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 ADDRESSES 
 
 DKI.IX'HKKl) AT 
 
 Groton, Massachusetts, 
 
 Jri.v 12, 1905, 
 
 l!V KlCiJinCST OF THK CITIZICNS, 
 
 OX Till': ClUJ'JiRATlON OF Tin{ 
 
 Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 
 
 ITS S]'TTIJ':MI' XT 
 
 GROTON, 
 1905. 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 Groton, Massachusetts, 
 
 July 12, 1905, 
 
 BY REQUEST OF THE CITIZENS, 
 
 ON THE CELEBRATION OF THE 
 
 Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 
 
 OF 
 
 ITS SETTLEMENT. 
 
 GROTON, 
 1905. 
 
^■^ r <i'\ 
 
 6^' ,1, 
 
 Gx^^' c.-5r\ 
 
To THE Memory 
 
 OF 
 
 Ebc jearli^ Settlers of (Broton, 
 
 TO WHOM IN MANY WAYS THE PRESENT INHABITANTS 
 
 OWE SO MUCH, THESE PAGES ARE 
 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary. 
 
 The committee appointed at a Town Meeting held No- 
 vember 8, 1904, to consider the matter of the town holding a 
 celebration in the year 1905, to commemorate the Two Hun- 
 dred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the incorporation of the 
 town, respectfully submit the following report : 
 
 1. The town hold a celebration on some one day during 
 the last week of June 1905. 
 
 2. We recommend that at this meeting the town raise and 
 appropriate the sum of Five Hundred Dollars for the purpose 
 of said celebration. 
 
 3. We recommend that a committee of arrangements, to 
 consist of five persons, be appointed by the moderator of this 
 meeting, subject to the approval of the town, which com- 
 mittee shall have full power to make and carry out all nec- 
 essary arrangements of said celebration, this authority to in- 
 clude the right to approve bills for expenses of the same, up 
 to the amount of the appropriation that the town may make, 
 the payment of said bills to be by order of the Selectmen. 
 
 4. We recommend substantially the following program : 
 
 a An historical address in the morning in the First Parish 
 Meeting House. 
 
 b A dinner followed by speeches and music. 
 
 c A barge ride in the afternoon to give an opportunity for 
 persons who have not been in town recently to see the changes 
 that have taken place. 
 
d A social gathering in the Town Hall in the evening with 
 such entertainment as the committee of arrangements shall 
 think best to provide. 
 
 FRANCIS M. BOUTWELL, 
 MOSES P. PALMER, 
 THOMAS E. MOTEEY, 
 CHARLES BIXBY, 
 GEORGE M. HOWE. 
 Groton, April 3, 1905. 
 
 At a meeting of the committee, Dr. Samuel A. Green was 
 invited to give the address. 
 
 General William A. Bancroft was invited to be President 
 of the day. Both accepted. 
 
 It wa's decided to have the dinner in a tent which was pitch- 
 ed on Shumway Field by the permission of the Trustees of 
 the Lawrence Academy and the address in the Town Hall. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON INVITATION. 
 
 Col. Thomas L. Motley, Mrs. Daniel Needham, Mr. and 
 Mrs. F. Lawrence Blood, Miss Marion Needham, Mr. and 
 Mrs. William A. Lawrence. 
 
 VICE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Zara Patch, 
 Milo H. Shattuck, 
 Charles Woolley, 
 James Lawrence, 
 Amory A. Lawrence, 
 Samuel P. Williams, 
 George H. Bixby, 
 Joseph B. Raddin, 
 William F. Wharton, 
 John H. Manning, 
 John H. Robbins, 
 
 John W. Parker, 
 John Gilson, 
 Dr. John G. Park, 
 John Lawrence, 
 William A. Lawrence, 
 Charles Lawrence, 
 Herbert C. Rockwood, 
 Frank L. Blood, 
 Charles E. Bigelow, 
 H. H. C. Bingham, 
 Michael Sheedy, Jr. 
 
Prayer by Rev. Pemberton H. Cressey. 
 
 Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that 
 this land, once covered with unbroken forests, is now marked 
 by the fertile farms and the happy homes of men. We thank 
 Thee for the wealth of our inheritance in light and air, and 
 for all the helpful surroundings in this fair region. We 
 thank Thee for the faith which led our fathers to cross the 
 ocean, and for the patience and fortitude which enabled them 
 to establish their freedom in spite of every hardship, and we 
 pray that we of later day may face with equal prowess the 
 difficulties of our daj^ and thus preserve undiminished that 
 freedom of soul which is our highest inheritance. We pray 
 for our Commonwealth, and for the might}^ nation of which 
 we form a part. Give to the servants of the people who are 
 in high places of responsibility such wnsdom and devotion as 
 will enable them properly to administer the affairs of public 
 welfare. More and more may honor and love abound in the 
 lives of individuals, of families, and of nations, until all Thy 
 children upon the earth shall emerge out of the darkness of 
 superstition and sin into the light of righteousness and truth. 
 Amen. 
 
ADDRESS OF WELCOME 
 
 BY 
 
 Mr. FRANCIS M. BOUTWELIv. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: It is now my pleasure to extend 
 to you all, on behalf of the Town of Groton, a cordial welcome 
 to this birthday gathering. There are, no doubt, many pres- 
 ent who have not been here for many years, who long ago 
 lived in Groton, and others who attended school here in the 
 days gone by. And it may be that there are some here who 
 never visited the town before, but to whom its soil seems 
 sacred because it was the home of their ancestors. 
 
 We hope that you will feel that this is not only an anniver- 
 sary occasion, but that it is a real old home day. We are all 
 here together, all in the old home. 
 
 It is now my pleasure to present, as president of the day, 
 a gentleman who needs no introduction in his native town, — 
 
 MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM A. BANCROFT. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, F?'iends and Neighbors : By the determi- 
 nation of the citizens of the Town of Groton, in town meet- 
 ing assembled, we are met to commemorate the anniversary 
 of the settlement of this town by white men. We are met 
 also in response to a natural desire to pay tribute to our an- 
 cestors and predecessors, and to review the occupation of 
 these fields by them and their descendants for two centuries 
 and a half. They chose a spot of surpassing loveliness, in 
 
the midst of a region whose beaut}^ has ever delighted the. 
 eye, and whose fertile soil compares well with any in New 
 England. Theirs were the rugged virtues and theirs was a 
 life of hardship and peril. A God-fearing race, they had as- 
 sured themselves that their future life was secure, and may it 
 not be that the rigor of their life here was softened by the 
 charm of their environment? Wont as they were to solace 
 themselves with the prospect of happiness in the world to 
 come, perhaps they were not altogether unconscious of the 
 prospect of earthly splendor which unfolded itself from these 
 rounded summits with its glory of sky and valley, of moun- 
 tain and river, of forest and lakelet, — our possession today, 
 as it was theirs of long ago. And what a race of men suc- 
 ceeded Deane Winthrop and his companions! With hand 
 and brain together they wrought — industrious and saga- 
 cious — in their persons, the laborer and the capitalist united, 
 the ideal state of man. Through their exertion the earth 
 yielded its increase and the landscape grew fairer. Of what 
 a number of superior individuals, too, has this town been the 
 birthplace or the abiding-place! Among them have been 
 two United States Senators; two Cabinet Officers; three 
 Governors of states; one Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 
 Plenipotentiary to England; eleven Congressmen; two At- 
 torney Generals of States; three Justices of Supreme Courts 
 of States or of a United Slates Court; three Justices of the 
 Superior Courts of States; two Speakers of the Massachusetts 
 House; besides many holding other public offices of dignity, 
 and many eminent in the professions and in affairs, both in 
 war and in peace. I may not speak the names of all, but 
 three I should like to speak, not meaning to discrimi- 
 nate, — indeed, without mention of these names in their re- 
 spective centuries, the history of our Country cannot be 
 written: — -Major Simon Willard in the Seventeenth Century; 
 Colonel William Prescott in the Eighteenth, and Governor 
 Boutwell in the Nineteenth. If the spirits of the illustrious 
 dead hover about the abodes of their mortal bodies and share 
 the interests of the living, what a company is gathered here! 
 What feelings of pride rightfully invade our breasts when 
 
