The Hopedale Community – 1841 – 1856
Summary of Edward Spann’s Hopedale: Commune to Company Town
Short Biographies of Prominent Hopedale People
The Religous Evolution of Adin Ballou
Farm in Cumberland Ballou’s description of his early life on his family’s farm.
The Ballou family – Hopedale Village Cemetery
Descendants of Adin and Abigail Ballou
From Christian Utopia to Company Town: Communal Life and Paternalism in 19th and 20th Century Hopedale, Massachusetts, by Anita Cardillo Danker.
An Account of the Community and the Town from a History of Worcester County.
Hopedale and its Founder by Lewis Wilson, New England Magazine, 1909.
Amusements in the Hopedale Community Not obvious from the title, this article contains material on abolitionist meetings, temperance meetings, holiday celebrations, peace activities and seances.
Community Declaration Think you would have liked to have been a member of the Community? Take a look at the “Declaration.”
Selection of a Site for the Community
A Beginning Made From A History ot the Hopedale Community, Ballou’s description of the early days in the Old House.
The Community in 1842 …and more from 1842 .. and from 1843
Thanksgiving at the Mechanic’s Shop Adin Augustus Ballou
The Original School and Chapel
Henry Lillie house, with shop and sawmill – Description by Frank Dutcher
The Hopedale Community and Adin Ballou by Peter Hackett
The Hopedale Community by Rev. John K. Hammon
A Thriving Little Village – Edward Spann, Hopedale in 1846
Christmas in early Hopedale, by Edward Spann, Anna Thwing Spaulding, Charles Merrill, Abby Hills Price, and Frank Dutcher
Abolitionism in Hopedale Seven short articles on the subject.
Abolitionism in Hopedale A 1938 newspaper article by Ernest Dalton.
Rosetta Hall The only escaped slave mentioned by Adin Ballou as living in Hopedale.
Jonathan Walker “The Man with the Branded Hand”
Antislavery hymns Written by Community members.
The Role of Women in Hopedale, a Nineteenth- Century Universalist-Unitarian Utopian Community in South-Central Massachusetts by Deirdre Corcoran Stam
The Uxbridge Connection An article about the Bancrofts, Thwings, and Drapers, written by Peter Hackett
Joseph Bancroft There’s not really a lot here about the Community, but Joseph and Sylvia were members and you might find something of interest.
General William F. Draper This story from the general’s autobiography, Recollections of a Varied Career, is about his memories of Hopedale, from his arrival in 1853 at the age of eleven, until about the time he joined the army in 1861.
Address of Abby Price to the Worcester Women’s Rights Convention
Article by Abby Price concerning the 1853 state Constitutional Convention
Abby Price and the “Free Love” Episode
Gilbert Thompson Thompson, who grew up in Hopedale after his mother joined the Community in 1849, was one of the 33 founding members of the National Geographic Society and the first American to use fingerprints for identification.
Almon Thwing the Thwing Mill site
The Wilmarths and the Water Cure
Hopedale and the Drapers A summary of Hopedale’s history by Lewis Hovey, written in 1909.
The Hopedale Parish Hopedale Parish Centennial
The Practical Christian The Community newspaper. It was published from 1840 to 1860. So far, only the papers for 1840-41 are online.
History of Hopedale by Adin Ballou – Published in the 1889 edition of History of Worcester County.
Hopedale Reminiscences Menu Memories from childhood of people who grew up in the Hopedale Community.
Patricia Hatch and the Hopedale Community – discoveries, comments and questions about the Community and its members.
Hopedale Community Centennial Pageant, 1942
List of Hopedale Community books, papers, records, etc on microfilm and in the safe at the Bancroft Memorial Library.
Articles on the Hopedale Community by Ernest R. Dalton
Ernest Rockwell Dalton grew up at 135 Dutcher Street, and graduated from Hopedale High School (then, of course, called General Draper High School) in 1933. He spoke at graduation, giving an address titled The Qunshepaug Plantation. In 1937 he graduated from Bowdoin College, and by the fall of the year, he was at Harvard. In June and July of 1938, the Milford Daily News printed the twenty-eight articles on the Hopedale Community that are listed below. As he relates in the first of them, The Story of Hopedale, he wrote “…this short history of the Hopedale Community” was done as part of a discussion group in American Social History conducted by Prof. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. The 1939 Hopedale census gives Dalton’s occupation as teacher, but I don’t know where. The only other things I’ve learned about Dalton is that in 1940 he received a Littauer Fellowship, (see below menu) and in 1947 he wrote a 762 page book, published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, titled A Study of the Metropolitan-industrial Area of Southern Worcester County, Massachusetts, in Regard to Its Structural Organization for Education and Related Governmental Services.
I first became aware of Dalton’s articles several years ago when I ran across most of them in a scrapbook at the Bancroft Library. I was able to get the rest at the Milford Library. (Later improved by scanning better copies from a collection of Hopedale articles and clippings saved by Perry MacNevin.) From what I’ve seen so far, Dalton’s source seems to have been entirely Ballou’s writing, so there’s probably nothing new or previously undiscovered here. However, it might be helpful to some to be able to look at the titles and go to a topic of interest more quickly, rather than going through Ballou’s extensive writing.
Dalton Articles Menu
Page 1 The Story of Hopedale
Ballou Founded Hopedale on Religious Inspiration
College Education Denied to Hopedale’s Founder
Adin Ballou – Preacher and Reformer
Page 2 Community Founded on Humanitarian Principles
Ballou Announces His Plan for a Community
Preamble Gives Clear Idea of Community Scope
Fraternal Communion No. 1 Formed by Thirty-two
Page 3 Officers, Qualifications for Membership Listed
First Major Crisis in Community Came in 1842
“Stricter” Moral Regulation Called for in 1850
Depended in Large Measure on its Financial Condition
Houselots Sold to Members in Hopedale Community
Page 4 Community Members Paid 50 Cents for Eight-Hour Day
Hopedale Community Has Interesting Social History
Village Improvement Society Was Created
School Admitted Pupils from Surrounding Villages
Hopedale Juvenile and Collegiate Home School
Religious Attachment to Work and Education
Page 5 Did Not Detach Themselves from Social Movements
Robert Owen Visited Community in 1845
Peace Movements Were Readily Supported
Ballou’s interest in Spiritualism Intensified
Hopedale Was Fraternal Communion No. 1
Page 6 Community at High Point of Prosperity in 1854
Efforts Extended Outside of Hopedale in 1855
Deficit at End of 15 Years of Activity
Social-Religous and the Economic Aspects
