Simon Whitney Draper (1819-1875)
Nancy Haley Draper (1823-1869)
Walley H. Draper (1854-1854)
Mary Eliza Draper (1855-1856)
Benjamin Whitney Draper (1846-1862)
Nancy Emma Draper (1848-1867)
Mary E. Draper (1857-1867)
Simon Eugene Draper (1849-1927)
Isabel T. Cowey Draper (1864-1925)
William Whitney Draper (1893-1929)
There is no stone at lot 26 in Old Parish Cemetery. But records indicate that there are ten members of the Simon Whitney Draper family interred here. The plot plan specifically notes only Simon Whitney Draper and his wife, Nancy Haley Draper, as being interred. The eight other coffins symbols, however, indicate there are more. Some detective work and the records at Highland Cemetery help to tell the story.
Simon Whitney Draper was born on July 16, 1819 in Boston. On August 27, 1843, he married Nancy Haley, who was born in New Hampshire on November 18, 1823. According to the 1855 Census, Simon, Nancy, and their family were residing in South Dedham where Simon was working as a cabinetmaker.
It seems that Simon Draper was also something of an inventor. He shared a patent for improvements in machines for “dressing millstones.” Used in the production of grains, millstones required “redressing” at regular intervals to maintain their efficiency. To dress a stone, a craftsmen chiseled the furrows or grooves in the stone and removed any glazed, rough, or uneven spots. (These furrows distribute and cut the grain, preparing it for grinding on the flat areas of the stone, called “lands.”) Traditionally, millstones were dressed by hand with special picks and chisels. It was tedious and laborious work. (The process was also the origin of a well-known phrase: experienced dressers wore the mark of their trade on their hands and forearms, speckled with embedded stone and metal chips that had sprayed back at them as they chiseled and lodged under the skin. A miller or mill owner would ask a millstone dresser to demonstrate his skill by pulling up his shirt sleeves, "To Show His Metal.") Any mechanical assistance with the process would certainly have been welcome and Draper applied for and was granted a patent in 1856.
Sometime around 1862 the Draper family moved to Roxbury and in 1870, they resided in Roxbury and Simon was working in a piano factory. Simon Whitney Draper died in Braintree on May 21, 1875 of Bright’s Disease. He was interred in Old Parish Cemetery alongside his wife, Nancy Haley Draper, who had passed away on July 16, 1869. Prior to Nancy’s passing, however, it seems that a poignant set of circumstances resulted in the family’s purchase of a lot in the old cemetery in Norwood.
Simon and Nancy Draper had nine children. One was buried in Boxboro where the family lived for a time; one, who had grown to adulthood, was interred in Boston; a third was stillborn with no burial site noted. The remaining six children came to rest in Old Parish Cemetery.
Walley H. Draper was born on March 14, 1854 in Dedham and died on December 30 of the same year. His death occurred while the family was residing in South Dedham and likely prompted Simon and Nancy to purchase a lot in the cemetery. Mary Eliza Draper was born on December 5, 1855; only a few months later, on March 23, 1856, she died of whooping cough while the Drapers were still in South Dedham. Benjamin Whitney Draper, born on June 25, 1846 in Boxboro, died at 16 on March 13, 1862 after the family had moved from South Dedham to Roxbury. A few years later, on September 3, 1867, Nancy Emma Draper, who had been born on November 4, 1848, passed away. She was 18. Two days later, Mary E. Draper, born on September 23, 1857 in Dedham, was just shy of 10 years old when she died on September 5, 1867. Both Nancy Emma and Mary E. Draper died from typhoid fever. Those five young people likely filled the five graves symbolized by small coffins on the plot plan.
The three full-sized coffin symbols mark the final resting place of one more of Simon and Nancy’s children, Simon Eugene Draper, his wife and son. The records of their burials are at Highland Cemetery.
Simon Eugene Draper was born to Simon Whitney and Nancy Haley Draper on November 1, 1849 in Boxboro, Massachusetts. In 1889, Simon Eugene Draper married Isabel T. Cowey, who was born in New Brunswick, Canada in October of 1864. They had three children: William Whitney Draper, born in 1893; Simon Edward Draper, born in 1895; and Benjamin Franklin Draper, born in 1897.
Isabel Cowey Draper died on February 14, 1925; Simon Eugene Draper passed away on July 26, 1927. They were living in Boston and their services were held at Waterman’s.
William Whitney Draper, the eldest child of Simon E. and Isabel Cowey Draper, was born on April 2, 1893. He married Liola Moore in November of 1917 in Sudbury. Prior to his marriage, William had served in the Massachusetts State Guard, was discharged with a disability, and deemed ineligible for service during World War I. In 1917, while still single, William was living in Dorchester and working as an elevator operator at South Station. In the 1920 U.S. Census, William and Liola were living with their daughter, Mabel, in Boston and his occupation was listed as teamster.
William Whitney Draper died on August 3, 1929. Records indicate that he was interred with his parents in lot 26 of Old Parish Cemetery. The plot remains without any memorials; it is situated in front of lots belonging to George Perry and Newell Fisher and beside the lot belonging to the Daniel Farrington family.
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