lO 
 
 reflection reveals the associations that are ours! Small must 
 be the soul and narrow the brain in which the story of our 
 town cannot arouse the ennobling emotions which generous 
 natures always feel in the contemplation of worthy manhood 
 and womanhood. But besides the feeling of pride which is 
 justly ours, we are entitled also to show that other emotion 
 which in all ages has been regarded as creditable to man- 
 kind. We cannot, and we need not, restrain our demonstra- 
 tions of affection for the town of our birth or of our choice. 
 What delightful sensations recur again and again as the hal- 
 lowed memories come back? What friendships! What 
 glowing scenes! What happj^ hours! But I must not pursue 
 these pleasurable reflections further. 
 
 There is one among us, born in the town, of its best line- 
 age, and of which he has never ceased to be an inhabtant, 
 whose services to the town surpass those of all others, no 
 matter how great. Not only is the present generation his 
 debtor, but succeeding generations for all time must be also. 
 It would seem that everything in existence, every conceiv- 
 able record, every printed or written document, every scrap 
 of information concerning the town, from 1655 until today, 
 his indefatigable industry has procured and preserved in the 
 most imperishable form known to man. I do not know how 
 many volumes relating to Groton he has published, but 
 probably no community of its size, situation and age, since 
 the world was made, ever had such priceless treasure, in 
 such abundance, bestowed upon it. I make no mention of his 
 other services and his other titles to distinction, numerous 
 and important though they be. Todaj' we recognize his 
 highest claim to our respect and gratitude, and I present to 
 you to speak our feelings from the fullness of his knowledge, 
 the devoted lover of the town, the tireless recorder of its his- 
 tory, our orator, the 
 
 HONORABLE SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN. 
 
 After this complimentary and flattering introduction by 
 your president, I scarcely know who I am, or how to begin, 
 or what to say. I thank him, and I thank you for your 
 warm reception of me. 
 
II 
 
 I will say, in passing, that last j'ear, in summer, I went to 
 Groton, England, and got eight elm trees, trees perhaps five 
 or six feet in height, and some acorns and some beech nuts. 
 The trees were set out this spring, and probably not more 
 than three of the elm trees will live, but of the acorns there 
 are ten or twelve that have come up, and of the beech nuts 
 three or four at least. At some future day, when they are 
 large enough, I shall have them placed in some public 
 grounds belonging to the town. 
 
 There are six other towns besides this town in the United 
 States that bear the name of Groton. Of these six towns, I 
 have visited five, and there is only one that I have not seen, 
 and that is in the State of South Dakota. At some future 
 day I will visit that place also, and if I chance to be present 
 fifty years hence, I will certainly give an account of that 
 township as well. 
 
HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN 
 
 On this interesting occasion we all miss the presence of one 
 whose form and figure were familiar to every man, woman, 
 and child in town ; and only a few months ago we were all 
 looking forward to the time when he would take a prominent 
 part in these exercises of to-day. Some of us remember the 
 Bi-centennial Celebration which took place a half-century 
 ago, and a few of us now in this assembly were present at 
 that gathering. We recall the grace and dignity with which 
 he, as President of the day, performed the duties of his office, 
 both in the meeting-house where the historical address was 
 given, and in the tent where the after-dinner speeches were 
 made. Whenever or wherever his services were needed, 
 whether in the councils of the State or of the nation, they 
 were always cheerfully rendered ; and in this quiet village his 
 aid and advice, often sought by his townsfolk, were always 
 freely given. In many walks of life, both lofty and lowly, 
 his absence will be keenly felt ; but here among his old-time 
 neighbors more than elsewhere, the loss is a personal one, 
 and comes home to us all. We miss him now at this time 
 more than words can tell. When death strikes such a man, 
 who has led a blameless life, and whose bodily frame has be- 
 come enfeebled by the infirmities of age, his removal is not 
 a cause for sorrow ; but rather it is an occasion for devout 
 gratitude to Heaven and for heartfelt thanksgivings that he 
 was spared to us during so many years. The noble example 
 of such a one is as lasting as the countless ages of time, and 
 is never lost, for the continuity of life keeps up the thread of 
 connection. He died at an advanced age in the fulness of 
 
13 
 
 all his mental and intellectual powers, \Yhich seemed to 
 strengthen as the years rolled by. Truly he was the Grand 
 Old Man of the Commonwealth ! As long as the town of 
 Groton shall hav^e a municipal existence, the memory and 
 traditions connected with the name of Boutwell will be count- 
 ed among her richest treasures. 
 
 The story of this town has been told so many times, both 
 in printed book and public address, that now I shall not re- 
 peat the tale. I might give a narrative of the trials and 
 hardships, suffered equally by brave men and resolute women, 
 during the first century of the settlement ; I might tell how 
 the town was attacked by the Indians and burnt, and how the 
 inhabitants were driven away from their homes and compel- 
 led for a while to abandon the place ; how on various oc- 
 casions men were killed by the savages, families broken up, 
 and children carried off into captivity ; and how^ oftentimes 
 from the failure of crops they were pinched by want ; and 
 how they endured other privations, — but a relation of these 
 facts at this time would be as tedious as a twice-told tale. 
 Instead of describing the sad and dreadful experiences of the 
 early settlers, and the destruction of their homes by fire and 
 hideous ruin, I shall confine myself to other topics, and speak 
 of some of the conditions of their day, bringing the account 
 down to a later period, and touching on a few of the more 
 important events in our local history-. 
 
 In early Colonial days a town did not become a municipal 
 corporation by formal vote of the General Court, with power 
 to act as one person, but a grant of land, sometimes contain- 
 ing many thousand acres, was made to a body of men under 
 certain conditions, which was practically a quasi form of in- 
 corporation. The most important of these conditions was the 
 speedy settlement of a Godly minister, and often another 
 condition was that those persons who received land should 
 build houses thereon within a stated period of time. Some- 
 times a board of selectmen was named by the Legislature, 
 wdio should look after the prudential affairs of the town until 
 their successors were chosen. In those days this course was 
 substantially the only formality needed in order to give local 
 
14 
 
 self-government to a new community. The term "prudential 
 affairs" was a convenient expression, intended to cover any- 
 thing required by a town which prudence would dictate. 
 
 In the early records of the Colony the proceedings of the 
 General Court, as a rule, were not dated day by day, — 
 though there are many exceptions, — but the beginning of the 
 sessions is always given, and occasionally the days of the 
 month was entered. These dates in the printed edition of 
 the Records are frequently carried along without authority, 
 sometimes covering a period of several days, or even a week 
 or more ; and for this reason often it is impossible to tell the 
 exact date of any particular legislation when there are no 
 contemporaneous documents on file which bear on the subject. 
 In some instances papers are found among the State Archives 
 or elsewhere, which fix the date of such legislation that is 
 wanting in the official records. 
 
