Hopedale History September 15, 2009 No. 140 Nipmuc Rod and Gun Club Hopedale in September   Day in the Park   Friends of Adin Ballou presents our Fall lecture on September 20 at 3 p.m. in the Hopedale Unitarian Parish Hall.  Deborah Kisatsky will speak about her research and upcoming book.  Her talk on "The Tragedy of Adin Ballou" will highlight his frustrations and what he considered his failures, which in later times appear in a different light.  The lecture is free of charge and open to the public. The Twenty-third annual Heritage Homecoming Weekend Committee breakfast will be held at the Village Congregational Church in Northbridge on Friday, October 2. The event this year will be in honor of Spaulding Aldrich, who passed away recently. The guest speaker will be Marnie Miller-Gutsell, whose talk will be Quakers in the Blackstone Valley. For more information and/or tickets, call Dick Grady at 508-478-2642. Thanks to Peter Mezke for sending links to a couple of Hopedale related books you can now read online - Ballou’s History of the Hopedale Community   and a 1907 Draper book, Labor Saving Looms.   You can also read Ballou’s History of Milford online. Click here for more books by Ballou. What’s going on in Hopedale and the area? Find out at Hopedalebuzz.com.   Don’t forget, the grand opening/Octoberfest at the Little Red Shop Museum will be on Saturday, October 3.                                                          <><><><><><><><><><> The Nipmuc Rod and Gun Club has been located in Upton for many years, but as the article below states, it was formed about twenty-five years before it found a home there. Since many Hopedale people have been officers and members, I thought there would be some interest in these articles from the Milford Daily News. It’s sometimes difficult to determine the year of these articles, but I think they were published in 1949.                                                 Hopedale Gun Club Rents Fiske                                         Place, In Family 8 Generations HOPEDALE – Nipmuc Rod and Gun Club in meeting last night voted to accept the generous offer of the Draper Corporation to rent the Fisk Mill property in East Upton and the directors were empowered to cooperate with the Draper Corp. in arranging the details. The opportunity to procure permanent headquarters for the club is of great interest to the members, many of whom have been active in the organization since it was founded in 1923. At present the membership is 200 The Fisk Mill property includes a large barn constructed of hand-hewn lumber mortised, pinned and mitered. The large house, for eight generations the home of the Fisk family since 1700 was recently razed. There is a fine stream and mill pond on the property. In all there are 136 acres on the place which was last occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Gibbs. Mrs. Gibbs was a daughter of Chandler Fisk. The club voted to accept as the official insignia the design worked out by Arthur LaRhette, which has been worn on the jackets of many members for the past few years. It is an Indian head with club monogram. Milford Daily News, November 16, ?                                              Hopedale Game Club to Incorporate HOPEDALE – A busy meeting was held last night by the Nipmuc Rod and Gun Club. The usual monthly supper was omitted on account of the approaching holidays. Many matters came up for discussion and action. An amendment was proposed for action at the next meeting to appoint an investigating committee comprising two permanent members who will work with the sponsor of an applicant in checking up on all new applications submitted for membership. An agreement is to be signed between the club and the Worcester Suburban Electric Co. for the purpose of extending power lines to the new clubhouse at Fisk mill which is to be renovated by Draper Corporation next spring for the club’s use. The club will be incorporated and a committee, comprising Burleigh W. Lapworth, chairman, of Hopedale, C.W. Bouck of Milford and Nicholas A. Narducci, secretary, of Hopedale, will have papers drawn and filed in connection with incorporating the club. It was voted to stock Lake Nipmuc with $100 worth of trout in the spring. The largest number of applications in the history of the club was submitted for action, and the club voted to accept the entire lot of 59 new members. The club membership has reached a new high of 307. The next meeting will be held in the Community House, Jan. 17, preceded by a supper catered by the Couples Club of the Methodist Church, and followed by a motion picture program shown by Percy Orrell of Hopedale. Milford Daily News, December 21, ?                                                            <><><><><><><><><><> Recent deaths: Lawrence A. Barrett, 82, June 9, 2009, California. Peter T. Costello, Jr., 79, Milford, September 9, 2009, HHS 1948. Fr. Dennis Rocheford, 60, September 10, 2009, North Oxford.                                    Hopedale History Email Story Menu                      HOME