Stones and Souls: A Walking tour of the Hopedale Village Cemetery

Sunday, October 28, 2018, at 4:30 p.m.
From spiritualism and feminism and all the progressive ideals of the antebellum age, to living lives of leisure as the wives of successful company men – the women of Hopedale have a story to tell.
The members of the original Hopedale Sewing Circle raised money to create the Hopedale Village Cemetery, a beautiful example of the Rural Cemetery Movement. In 1857, while sewing articles for the Boston Antislavery Fair, the women voted to give $25 – over $700 in today’s money – to the trustees of the Hopedale Community to be spent on this peaceful area. Buried here are the stories of women who lived full lives in one of the most important factory towns in the Blackstone River Valley, and this tour will reveal some of those tales.
Hear anecdotes about the women of Hopedale’s past, from the early community through the Draper years. Learn how they tried to speak to their dead loved ones, how they buried their babies and sent their sons to die in war, how they stood up to abolish slavery and gain the right to vote, and even how one lived to be 100! Join Allison Horrocks and Linda Hixon of the Hopedale Women’s History Project on Sunday, October 28, 2018, at 4:30 p.m. for a twilight tour of Hopedale Village Cemetery, starting at the Ballou family monument.
Our community project is dedicated to telling the story of 150 years of Hopedale women’s history, and we want to share what we’ve found with you. Bring an umbrella if it rains!
For more information, contact hopedalewomen@gmail.com or like us on Facebook at facebook.com/hopedalewomen.