitting in this circle, and there are several others who are strange." Can you mention the names of those whom you know? "Mr. Eben D, Mrs. George D, Mr. B, and a little girl called Mary, who is grown very tall, and many others: there are two coloured people. -- I have lost my spirit guide: -- we came in as through the window, which opens like a French window." Perhaps there is something special that you are to note. "One of the ladies whom I don't know is gesticulating very much; she seems to be making a speech. There is some person in the circle from whom I feel such a pleasant influence. One of those black women is saying that she sees me. -- It is old Aunt Johnson! so it is! Old Auntie Johnson! and she has got much older. She sees me and she thinks I am a spirit. They are standing up and pointing, and she is pointing, --and it seems to make me so much smaller somehow; I feel as if I must hide. -- I am going into the corner of the room, close to a musical instrument, and it is open. I think it s a melodian, and there are so many keys, two or three ranks of keys. -- I have got out of the room somehow into the garden close to a rose-bush. I think old Auntie Johnson frightened me away; she wanted me to come close to her. She is calling me. She says, 'Tell me about my boy Jem.' -- Oh! she thinks I am a spirit. Poor little Jemmy was drowned a long time ago, and I don't see him anywhere.....I am going right up above the house." Here she awoke with a start , and she told me she was feeling frightened lest she should fall, and she reasoned with herself that it was only a dream, but the fear roused her and the experience was curious and quite new to her. "Evenings at Home in Spiritual Séance" by Georgiana Houghton, originally published in 1881. Mr. and Mrs. D were very likely George and Hannah Draper. Eben D must have been Ebenezer Draper. It's unlikely that it was the Eben Draper who was later governor of Massachusetts. He would have been 12 at the time of the séance. Mr. B was probably Joseph Bancroft. Auntie Johnson was a maid for George and Hannah Draper. Their home was on the block where the Community House is now. Jem drowned in a little pond behind the Walker mansion on what's now Mendon Street, near Fitzgerald Drive. Auntie's other son, Charles, was in the Massachusetts 54th during the Civil War and was killed at the Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina. His name is on the family stone in Hopedale Village Cemetery, but he's buried at Beaufort National Cemetery, Beaufort, South Carolina. John Butcher made an extensive search into the Johnson family. Here's what he found. The most prominent of the spiritualists residing in Hopedale were Harriet Greene and Bryan Butts. They put out periodicals on the subject under several titles. Though they were married, she never took his name which seems rather unusual for that time. We can only speculate as to why she didn't want to be known as Mrs. Butts. She's buried in Hopedale Village Cemetery next to Dr. Emily Gay. I don't know where Mr. Butts ended up. Evenings at Home in Spiritual Séance. Ezine Menu HOME |
The Johnson family stone and the Ebenezer and Anna Draper stone, Hopedale Village Cemetery. |
