Brilliant Man, Tragic Life George Draper Osgood is a bit of a mystery. He was a Harvard honor student and graduate, but it appears that he never worked. In the street listing books, he was always given as "at home." When his mother and his sister Fannie were living at The Larches in the summer and in Boston in the winter, he was there also. Later, he was at his brother Dana's home, off of Greene Street, which by the mid-twentieth century was well known in town as The Harel House. It seems that he may have been living there alone for many years. His name is in the street listing books through 1952, and then disappears. I couldn't find any more about Osgood until the obituary above turned up. Recently, I ran across his picture in an album done by Dorothy Draper Gannett, mother of Bill Gannett. You can see it above this text box with a note that says "deaf and dumb from birth." Consider that, along with the obituary above, and there must be quite a story about his life, but all I've ever found is what you see here. According to the obituary, ",,,he had been a patient for a prolonged period at the Wiswall Hospital in Wellesley." I haven't been able to learn much about Wiswall in an online search, other than that it was a psychiatric hospital where lobotomies were performed and electric shock was used. George's mother, Hannah Draper Osgood, sister of General William F. Draper, Governor Eben S. Draper, George Albert Draper and Frances Draper Colburn, lived with her husband and children in the house that had been her parents' home at the corner of Draper and Hopedale streets. In 1909, she purchased The Larches on Williams Street from her nephew, George Otis Draper. The home burned down about a month after the purchase, and the house that's there now is what she had built after the fire. Her son, George Draper Osgood and her daughter, Fannie Osgood, resided there also. In 1929, both Hannah and Fannie died. The Dana and Laird Osgood house was built in the woods off of Greene Street in 1911. They lived there until they moved south in 1929. By 1933, and possibly earlier (books for 1931 and 1932 not available), Austin Osgood, 21, student, (son of Dana and Laird Osgood) and George Draper Osgood, 45, at home, were both living at 50 Greene Street, the former Dana Osgood home and the future Harel House. By 1940, George was still at that address according to the street listing book; the only Osgood in Hopedale by that time. As mentioned above, the last year his name was in the street listing book was 1952. The story became even more puzzling when I looked again at some Milford News clippings I had copied at the Bancroft Library a few years ago. In December 1938, the Osgood home was sold to a company described as a real estate promoter. Two months later it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Louis McVitty.. Their plan, according to the article, was to use it as a rest home. That may have happened, although I've never run across anything else about it being used for that purpose. The McVitty couple never moved into the Osgood house. They lived nearby at 36 Greene Street. The next complication in the story is that in 1946 the McVitty couple sold the home to Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lacy. They named it the Harel House and used it as their home and their business; mainly a furniture store. George Osgood's name continued to be at that address until 1952. Was he really there, or was the only part of him in Hopedale by that time his name in the street listing book? With that question in mind, I called Harel Lacey, daughter of the couple who established the Harel House. She was totally unfamiliar with the name, George Draper Osgood. Somehow his name remained in the street listing books at 50 Greene Street for six years after Harel and her parents were living there. Louis McVitty developed the land that had been part of the Dana and Laird Osgood estate - McVitty Road, Dana Park, and Catherine Street, as well as selling house lots on Greene Street. George was out of there at least by 1946, and probably sooner. He was at Wiswall for "...a prolonged period..." according to his obituary. Does that mean that he was there for the two decades from the time he left Hopedale until his death in 1972? We'll probably never know. . |
The following was sent by Lisa Lepore of Mendon, who became interested in the story of George Draper Osgood when reading about him in ezine No.367. Can’t resist a good mystery - According to the 1940 census, there is a George D. Osgood at the Wiswall Sanitarium. That census asks where the person was living as of April 1, 1935, and for George that was at Wiswall. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9M1-QF3C?cc=2000219 Wiswall Sanitarium was located at 203 Grove Street, and then became Charles River Hospital. Charles River filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000, and even though it comes up in current searches, it does not exist. According to Wikipedia it was closed in 2002. There are gigantic residential properties all around that address now. https://www. bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2000/06/05/story1.html George D Osgood United States Census, 1940 Wellesley Town, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States Age - 51 Marital Status - Single Inmate Birth Year (Estimated) - 1889 In the 1930 census, there is a George D. Osgood at McLean Hospital in Belmont. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9R4Y-HPN?i=3&cc=1810731 George was also at McLean in 1920 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7- 9RNZ-XWC?i=7&cc=1488411 In 1914 he applied for a passport. It says his occupation is Mathematics/Physics. He says he will return to the US in two years. His signature was notarized by Herbert Boyer, and he asked that the passport be mailed to Herbert Boyer. This goes along with the information from the obituary that says he went to Germany after Harvard, and returned before the war. There is a WWI draft registration for him here, dated June 5, 1917. https://www. familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-8BRJ-733?i=228&cc=1968530 It states he is mentally incompetent and under treatment at Bournewood Hospital in Brookline MA which still exists. According to their website, they were established in 1884. They are an independent privately owned psychiatric care facility. In 1910 George was living with his family on Beacon Street with five servants. As you mentioned, he had no occupation listed. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7- 9RVL-YJH?i=18&cc=1727033 (At the time they were on Beacon Street, they also spent part of each year at their Hopedale home. I think their time at Beacon Street was for the "social season.")
org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-675S-ZP?i=22&cc=1325221 It looks like George was institutionalized between 1917-1940 based on these records, and probably until he died. If he was at Wiswall, he could have stayed there when they closed and became Charles River, because that was open past his death date. |