George A. Draper (November 4, 1855 – February 7, 1923) was an American textile industrialist.

Biography

Early life

George Albert Draper was born on November 4, 1855, in

Hopedale, Massachusetts Hopedale is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located 25 miles southwest of Boston, in eastern Massachusetts. With origins as a Christian utopian community, the town was later home to ...

. He was a descendant of early

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

settler James Draper. He had a brother,

Eben Sumner Draper Eben (sometimes incorrectly Ebenezer) Sumner Draper (June 17, 1858 – April 9, 1914) was an American businessman and politician from Massachusetts. He was for many years a leading figure in what later became the Draper Corporation, the ...

, who went on to serve as the 44th Governor of Massachusetts from 1909 to 1911. At the age of seventeen, Draper entered the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, where he studied for two years.

Career

He joined his father's businesses as treasurer at Hopedale Machine Company and later at the Draper Company. He was President of the Grafton and Upton Railroad, and of the

Harmony Mills Harmony Mills, in Cohoes, New York, Cohoes, New York (state), New York, United States, is an industrial district that is bordered by the Mohawk River and the tracks of the former Troy and Schenectady Railroad (now the Mohawk-Hudson bike trail). ...

; director in the Milford National Bank,

First National Bank of Boston BankBoston was an American bank based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by the 1996 merger of Bank of Boston and BayBank. One of its predecessor banks started in 1784, but the merged BankBoston was short-lived, being acquired by FleetB ...

, Brogon Cotton Mills Company, of Anderson, North Carolina, and of the Calhoun Cotton Mills of Calhoun, North Carolina.

Death

He died on February 7, 1923.

Bibliography

Some Views on the Tariff Question by an Old Business Man. The American Market for the American People, New York 1886.

Legacy

His son

Wickliffe Draper Wickliffe Preston Draper (August 9, 1891 – March 11, 1972) was an American political activist. He was an ardent eugenicist and lifelong advocate of strict racial segregation. In 1937, he founded the Pioneer Fund for eugenics and heredity rese ...

inherited his fortune and used it to begin the

Pioneer Fund The Pioneer Fund is an American non-profit foundation established in 1937 "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences". The organization has been described as racist and white supremacist in nature. The Southern Pover ...

References

* 1855 births 1923 deaths People from Hopedale, Massachusetts American railroad executives Businesspeople from Massachusetts Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1850s-stub