 For these reasons it is impossible to tell to a dot or a day, 
 with entire certainty, when the town of Groton began its 
 municipal life or official existence, — or, in other words, when 
 it was "incorporated," as the modern expression is. With- 
 out any doubt the date was near the end of May, 1655, Old 
 Style, It must have been after May 23, as on that day the 
 General Court began its session ; and it was before May 29, 
 when the next entry in the records appears. Fortunately 
 there is still preserved among the manuscripts of the New 
 England Historic Genealogical Society a contemporary rec- 
 ord of the action of the General Court in regard to the matter. 
 This interesting old paper, officially attested by Edward 
 Rawson, Secretary of the Colony, and by William Torrey, 
 Clerk of the Deputies, was given to that Society by the late 
 Charles Woolley, for many years an honored resident of 
 Groton. This document was signed on May 25, the day when 
 the Assistants, or Magistrates as they are often called, grant- 
 ed the petition, and apparently at the same time the House 
 of Deputies took concurrent action. At that period the As- 
 sistants formed the body of law-makers which is known to-day 
 as the State Senate ; and at that time the House of Deputies 
 corresponded to the present House of Representatives. 
 
15 
 
 It may be proper to add that the Groton Historical Society 
 owns a contemporaneous copy of the record made near the 
 time of the Grant by Edward Ravvson, Secretary of the Colony, 
 which is dated May 23, 1655. It was found among the papers 
 of the late John Boynton, a former town-clerk of Groton, and 
 may have been sent, soon after the settlement of the town, to 
 the selectmen for their information and guidance. Perhaps 
 the Secretary took the first day of the General Court, as in 
 England before April 8, 1793, all laws passed at a session of 
 Parliament went into effect from the first day, unless there 
 was some enactment to the contrar\^ 
 
 But whatever the date, be it a few days more or less, the 
 substance is always of greater importance than the shadow ; 
 so it is of less moment to learn of the exact time of the order 
 than it is to know that the town has now reached the ripe old 
 age of two centuries and a half, and that she wears the dig- 
 nity of her increasing years like a crown of glory. 
 
 Besides Groton the only two other towns established in the 
 year 1655 by the Colony of Massachusetts Bay were Billerica 
 and Chelmsford ; and singularly enough all three were con- 
 tiguous townships, all lying in the same county, and all three 
 "incorporated" within a very few days of each other. It 
 should be borne in mind that originally the town of Westford 
 was a part of the territory of Chelmsford. Why these three 
 adjoining towns were thus created at this particular time may 
 not have been a mere coincidence. It may have been the 
 result of a certain condition of political i7is and ojcts at that 
 early period of Colonial history which now cannot be ex- 
 plained. 
 
 The Charter, duly given by Charles I., was abrogated by 
 the English courts in the summer of 1684. The action wa 
 considered by the Colonists as little short of a gross outrage, 
 and caused much confusion in public affairs as well as hard 
 feeling among the people. Says Palfrey, in his "History of 
 New England" (IV. 5), "The charter of Massachusetts, the 
 only unquestionable title of her citizens to any rights, propri- 
 etary, social, or political, had been vacated by regular process 
 in the English courts." It was vacated by a decree in Chan- 
 
i6 
 
 eery, ou June 21, 1684, which was confirmed on October 23 of 
 the same year. On May 25, 1686, Joseph Dudley, a native of 
 Roxbury, under a commission from King James II. became 
 President of New England, with jurisdiction over the whole 
 region. This office he held for seven months, until December 
 30, when Edmund Andros became Governor of New England, 
 appointed by James II. He proved to be a highly arbitrary 
 officer, and was deposed by a revolution of the people, on 
 April 18, 1689. Andros was followed by Simon Bradstreet, 
 who was Governor from May 24, 1689, 10 M.ay 14, 1692. He 
 was the grandfather of Dudley Bradstreet, an early minister 
 of this town, which gives an additional interest to his name 
 at this time. During this period another Charter, signed by 
 William and Mary, on October 7, 1691, and now known as 
 the Second Charter, became operative. Under this instru- 
 ment the Colony was made a Province, which is a lower grade 
 of political existence, as it has fewer privileges and more re- 
 strictions as to the rights of the people. From June, 1684, 
 when the first Charter was vacated, till May, 1692, when the 
 Second Charter went into operation, the time is generally 
 spoken of as the Inter- Charter period, and is an exceptional 
 one in the history of Massachusetts and New England. 
 
 The first settlers of the town came here less than one gen- 
 eration after the Colonial Charter of Massachusetts-Bay was 
 granted by Charles I. They represented a rugged race, will- 
 ing to undergo hardships in daily life, and expecting to meet 
 danger from many sources. Under adverse conditions they 
 pushed into the wilderness and made their homes in a region 
 little known to the white man. They were a brave band, and 
 took their trials and troubles with a readiness worthy of all 
 praise. The new township la}- on the frontiers, and all be- 
 yond was a desolate wild. It stood on the outer edge of 
 cvilization, and for a time served as a barrier against Indian 
 attacks on the inlying settlements. The lot of a frontiers- 
 man, even under favorable conditions, is never a happy one,, 
 but at that period, particularly when cut off from neighbors 
 and deprived of all social and commercial intercourse with 
 other towns, and in an age when newspapers and postal privi- 
 
17 
 
 lieges were -unknown, his lot was indeed hard. In alter-year* 
 •this experience told on the settlers to their credit and benefit, 
 -rand made the bold character that cropped out in later gen- 
 erations when there was need of such stuff. The laws of 
 -heredity are not well enough known for us to trace closely 
 ^:aiise and effect ^ but the lives led by the early pioneers of the 
 Colony had their fruitage in the wars of the next century. 
 These laws work in a subtle and mysterious way and cannot 
 be defined, but the hardships of one generation toughen the 
 fiber of the next. Given a strong bodj- and a high standard 
 of morality, and the offspring will show the inherited traits. 
 .Every farmer in this town knows that a strain of blood and 
 breed will tell on his domestic stock. As flowers, by a pro- 
 'cess not rev^ealed to us, select the tint of delicate colors from 
 the swampy bogs of nature, so the toils of life weave the warp 
 and the woof which make up noble character. "The web oi 
 our life is of a mingled j-arn, good and ill together." 
 
 It was once wittily said by a writer, — so distinguished in his 
 day that I hardly know whether to speak of him as a poet or 
 a physician, but whom all will recognize as the Autocrat of 
 the Breakfast Table, — that a man's education begins a hun- 
 dred years before he is born. I am almost tempted to add that 
 even then he is putting on only the finishing touches of his 
 training. A man is a composite being, both in body and soul, 
 with a long line of ancestry w'hose beginnings it is impossible 
 to trace; and ever}' succeeding generation only helps to foster 
 and weld together the various and innumerable qualities 
 which make up his own personality, though they be modified 
 by countless circumstances that form his later education, and 
 for which he alone is responsible. 
 
