Hopedale Machine Company

    The area that eventually became the main plant of Draper Corporation was
    home to a number of companies in the mid 1800s. These photos show the
    Hopedale Machine Company.  It was started in 1856 by Ebenezer and George
    Draper, when they pulled their stock out of the Hopedale Community.  Joseph
    Bancroft was the superintendent.  Other companies operating in this area at
    different times included E.D. and George Draper, the Hopedale Furnace
    Company, the Hopedale Machine Screw Company, the Northrop Loom
    Company, George Draper and Sons, the Dutcher Temple Company, the
    Sawyer Spindle Company and the Hopedale Elastic Goods Company. (Later
    the Lapworth Elastic Fabric Co. in Milford.)  (William Lapworth) By 1898 these
    (other than Elastic Fabric, I presume) had all been absorbed by the Draper
    Company, which in 1916 reorganized as the Draper Corporation.

    A company with a somewhat similar sounding name was the Hopedale
    Manufacturing Company. That was established as a result of the Draper family
    feud, which began when General Draper's brothers, Eben and George Albert,
    removed him as president of the Draper Company. The general died in 1910,
    and the Hopedale Manufacturing Company was established under that name
    in 1912.  It was operated by his sons,  Charles Roper was involved with it, and
    Jonas Northrop was president during at least part of its existence.

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Thanks to Peter Metzke for sending this.