Recent additions have been made to existing pages on hope1842.com on the following
    pages: Memories of Dick Volpe (Thanks to Mike Matondi for the article he wrote about Dick
    titled, Rendezvous with a Renaissance Man: A Visit with Richard "Dick" Volpe.")   The Height
    of Luxury (The Massachusetts monument at the Baton Rouge National Cemetery - see just
    above the Hopedale news for June 1992.)     Deaths   

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    This town, a little over 112 years of age since its incorporation, is marking the 100th
    anniversary of three buildings this month. They include Bancroft Memorial Library, the
    former Dutcher Street School (now a condominium complex), and the Hopedale Unitarian
    Parish church. Virginia Cyr, Daily News Correspondent, August 3, 1998

    Mrs. Howard W. Bracken (Lilla Bancroft) has given the Bancroft Memorial Library $1,000 to
    be known as the Sarah M. Whipple fund, the income of which is to be used for the purchase
    of books for children. "Aunt Sally," as she was familiarly known, was Mrs. Bracken's aunt, a
    sister of Mrs. J. B. Bancroft, and was a highly esteemed resident of this village 50 years ago.
    For many years she lived in the house occupied in recent years by Mr. and Mrs. Bracken,
    and was interested in all the activities of the place. She is well remembered by many of the
    older residents, and the form which this memorial takes is especially fitting for one who was
    beloved by old and young alike. Milford Gazette, October 10, 1913

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                                                     Hopedale in 1918, Part 4

    October 1918 was the month when the world-wide flu epidemic hit much of the US, and as
    you'll see below that certainly included Hopedale. I'd say it can be safely assumed that
    anyone said to have died of pneumonia or the grippe in that month, especially if they were in
    their 20s or 30s, was a victim of the flu.

    October 4 - Dr. K.A. Campbell is ill, and Dr. Sally Harding Saunders of Boston, formerly of
    this town, is taking care of his practice.

    Girls employed at the Draper plant will present "Mrs. Tubbs of Shantytown" at Town Hall on
    October 25 for the benefit of the Red Cross.

    Vernon Kellett has been sent to an officers' training school for heavy artillery located at
    Camp Zachery Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky.

    E. C. Burnham, Jr., now at Camp Hancock, Georgia, has been commissioned a second
    lieutenant.

    Abner A. MacNeil, 37 years old died of pneumonia Monday morning. He leaves a family.

    Walter J. Morton, 27, died Friday afternoon of double pneumonia.

    Charles St. Clair, employed in the shuttle department of the Draper plant, who lived at the
    Brae Burn Inn the last few months, died of double pneumonia Tuesday night.

    John J. Grady, 37 years old, and a plumber for the Draper Corporation, died of the grippe
    Sunday morning at his home on Union Street. He was a native of Ashland, a member of the
    Milford Lodge Moose, and leaves a wife and two children, his parents, two brothers and
    three sisters.

    George W. Kneeland, a former resident of this town, died of pneumonia following the grippe
    Sunday at the Taunton Hospital. He leaves a wife and three small children.

    Saturday afternoon a searching party of Hopedale firemen and others found the body of
    Amanda J. (Wheeler) the widow of Sylvester Madden who came here Monday to visit
    relatives. She was last seen Monday afternoon on Northrop Street. The body was found
    near a stone wall on land of the Draper Corporation off Northrop Street and it is believed
    that the aged woman was attempting to reach the home of friends on the Upton road by a
    short cut.

    Earl Dewing, 30 years old, died Saturday of influenza at the home of Asa. A. Westcott in
    Spindleville.

    October 11 - Private John W. Harris has been wounded in the service in France, where he
    was serving with the Canadian Army.

    Roy Gaskill, native and well-known resident of this town, died Sunday of pneumonia following
    an attack of influenza. He was 34 years old.

    Local relatives have been notified that Cpl. Walter Tillotson has been missing in action since
    August 26.

    Word has been received here of the death in France of the death of Private Walter
    Tillotson.  He was reported last week to have been wounded in action. His relatives are now
    residing in Framingham. (Two newspaper articles around the time of Tillotson's death list him
    as a private and two others as a corporal. Of the seven Hopedale men who died in the war,
    he was the only one to die in combat. I presume that's why the Hopedale post of the
    American Legion was named in his honor.)

    Local relatives were notified by the War Department Saturday of the death in France
    September 19 of pneumonia of Davis E. Gabry.

    October 18 - The Draper Corporation fire department will open a club room in Harrison
    Block.

    Cesare Franzoni, formerly employed at the Draper plant, died of influenza and pneumonia
    October 4 at a New York hospital. He was a Navy cook at Ellis Island.

    Hazel Davenport died of pneumonia Saturday at her home on Inman Street.

    Harold Brown, son of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Brown of this town, died Tuesday of the grippe in
    New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was about 29 years old.

    October 25 - Catherine Campbell is ill with scarlet fever.

    The price of bituminous coal here has been fixed at $9.25 per ton.

    Mrs. Frank H. French, a former resident of this town, is seriously ill at Laconia, N.H.

    Fourteen clerks employed by H.L. Patrick have been out this week on account of illness.

    Several of the girls employed at the Draper Corporation shop office have volunteered to
    adopt a Belgian or French orphan.

    The ban laid down here on account of the epidemic was not lifted this week as was done in
    many of the surrounding towns and all public gatherings have been omitted.

                                               Ezine Menu                           HOME    

    Thanks to Dick Grady for sending the newspaper articles on this
    page. The photo above is of Dick's grandparents, John and Ellen
    Newell Grady. It was taken in 1911. Seven years later, John died
    in the flu epidemic. One error in the article - Grady was 37 at the
    time of his death, not 30 as stated.
Oct 6, 2005