 The first comers to Massachxxsetts brought from their Eng« 
 lish homes a love of personal freedom and liberty. For gen- 
 erations this feeling had not been encouraged there by the 
 roj-al authorities; and its growth, hampered by many obsta- 
 cles, had been slow. These settlers w^ere a hard-working set 
 and a God-fearing people, and of the right stock to found a 
 nation. Here the new conditions enabled them to give free 
 scope to their actions, and the natural drift of events was all 
 
iS 
 
 toward individual independence in its widest sense. There 
 was no law against conventicles or non-conformists, and for 
 that period of time there was great liberality of sentiment on 
 the part of the Colonists. For centuries the microbic atoms 
 of independence had been kept alive in England, and from 
 one generation to another they handed down the germs which 
 developed in the new world, and bore fruit in the American 
 Revolution. From the time of King John, who, on June 15. 
 1215, signed the Great Charter of the Liberties of England, 
 the recognition of human rights was advancing in the mother 
 country slowly but steadily; and the new settlers, infected 
 wath similar ideas, brought with them the spirit of these 
 political principles. The development of broad views was 
 gradual, but on ever}^ advance the wheels were blocked behind, 
 and the gain was held. Each separate step thus taken led 
 finally to the Declaration of Independence, which was the 
 culmination of political freedom. Based on this instrument, 
 and following closely both in spirit and in point of time, was 
 the written Constitution of the United States, which has served 
 as a model for so man}' different governments. 
 
 Eess than one generation passed between the time when 
 the Charter of Charles I. was given to the Colony of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay and the date w^hen the grant of Groton Planta- 
 tion was made by the General Court. The Charter was given 
 on March 4, 1628-9, and the grant of the town was made in 
 May, 1655, — the interval being a little more than twenty-six 
 3^ears. At that period scarcely anything was known about 
 the geography of the region, and the Charter gave to the 
 Governor and other representatives of the Massachusetts 
 Company, on certain conditions, all the territory lying between 
 an easterly and westerly line running three miles north of any 
 part of the Merrimack River and extending from the Atlantic 
 Ocean to the Pacific, and a similar parallel line running three 
 miles south of any part of the Charles River. Without at- 
 tempting to trace in detail, from the time of the Cabots to the 
 days of the Charter, the continuity of the English title to this 
 transcontinental strip of territory, it is enough to know that 
 the precedents and usages of that period gave to Great 
 
19 
 
 Britain, in theory at least, undisputed sway over the region, 
 and forged every link in the chain of authority and sover- 
 eignty. 
 
 At the time of the Charter it was incorrectly supposed that 
 America was a narrow strip of land, — perhaps an arm of the 
 continent of Asia, — and that the distance across from ocean 
 to ocean was comparatively short. It was then known that 
 the Isthmus of Darien was narrow, and it was therefore 
 thought that the whole continent also was narrow. New 
 England was a region about which little was known bej-ond 
 slight examinations made from the coast line. The rivers 
 were unexplored, and all knowledge concerning them was 
 confined to the neighborhood of the places where they 
 emptied into the sea. The early navigators thought that the 
 general course of the Merrimack was easterly and westerly, 
 as it runs in that direction near the mouth; and their error 
 was perpetuated inferentiall}- by the words of the Charter. 
 By later explorations this strip of territory has since been 
 lengthened out into a belt three thousand miles long, and 
 stretches across the whole width of the continent. The cities 
 of Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Detroit, and Mil- 
 waukee all lie within this zone, on territory that once belonged 
 to the Massachusetts Company, according to the Charter 
 granted by King Charles. 
 
 The general course of the Merrimack, as well as its source, 
 soon became known to the early settlers on the coast. The 
 northern boundary of the original grant to the Colony of 
 Massachusetts Bay was established under a misapprehension; 
 and this ignorance of the topography of the country on the 
 part of the English authorities afterward gave rise to consid- 
 erable controversy between the adjoining Provinces of Massa- 
 chusetts and New Hampshire. So long as the territory in 
 question remained unsettled, the dispute was a matter of lit- 
 tle practical importance; but after a while it assumed grave 
 proportions and led to much confusion. Grants made by one 
 Province clashed wath those made by the other; and there 
 was no ready tribunal to decide the claims of the two parties. 
 Towns were chartered by Massachusetts in territory claimed 
 
20 
 
 hy New Hampshire;- and this action was the cause of bitter 
 ieeling and provoking legislation. Massachusetts contended 
 for the tract of land " nominated in the bond," which would'v 
 carry the jurisdictional line fifty miles northward, into the 
 very heart of New Hampshire; and on the other hand, that 
 Province strenuously opposed this view of the case, and 
 claimed that the line should run, east and west, three miles 
 north of the mouth of the Merrimack River. In order to set- 
 tle these conflicting, claims, a Royal Commission was ap- 
 pointed to consider the subject and establish the contested 
 line. The Commissioners were selected from the councillors 
 of the Provinces of New York, New Jersey, Nova Scotia, and 
 Rhode Island, — men supposed to be free from any local 
 prejudices in the matter, and impartial in their feelings; and 
 without doubt they were such. The board, as appointed un- 
 der the Great Seal, consisted of nineteen members, although 
 only seven served in their capacitj^ as Commissioners. The}' 
 met at New Hampton, New Hampshire, on August i, 1737; 
 and for mutual convenience the Legislative Assemblies of 
 the two Provinces met in the same neighborhood, — the Assem- 
 bly of New Hampshire at Hampton Falls, and that of Massa- 
 chusetts at Salisbur}', places only five miles apart. This 
 was done in order that the claims of each side might be con- 
 sidered with greater dispatch than they otherwi'^e would re- 
 ceive. The General Court of Massachusetts met at Salisbury, 
 in the First Parish Meeting-house, on August 10, 1737, and 
 continued to hold its sessions in that town until October 29, 
 inclusive, though with several adjournments, of which one 
 was for thirty-five days. The printed journal of the House 
 of Representatives, during this period, gives the proceedings 
 of that body, which contain much with regard to the contro- 
 versy besides the ordinary business of legislation. Many 
 years previously the two Provinces had been united so far as 
 to have the same governor, — at this time Jonathan Belcher, 
 — but each Province had its own legislative body and code of 
 laws. 
 
 The Commissioners heard both sides of the question, and 
 agreed upon an award in alternative, leaving to the king the 
 
21 
 
 interpretation of the characters given respectively by Charles 
 I. and William and Mary. Under one interpretation the de- 
 cision was in favor of a Mssachusetts, and under the other in 
 favor of New Hampshire; and at the same time each party 
 was allowed six weeks to file o1)jections. Neither side, how- 
 ever, was satisfied with the indirect decision; and the whole 
 matter was then taken to the king in council. Massachusetts 
 claimed that the Merrimack River began at the confluence 
 of the Winnepesaukee and the Pemigewasset Rivers, 
 and that the northern boundary of the Province should run, 
 east and west, three miles north of this point. On the other 
 hand, New Hampshire claimed that the intention of the 
 Charter was to establish a northern boundary on a line, run- 
 ning east and west, three miles north of the mouth of the 
 Merrimack River. In this controversy Massachusetts seems 
 to have based her claim on the letter of the contract, while 
 New Hampshire based hers on the spirit of the contract. 
 
 The strongest argument in favor of Massachusetts is the 
 fact that she had always considered the disputed territory as 
 belonging to her jurisdiction; and before this period she had 
 chartered twenty-four towns lying within the limits of this 
 tract. These several settlements all looked to her for pro- 
 tection, and naturally sympathized with her during the con- 
 troversy. As just stated, neither part}' was satisfied with the 
 verdict of the Royal Commissioners, and both sides appealed 
 from their judgment. The matter was then taken to England 
 for a decision, which was given by the king, on March 4, 
 1739-40. His judgment was final, and in favor of New 
 Hampshire. It gave to that Province not onlj^ all the terri- 
 tory in dispute, but a strip of land fourteen miles in width 
 Ij'ing along her southern border, — mostl}' west of the Mer- 
 rimack, — which she had never claimed. This strip was the 
 tract of land between the line running east and west three 
 miles north of the southernmost trend of the river, and a simi- 
 lar line three miles north of its mouth. By this decision 
 man}- townships were taken from Massachusetts and given to 
 New Hampshire. The settlement of this disputed question 
 was undoubtedly a great public benefit, but at the time it 
 
22 
 
 caused' a good deal of hard feeling. The new line was estab- 
 lished by surveyors officially in the spring of 1741. 
 
