The Hopedale Manufacturing Company was established as a result of a feud that had occurred in the Draper family. It had started when George Albert Draper and Eben Sumner Draper removed their brother, Gen. William F. Draper as president of the Draper Company. The Draper Manufacturing Company was established in 1913. The general had died in 1910. His sons, Clare and George Otis Draper along with Jonas Northrop and others who had evidently sided with the general in the feud, including Charles Roper, had loom patents, money and contacts, all useful to start and run the company.
The article below is from Mechanical and Organizational Innovation – The Drapers and the Automatic Loom by William Maas. It was published in the Winter 1989 issue of The Business History Review. Thanks to Giancarlo BonTempo for passing it on to me.
