George Albert Draper, son of George and Hannah Brown (Thwing) Draper, was born November 4, 1855, at Hopedale, Massachusetts. His early schooling was attained in private schools, and was effectively supplemented by his father's instructions in preparation for the part he was destined to play in the noted Draper firm. At the age of seventeen years he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied for two years. When he was twenty he entered the office of the Draper Company, remaining as a member of the office force for one year. Young Mr. Draper then assumed the difficult role of selling agent for the firm, continuing on the road for two years. He augmented this experience and training by giving his attention to the financial side of the business, and at the age of thirty-two, in 1887, he became treasurer of the Hopedale Machine Company. Nine years later he was made treasurer of the Draper Company, and he held this post until death, having been elected treasurer of the Draper Corporation when the reorganization took place in November 1916.
To the great Draper firm, George Albert Draper brought one of the keenest intellects in the textile world. With painstaking accuracy he had familiarized himself with all the details of the business, and much of its success may in a large measure be attributed to his knowledge of the industry, and his exceptional executive gifts. The Draper firm is a leader in the manufacturing of textile machines, and to its growth and success Mr. Draper was deeply devoted, his interest centering in the supervision of the manufacturing department.
Besides his office of treasurer in the Draper Corporation, Mr. George A. Draper held many other positions of executive responsibility He was president of the Grafton and Upton Railroad, and of the Harmony Mills; director in the Milford National Bank, First National Bank of Boston, Brogon Cotton Mills Company, of Anderson, North Carolina, and of the Calhoun Cotton Mills of Calhoun, North Carolina. These last two connections indicate his active interest in the textile development of the South, in which he made substantial investments.
Mr. Draper was for many years a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Massachusetts. For two years he served as president of the Home Market Club, founded by his father, one of the strongest and most influential protective associations in New England.
George Albert Draper was known as a generous and charitable man, a contributor to many public enterprises. Together with his brother, the late Governor Eben S. Draper, he gave to Hopedale the present Unitarian Church in memory of their parents. He sustained the generous policies of his house in regard to their employees, He was one of the trustees of the Children's Hospital which benefited by his executive ability and by his generosity. The imposing Community House was constructed at Mr. Draper's expense as a memorial to Mrs. Draper and given to the people of Hopedale. He was very fond of art and poetry, familiar with the classics, and possessed an esthetic nature.
Mr. Draper was affiliated with many Boston social clubs, and was a patron and a guarantor of the Boston Opera Company, and the Chicago Opera Company.
It was Mr. Draper's custom to spend his winters at his Boston residence, at 297 Commonwealth Avenue. At such times he kept in close touch with the affairs of the Draper Corporation by his daily visits to Hopedale. Although in somewhat delicate health after an operation in 1922, he felt strong enough to make plans, a few weeks preceding his death, for a trip abroad with his daughter, Helen, a journey which was to take four months. His sudden end at the Phillips House, private wing of the Massachusetts General Hospital, was a great shock to his family, and to the people of his beloved town, Hopedale, where no man was held in more grateful esteem.
Died at Boston, Massachusetts, February 7, 1923.
Married at Wickliffe Place, Lexington, Kentucky, November 6, 1 890, Jessie Fremont Preston, who was born December 12, 1855, died at Boston, Massachusetts, February 11, 1917, daughter of Major General William and Margaret Howard (Wickliffe) Preston.
Issue:
1. Wickliffe Preston Draper, born at Hopedale, August 9, 1891; was graduated from Harvard, B.A., in 1913; at outbreak of World War I volunteered in British Army September, 1914; became first lieutenant, 1st Brigade, Royal Field Artillery; served at Salonica in 1916, Messines and Ypres in 1917; wounded July 4, 1917; resigned from British Army and returning to the United States became captain in the United States Field Artillery; was honorably discharged in December 1918; served as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army during World War II.
2. Jessie Preston Draper, born December 25, 1892; died at Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island, August 12, 1894.
3. Helen Howard Draper, born August 12, 1895; died at Dover, Massachusetts, July 27, 1933; married, first, February 10, 1917, Wallbridge Taft [a nephew of President William Howard Taft]; married, second, May 24, 1924, Nathaniel F. Ayer, who died July 24, 1948.
Draper, Preston and Allied Family Histories, pp. 30 - 41
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