 In regard to the divisional line between the two Provinces 
 lying east of the Merrimack, there was much less uncertainty 
 as, in a general way, it followed the bend of the river, and for 
 that reason there was much less controversy over the juris- 
 diction. Many of you, doubtless, have noticed on the map the 
 tier of towns which fringe the north bank of the Merrimack„ 
 between the city of lyowell and the mouth of the river; and,, 
 perhaps, you have wondered why those places, which from a 
 geographical point of view belong to the State of New Hamp- 
 shire, should come now within the limits of Massachusetts. 
 The explanation of this seeming incongruity^ goes back to the 
 date of the first Charter, now more than two hundred and 
 seventy-five years ago. 
 
 I have given an account of this dispute in some detail as 
 the town of Groton was a party to the controversy and took a 
 deep interest in the result. It was by this decision of the king 
 that the town lost all that portion of its territory w^hich lies 
 now within the limits of the city of Nashua; but it did not suf- 
 fer nearly so niitch as our neighbor, the town of Dunstable, 
 suffered by the same decision. At that time she received a 
 staggering blow, and her loss, indeed, was a grievous one. 
 Originally she was a large township containing 128,000 acres 
 of land, situated on both sides of the Merrimack; and she was 
 so cut in two b}^ the running of the new line that by far the 
 larger part of her territory came within the jurisdiction of 
 New Hampshire. Even the meeting-hovise and the burying- 
 ground, both so closeh' and dearly connected with the early 
 life of our people, w^ere separated from that portion of the 
 town still remaining in Massachusetts; and this fact added 
 not a little to the animosity felt by the inhabitants when the 
 disputed question was settled. It is no exaggeration to say 
 that throughout the old township and along the line of the 
 borders from the Merrimack to the Connecticut, the feelings 
 and sympathies were wholly with Massachusetts. 
 
 Thus cut in twain, there were two adjoining towns bearing 
 the same name, the one in Massachusetts, and the other in 
 
'23 
 
 New Hampshire; and thus they remained for nearly a ceiv 
 ■Liiry. Tliis similarit}- of designation was the source of con- 
 siderable confusion whicli lasted until llie New Han:pshire 
 town, on Januar}- i, 1837, took the name of Nashua, after the 
 river from which its prosperity is largely derived, 
 
 B\' the same decision of the king one other adjoining neigh- 
 bor, Townsend, — for at that time Pepperell had not as yet 
 taken on a separate municipal existence, — was deprived of 
 more than one quarter of her territory; and the present towns 
 of Brookiine, Mason, and New Ipswich in New Hampshire 
 now are reaping the benefit of what she then lost. 
 
 Enough of the original Groton Plantation, however, was left 
 to furnish other towns and parts of towns with ample material 
 for their territory. On November 26, 1742, the west parish 
 of Groton was set off as a precinct. It comprised all that part 
 of the town l3''ing on tlie west side of the Nashua River, north 
 of the old road leading from Groton to Townsend, and now 
 known as Pepperell. Its incorporation as a parish or precinct 
 allowed the inhabitants to manage their own ecclesiastical 
 affairs, while in all other matters the)- continued to act with 
 the parent town. Its partial separation gave them the benefit 
 of a settled minister in their neighborhood, whicli in those 
 daj-s was considered of great importance. 
 
 It is an interesting fact to note that in early times the main 
 reason given in the petitions for dividing towns was the long 
 distance to the meeting-house, by which the inhabitants were 
 prevented from hearing the stated preaching" of the gospel. 
 At the present clay I do not think that this argument is ever 
 urged by those who favor the division of a township. 
 
 On April 12, 1753, when the Act was signed by the Gov- 
 ernor, the west parish of Groton w^as made a district, — -the 
 second step towards its final and complete separation from 
 the mother town. At this period the Crown authorities were 
 jealous of the growth of the popular party in the House of 
 Representatives, and for that reason they frowned on every 
 attempt to increase the number of its members. This fact 
 had some connection wnth the tendency, which began to crop 
 out during Governor Shirle)-'s administration, to form dis- 
 
24 
 
 tricts instead of towns, thereby withholding- their representa- 
 tion. x\t this date the west parish, under its changed politi- 
 cal conditions, took the name of Pepperrell, and was vested 
 with still broaderpowers. It was so called after Sir William 
 Pepperrell, who had successfully commanded the New" Eng- 
 land troops against Louisbiirg; and the name w^as suggested, 
 doubtless, b}^ the Rev. Joseph Emerson, the first settled min- 
 ister of the parish. He had accompanied that famous expe- 
 dition in the capacity of chaplain, only the year before he had 
 received a call for his settlement, and the associations with 
 his commander were fresh in his menior}^ The hero of the 
 capture of Louisburg always wrote his surname with a double 
 "r"; and for many 5'ears the district followed that custom, 
 and like him, spelled the name with two "r's," but gradually 
 the town dropped one of these letters. It was near the begin- 
 ning of the nineteenth centurj^ that the present orthographic 
 form of the word became general. 
 
 In the session of the General Court which met at Water- 
 town, on July 19, 1775, Pepperell was represented by a. mem- 
 ber, and at that time practically acquired the rights and privi- 
 leges of a town without any special act of incorporation. 
 Other similar districts were likewise represented, in accord- 
 ance with the precept calling that body together, and thus 
 they obtained municipal rights without the usvial formality. 
 The precedent seems to have been set by the First Provincial 
 Congress of Massachusetts, which met in the autumn of 1774, 
 and was made up of delegates from the districts as well as 
 from the towns. It was a revolutionary step taken outside of 
 the law; and the informality led to a general Act, passed 
 on August 23, 1775, which legalized the change. 
 
 Shirley, unlike Pepperell, was never incorporated as a pre- 
 cinct, but was set off as a district on Jatiuary 5, 1753, three 
 months before Pepperell was set off as one. In the Act of In- 
 corporation the name w^as left blank, — as it was previously in 
 the case of Harvard, and soon afterward in that of Pepperell, — 
 and ' ' Shirley ' ' was filled in at the time of its engrossment. It 
 was so named after William Shirley, the Governor of the Prov- 
 ince at that period. It never was incorporated specificall}' as 
 
25 
 
 a town, but became one by a general Act of the Legislature, 
 passed on August 23, 1775. While a district it was represented 
 in the session of the General Court which met at Watertown, 
 on July 19, 1775, as well as represented in the First Provincial 
 Congress of Massachusetts, and thus tacitly acquired the 
 dignity of a town, which was afterwards confirmed by the 
 Act, just mentioned. 
 
 These two townships, Pepperell and Shirley, were the first 
 settlements to swarm from the original Plantation. With the 
 benediction o[ the mother they left the parent hive, and on all 
 occasions have proved to be dutiful daughters in whom the 
 old town has alwaj'S taken a deep pride. In former years, 
 before the days of railroads, these two towns were closely 
 identified with Groton, and the social intercourse between 
 them was very intimate. If the families of the three towns 
 were not akin to one another, in a certain sense they were 
 neighbors. 
 
