An Illustrated Congressional Manual. The United States Red Book, 1896, (detail), Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

DRAPER, William Franklin, a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Lowell, Mass., April 9, 1842; attended public, private, and high schools; studied mechanical engineering and cotton manufacturing; enlisted as a private in the Twenty-fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, on September 9, 1861; promoted through the ranks to lieutenant colonel; brevetted colonel and brigadier general of Volunteers; became a manufacturer of cotton machinery at Hopedale, Worcester County, and patented many improvements; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876; colonel on the staff of Governor Long from 1880 to 1883; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1897); chairman, Committee on Patents (Fifty-fourth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1896; president of the Draper Co. upon its incorporation in 1896; Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary to Italy 1897-1899; died in Washington, D.C., on January 28, 1910; interment in Village Cemetery, Hopedale, Mass.