Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/221

Rh house now occupied by Charles Woolley, Jr., north of the Common near the old burying-ground. It was Major Swan who set out the elm-trees in front of this house, which was the Reverend Dr. Chaplin's dwelling for many years.

Two daughters of Isaac Bowers, a son of Landlord Bowers, had a dry-goods shop in the house owned and occupied by the late Samuel W, Rowe, Esq. About the year 1825, Walter Shattuck opened a store in the building originally intended for the Presbyterian Church, opposite to the present entrance of the Groton Cemetery. There was formerly a store kept by one Mr. Lewis, near the site of Captain Asa Stillman Lawrence's house, north of the Town Hall. There was a trader in town, Thomas Sackville Tufton by name, who died in the year 1778, though I do not know the site of his shop. Captain Samuel Ward, a native of Worcester, and an officer in the French and Indian War, was engaged in business at Groton some time before the Revolution. He removed to Lancaster, where at one time he was town-clerk, and died there on August 14, 1826.

The Groton post-office was established at the very beginning of the present century, and before that time letters intended for this town were sent through private hands. Previous to the Revolution there were only a few post-offices in the Province, and often persons in distant parts of Massachusetts received their correspondence at Boston. In the Supplement to The Boston Gazette, February 9, 1756, letters are advertised as remaining uncalled for, at the Boston office, addressed to William Lakin and Abigail Parker, both of Groton, as well as to Samuel Manning, Townsend, William Gleany, Dunstable, and Jonathan Lawrence, Littleton. Nearly five months afterward these same letters are advertised in The Boston Weekly News-Letter, July 1, 1756, as still uncalled for. The name of David Farnum, America, appears also in this list, and it is hoped that wherever he was he received the missive. The names of Oliver Lack (probably intended for Lakin) and Ebenezer Parker, both of this town, are given in another list printed in the Gazette of June 28, 1763; and in the same issue one is advertised for Samuel Starling, America. In the Supplement to the Gazette, October 10, 1768, Ebenezer Farnsworth, Jr., and George Peirce, of Groton, had letters advertised; and in the Gazette, October 18, 1773, the names of Amos Farnsworth, Jonas Farnsworth, and William Lawrence, all of this town, appear in the list.

I find no record of a post-rider passing through Groton, during the period immediately preceding the establishment of the post-office; but there was doubtless such a person who used to ride on horseback, equipped with saddle-bags, and delivered at regular intervals the weekly newspapers and letters along the way. In the year 1794, according to the History of New Ipswich, New Hampshire (page 129), a post-rider, by the name of Balch, rode from Boston to Keene one week and back the next. Probably he passed through this town, and served the inhabitants with his favors.

Several years ago I procured, through the kindness of General Charles Devens, at that time a member of President Hayes's cabinet, some statistics of the Groton post-office, which are contained in the following letter:—