 The latest legislation connected with the dismemberment 
 of the original grant, — and perhaps the last for many 3'ears 
 to come, — is the Act of February, 14, 1871, by which the 
 town of Ayer was incorporated. This enactment took from 
 Groton a large section of territory lying near its southern 
 borders, and from Shirley all that part of the town on the 
 easterly side of the Nashua River which was annexed to it 
 from Groton, on February 6, 1798. 
 
 Thus has the old Groton Plantation, during a period of two 
 hundred and fifty years, been hewn and hacked down to less 
 than one half of its original dimensions. Formerly it con- 
 tained 40,960 acres, while now the amovmt of taxable land 
 within the town is 19,850 acres. It has furnished, substan- 
 tially, the entire territory of Pepperell, Shirley, and Ayer, 
 more than one half of Dunstable, and has contributed more 
 or less to form five other towns, — namely. Harvard, Little- 
 ton, and Westford, in Massachusetts, besides Nashua and 
 Hollis, in New Hampshire. 
 
 The early settlers of Groton, like all other persons of that 
 period of time or of any period, had their limitations. They 
 were lovers of political freedom, and they gave the largest 
 
26 
 
 libert}^ to all, — so far as it related to their phj'sical condition; 
 but in matters of religious belief it was quite otherwise. With 
 them it was an accepted tradition, — perhaps with us net 
 entirely outgrown, — that persons who held a different faith 
 from themselves were likeh^ to have a lower standard of mo- 
 rality. They saw things by a dim light, they saw "through 
 a glass darkly. ' ' They beheld theological objects by the help 
 of dipped candles, and they interpreted religion and its rela- 
 tions to life accordingly. We living two hundred and fifty 
 years later can bring to bear the electric light of science and 
 modern discovery. We have a great advantage over what 
 they had, and let us use it fairly. Let us be just to them, as 
 we hope for justice from those who will follow us. Let us re- 
 member that the standards of daily life change from one cen- 
 tury to another. Perhaps in future generations, when we are 
 judged, the verdict of posterity will be against us rather than 
 against the early comers. More has been given to us than 
 was given to them, and we shall be held responsible in a cor- 
 respondingly larger measure. It is not the number of talents 
 with w^hich we have been entrusted that will tell in our favor, 
 but the sacred use we make of them. In deciding this ques- 
 tion, two centuries and a half hence, I am by no means sure 
 of the judgment that history will render. Do we as a nation 
 give all men a square deal? The author of the Golden Rule 
 was color blind, and in its application he made no difference 
 between the various races of mankind. The rule applied to the 
 black man equally with the white man. Do we now give our 
 African brother a fair chance? It is enough for us to try to do 
 right, and let the consequences be what they will. " Hew up 
 to the chalk line, and let the chips fly where the}- maj'," 
 once said Wendall Phillips. We hear much nowadaj-s about 
 the simple life, but that was the life lived by the settlers, and 
 taught to their children, both by precept and example. 
 Austere in their belief, the}' practised those homely virtues 
 which lie at the base of all civilization; and we of today owe 
 much to their memory. They prayed for the wisdom that 
 Cometh from above, and for the righteousness that exalteth a 
 nation; and the}' tried to square their conduct by their creed. 
 
27 
 
 The early settlers were a plain folk, and the\' knew little 
 of the pride and pomposit}' of later times. To sum up briefly 
 their social qualities, I should say that they were neighborly 
 to a superlative degree, w^hich means much in country life. 
 They looked after the welfare of their neighbors who were 
 not so well off in this world's goods as they themselves, they 
 watched with them when they were sick, and sympathized 
 with them when death came into their families. In cold 
 weather they hauled wood for the widows, and cut it up and 
 .split it for them; and when a beef " crittur " or a hog was 
 killed, no one went hungry-. When a man met with an ac- 
 cident and had a leg broken, the neighbors saw that his crops 
 were gathered, and that all needful work was done; and after 
 a heavy snow-storm in winter, they turned to and broke out 
 the roads and private ways with sleds drawn by many yoke 
 of oxen belonging in the district. Happily all this order of 
 things is not yet a lost art, but in former times the custom 
 was more thoroughly observed, and spread over a much 
 wider region than now prevails. When help was needed in 
 private households, they never asked, like the law>^er of old, 
 " And who is my neighbor?" They ahvays stretched out 
 their hands to the poor, and they reached forth their hands 
 to the needy. 
 
 To us it seems almost pathetic, certainly amusing, to see 
 how closely they connected their daily life with the affairs of 
 the church. As a specimen I will give an instance found in 
 the note-book of the Reverend John Fiske, of Chelmsford. 
 It seems that John Parker, James Fiske, and John Nutting 
 wished to remove from Chelmsford and take up their abode 
 in this town. The subject of their removal was brought be- 
 fore the church there in the autumn of 1661, when they de- 
 sired the "loving leave" of their brethren so to do, as well 
 as prayers that the blessings of God might accompany them 
 to their new homes. The meeting was held on November 9, 
 1661, when some discussion took place and considerable feel- 
 ing was shown. Mr. Fiske, the pastor, shrewdly declined 
 to commit himself in the matter; or, according to the record, 
 declined to speak on the question "one way or the other, but 
 
28 
 
 desired that the brethren might manifest themselves." At 
 the conference one brother said that there was no necessity 
 or the removal, and hoped that the three members would 
 give up their intentions to remove, and would remain in 
 Chelmsford. Reading between the lines it seems as if this 
 town had invited the three men to settle here; and Brother 
 Parker speaking for them (in the plural number) said that 
 God's hand was to be seen in the whole movement. The 
 same hand which brought them to Chelmsford now pointed 
 to Groton. Apparently the meeting was a protracted one, 
 and "scarce a man in the Church but presently said the 
 grounds, the grounds." This was another form of calling 
 for the question, — in other words, for the reasons of the re- 
 moval, whether valid or not. While the decision of the con- 
 ference is not given in exact language, inferentially it was in 
 favor of their going, — as they were here in December, 1662. 
 James Parker was a deacon of the Chelmsford church ; and 
 perhaps there had been some slight disagreement between 
 him and a few of the other members. Evidently he was one 
 of the pillars of the body at Chelmsford; and at once he 
 became a deacon at Groton. To us now it is amusing to see 
 what a commotion was raised because these three familes 
 proposed to remove to another town. "Behold how great a 
 matter a little fire kindleth." Fortunately for this town 
 James Parker, James Fiske, and John Nutting with their 
 households came here to live, where they all became useful 
 and influential citizens far above the average. In his daj' 
 James Parker was the most prominent man in Groton, filling 
 many civil and military positions; the next year after com- 
 ing James Fiske was chosen selectman, and later town-clerk; 
 and John Nutting was appointed surveyor of highways. 
 There are in this audience, doubtless, at the present moment 
 many descendants of these three pioneers who had so many 
 obstacles thrown in their way before taking up their abode 
 here. If these families had not removed hither at that early 
 period, perhaps their descendants now would be celebrating 
 anniversaiies elsewhere rather than here, and might never 
 have known what they lost by the change in their respective 
 
29 
 
 Ijirthplaces. Without being able to call them by name or to 
 identify them in any way, to all such I offer the greeting.s of 
 this gathering on the good judgment shown by their an- 
 cestors. 
 
