Springfield-Greene
County LibraryEarly and Recent History and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Representative Citizens
CHARLES DRAPER. We are always glad to welcome to the United States the people of England, between which two countries there now exists the closest bonds of friendship, and it is very doubtful if these relations will ever be broken, for each nation is depending in a great degree on each other, not alone from a commercial standpoint either. We speak the same tongue, sprang from the same original blood of the ancient Angles and Saxons and our aims are similar, so we should be friendly. The late Charles Draper was from the mother country across the Atlantic and he proved to be a valuable citizen to Greene county, Missouri, where the latter part of his life was spent.
Mr. Draper was born in England, in the year 1826 and there he grew to manhood and received his education and made his home until he was thirty years of age. He was a son of Thomas and Elizabeth Draper, and was one of a family of five children, all now deceased. After emigrating to America, about 1872, he located in Billings, Missouri, where he remained a short time, then moved to Springfield about forty-two years ago and went to gardening, which business he had followed from his early youth. His knowledge of this line of work increased with the years until he became one of the best informed and most successful gardeners in the southern part of the state and was widely known in Greene county.
Mr. Draper was married in England to Elizabeth Newberry, who was born in England, January 31, 1829, and there grew to womanhood and was educated. She is still living on the farm at the foot of South Evans street, Springfield, owning eighteen acres of valuable land, and although advanced in years, she is active, and is a woman of executive ability and manages her affairs well.
The union of Mr. and Mr. Draper was without issue. A sketch of their adopted son, Joseph N. Draper, engaged in the gardening business, appears on another page of this volume.
The death of Charles Draper occurred January 27, 1903, in his seventy-seventh year.
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