 This town toolc its name from Groton Co. Suffolk, England, 
 which was the native place of Deane Winthrop, on^ of the 
 •original petitioners for Groton Plantation. His name stands 
 at the head of the list of selectmen appointed in 1655 by the 
 General Court; and today we should give him the title of 
 Chairman of the Board. He was a son of John Winthrop 
 •who came to New England in 1630 as Governor of Massachu- 
 setts; and it was in compliment to him that the name of his 
 birthplace was given to the town. Without much doubt he 
 was a resident here for a few years ; and in this opinion I am 
 ■supported by a distinguished member of that family, now de- 
 ceased, who some time ago wrote me as follows: 
 
 Boston, 27 February, 1878. 
 
 Mv Dear Dr. Green, — It would give me real pleasure to aid you 
 in establishiug the relations of Deane Winthrop to the Town of Groton 
 in Massachusetts. But there are only three or four letters of Deane's 
 among the family papers in my possession, and not one of them is dated 
 Groton. Nor can I find in any of the family papers a distinct reference 
 to his residence there. 
 
 There are, however, two brief notes of his, both dated "the 16 of 
 December, 1662," which I cannot help thinking may have been written 
 at Groton. One of them is addressed to his brother John, the Governor 
 of Connecticut, who was then in London, on business connected with the 
 Charter of Connecticut. In this note, Deane says as follows: — 
 
 " I have some thoughts of removing from the place I now live in, into 
 your Colony, if I could lit of a convenient place. The place that I now 
 live in is too little for me, my children now growing up." 
 
 We know thut Deane Winthrop was at the head of the first Board of 
 Selectmen of Groton a few years earlier, and that he went to reside at 
 PuUen Point, now called Winthrop, not many years after. 
 
 I am strongly inclined to think with you that this note of Decamber, 
 1662, was written at Groton. 
 
 Yours verv truly, 
 
 RoBT. C. Winthrop. 
 
 SamueIv a. Green, M. D. 
 
During, my boyhood I always had a strong desire to Wsit 
 Groton in England, which gave its name to this town and 
 indirectly to six other towns in the United States. Strictly 
 speakingv it is not a town, but a parish; and there are tech- 
 nical distinctions between the two. More than fifty years, 
 ago I was staying in London, and as a stranger in that great 
 metropolis, even after many inquiries I found much difficulty 
 in learning the best way to reach the little village. All my 
 previous knowledge in regard to the place was limited to the 
 fact that it lay in the county of Suffolk, near its southern 
 border. After a somewhat close study of a Railway Guide,, 
 I left London by rail for Sudbury, which is the only town of 
 considerable size in the immediate neighborhood of Groton. 
 After changing trains at a railway junction, of which the name 
 has long since faded from my memory, I found myself in a 
 carriage alone with a fellow passenger, who was both cour- 
 teous and communicative, and thoroughly acquainted with 
 the country through which we were passing. On telling him 
 the purpose of my visit, he seemed to be much interested, and 
 told me in return that he was very familiar with the parish 
 of Groton; and he had many questions to ask about our good 
 old town, which I was both able and glad to answer. It soon 
 turned out that my hitherto unknown friend w^as Sir Henry 
 E. Austen, of Chelsworth, Hadleigh, who, on reaching Sud- 
 bury, gave me a note of introduction to Richard Almack, 
 Esq., of Long Melford, which I used a day or two afterward 
 with excellent results. From Sudbury I drove in a dog-cart 
 to Boxford, where I tarried over night at the White Horse 
 Inn, and in the morning walked over to Groton, less than a 
 mile distant. This place, — the object of my pilgrimage, — I 
 found to be a typical English village of the olden time, very 
 small both in territory and population, and utterly unlike 
 any of its American namesakes. Its history goes back many 
 generations, even to the period before Domesday Book, which 
 was ordered by William the Conqueror more than eight hun- 
 dred years ago, and which registers a survey of the lands of 
 England made at that early date. The text is in Latin, and 
 the words are much shortened. The writing is peculiar and 
 
31 
 
 hard to read; but it gives some very interesting statistics in 
 regard to the place. 
 
 On reaching the end of my trip I called at once on the rec- 
 tor, who receii'-ed me very kindly and offered to go with me 
 to the church, which invitation 1 readily accepted. He ex- 
 pressed much interest in the New England towns bearing 
 the name of Groton, and spoke of a visit made to the English 
 town a few years previously, by the Honorable Robert C. 
 "Winthrop, of Boston, which gave him great pleasure. We 
 walked over the grounds of the old manor, once belonging to 
 John Winthrop. first Governor of Massachusetts; and Groton 
 Place, the residence of the lord of the manor at that time, 
 was pointed out, as well as a solitary mulbur}- tree, which 
 stood in Winthrop's garden, and is now the last vestige of 
 the spot. In strolling over the grounds I picked up some 
 acorns under an oak. which were afterward sent home to my 
 father and planted here, but unfortunately they did not come 
 up. I remember with special pleasure the attentions of Mr. 
 R. F. Swan, postmaster at Boxfor:!, who took me to a small 
 school of little children, where the teacher told the scholars 
 that I had come from another Groton across the broad ocean. 
 He also kindly made for me a rough tracing of the part of the 
 parish in which I was more particularly interested; and as I 
 had left the inn at Boxford when he called, he sent it by private 
 hands to me at the Sudbury railway-station. All these little 
 courtesies and many more I recollect with great distinctness, 
 and they add much to the pleasant memories of my visit to the 
 ancestral town, which has such a numerous progeny of muni- 
 cipal descendants in the United States. 
 
 Of this large family our town, now celebrating the two hun- 
 dred and fiftieth anniversary of its birth, is the eldest; and as 
 the "first-born, higher than the kings of the earth." 
 
 The next child in the order of descent is the town in Con- 
 necticut, — younger than this town by just half a century, and 
 during the Revolution the scene of the heroic Ledyard's 
 death. It was so named in the year 1705 : during the Gov- 
 ernorship of Fitz-John Winthrop, out of respect to the Suffolk 
 home of the family. In population this is the largest of the 
 
5^ 
 
 various towns bearing the name, and esntains several thriv- 
 ing villages. It is situated on the east bank of the Thames 
 River, in New London County.. 
 
 The next town in age is the one in Grafton County, New 
 Hampshire, which was originally granted by the Legislature 
 of that State a» early as July 3, 1761, under the name of 
 Cockermouth, and re-granted on November 22, 1766; but the 
 present name of Groton was not given until December 7,, 
 1796. It was chosen by certain inhabitants of the place, who 
 were connected either by birth or through kindred with this 
 town. The population is small, and the principal pursuit o£ 
 the people is farming, though there are eight of ten saw-mills 
 within its limits. Mica is found in great abundauce, and 
 forms the basis of an important industry. There is a Spec- 
 tacle Pond, lying partly within the town, of which the name 
 may have gone from this neighborhood. There are two vil- 
 lages in the township, the one known as North Groton, per- 
 haps the more important, and the other situated near the 
 southerly border, and known as Groton. Between these two 
 villages, in the centre of the territory, are the town-house 
 and an old burying ground where fifteen years ago I exam- 
 ined many of the epitaphs and found a few family names that 
 are still common here in our burying-ground. 
 
 The fourth child in the municipal family is the town of 
 Groton, Caledonia County, Vermont, a pretty village lying 
 in the Wells River Valley, and chartered on October 20, 
 1729, thougfi the earliest settlers were living there a few 
 years before that date. The first child born in the town was 
 Sally, daughter of Captain Edmund and Sally (Wesson) 
 Morse, who began her early pilgrimage on September 2, 
 1787. The father was a native of our town, and principally 
 through his influence the name of Groton was given to the 
 home of his adoption among the foot-hills of the Green 
 Mountains. Wells River runs through the township in a 
 southeasterly direction, and with its tributaries affords some 
 excellent water-power along its course. The stream rises in 
 Groton Pond, a beautiful sheet of water, and empties into the 
 
33 
 
 Connecticut at White River Junction, a railway centre c! 
 .some importance. 
 
 My visit to the town was made on July 26, 1890, and while 
 there I called on the Honorable Isaac Newton Hall, one of 
 the oldest and most prominent citizens of the place, who 
 kindly took me in his buggj^ through the village, pointing 
 ■out by the way the various objects of public interest. The 
 Methodist Episcopal church, situated at one end of the vil- 
 lage street, had some memorial windows, of which two had 
 inscriptions, as follows : — 
 
 Capt ■ Edmund ' Morse 
 
 Born ■ Groton ' Mass ' 1764 
 
 Died • Groton ' Vt " 1843 
 
 Sally • Morse " Hill 
 
 Born ■ 1787 — Died ' 1S64 
 
 The • First " Person ' Born " in ' Groton 
 
 Before leaving the place I walked through the burying- 
 ground and examined some of the epitaphs, but none of the 
 names reminded me particularly of the parent town. 
 
 The next town of the name is Groton, Erie County, Ohio, 
 which was settled about the year 1809. It was first called 
 Wheatsborough, after a Mr. Wheats, who originally owned 
 most of the township. It lies in the region known as the Fire 
 Lands of Ohio, a tract of half a million acres given by the 
 State of Connecticut in May, 1792, to those of her citizens 
 who had suffered losses from the enemy during the Revolu- 
 tion. Like many other places in the neighborhood, the town 
 took its name from the one in Connecticut. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1889 I happened to be in Nashville, 
 Tennessee, as a member of a committee on business con- 
 nected with the Peabody Normal College in that city, of 
 which ex-President Hayes was chairman. On telling him 
 incidentally that I proposed on my return homeward to stop 
 for a short time at Groton, Erie County, Ohio, he kindly in- 
 vited me to make him a visit at his home in Fremont, which 
 
34 
 
 was verj^ near my objecftive point; and he said furthermcre 
 that he would accompany me on my trip to that town, which 
 offer I readily accepted. On the morning of November 27, 
 we left Fremont by rail for Norwalk, the shire town of Huron 
 County, — a county in which the township of Groton formerly 
 came, — -where we alighted, and at once repaired to the rooms 
 of the Firelands Historical Society. Here we were met by 
 several gentlemen, prominent in the cit}' as well as in the His- 
 orical Society, who showed us many attentions. We had an 
 opportunity there to examine various obje(5ls of interest con- 
 nected with the early history of that part of the State. Then 
 taking the cars again on our return, we proceeded as far as 
 Bellevue, where we left the train. Here at a livery-stable we 
 engaged a buggy and a pair of horses, without knowing ex- 
 actly to what part of the township I wished to go, as I was 
 then told there was no village of Groton, but onl}^ scat- 
 tered farms throughout the town. One man, however, said 
 that there was a place called Groton Centre, which seemed to 
 me both very natural and familiar, and so thither we direcfted 
 our course. After driving over very muddy roads for five or 
 six miles, we inquired at a farm-house the way to Groton 
 Centre, where we were told that a school-house in sight, half 
 a mile off, was the desired place. There was no village what- 
 ever to be seen in any direcftion ; and the building was the 
 public voting-place, on which account the neighborhood re- 
 ceived the name. The town is entirely agricultural in its 
 character, and the land is largel}^ prairie with a rich soil. It 
 is small in population, and does not contain even a post-office. 
 The inhabitants for their postal facilities depend on Bellevue 
 and Sandusky, adjacent places. 
 
 Another town bearing the good name of Groton, which I 
 have visited, is the one in Tompkins Count}-, New York. 
 More than eighteen years ago I found myself at Courtland, 
 Courtland County, New York, where I had gone in order to 
 see the venerable Mrs. Sarah Chaplin Rockwood, a native of 
 this town. She was a daughter of the Reverend Dr. Chaplin, 
 the last minister settled b}^ the town, and at that time she was 
 almost one hundred and two years old. B5- a coincidence she 
 
35 
 
 was then living on Groton Avenue, a thorotighfare which 
 leads to Groton, Tompkins County, a town ten miles distant. 
 Taking advantage of my nearness to that place, on May 4, 
 1887, I drove there and was set down at the Groton Hotel, 
 where I passed the night. Soon after my arrival I took a 
 stroll through the village, and then called on Marvin Morse 
 Baldwin, Esq., a lawyer of prominence, and the author of an 
 historical sketch of the place, published in 1868. The town 
 was formed originally, on April 7, 1817, from Locke, Cayuga 
 Count}^ under the name of Division; but during the next 
 year this was changed to Groton, on the petition of the inhab- 
 itants, some of whom were from Groton, Massachusetts, and 
 others from Groton, Connecticut. The principal village is 
 situated on Owasco Inlet, a small stream, and is surrounded 
 by a rolling country of great beauty. The population is 
 small, and the business chieliy confined to a machine-shop 
 and foundry, several carriage-shops, and the making of agri- 
 cultural implements. The town supports a National Bank 
 and also a weekly newspaper, and has railway communica- 
 tion with other places. 
 
 In all these visits to the several towns of the same name, I 
 have interested myself to learn the local pronunciation of the 
 word. I have asked many persons in all ranks of life and 
 grades of society in regard to the matter, and without excep- 
 tion they have given it "Graw-ton," which every "native 
 here, and to the manor born" knows so well how to pro- 
 nounce. It has never been Grow-ton, or Grot-ton even, but 
 always with a broad sound on the first and accented syllable. 
 Such was the old pronunciation in England, and by the con- 
 tinuity of custom and tradition the same has been kept up 
 throughout the several settlements in this country bearing 
 the name. 
 
 The latest town aspiring to the honor of the name of Groton 
 is in Brown County, South Dakota. It was laid out about 
 twenty-two years ago on land owned by the Chicago, Mil- 
 waukee and St. Paul Railway Company. I have been in- 
 formed that various New England names were seldleed by 
 the Company and given to different townships along the line, 
 
56' 
 
 not ior personal or individual reasons, btit becaase tliey were 
 short and well sounding, and unlike any others in the Terri- 
 tory of that period. 
 
 At some future day,, if my life be spared long enough, I 
 ma}' pay my respects to this youngest child of the name and 
 visit her township. In that case I will describe her person- 
 ality and place her in the fainily group with her elder sisters. 
 
 During two centuries and a half, — the long period of time 
 now under consideration, — many changes have taken place- 
 in the customs and manners of our people. Some of these 
 are entirely forgotten, and traces of them are found only in. 
 the records of the past ; and I purpose to allude to a few. In. 
 this way a survival of their knowledge may be kept up, which, 
 will help the present generation in some degree to catch the 
 attitude of its ancestors. 
 
 In the early days of New England marriages were per- 
 formed by magistrates only, and by other officers appointed 
 for that particular purpose. It was many years before minis- 
 ters of the Gospel were allowed to take part in the ceremony. 
 At a town meeting held here, on December 15, 1669, the 
 selectmen were authorized "to petition to the [General] 
 Court for one to marry persons in our towne " ; audit is 
 probable that befoi'e this time persons wishing to be joined in 
 wedlock were obliged either to go elsewhere in order to .carry 
 out their intention, or else a magistrate or other officer w^as 
 brought for the occasion. At that period the population of 
 the towai was small, and the marriages were few^ in number; 
 and before this date only eight couples are found as recorded 
 of Groton. Perhaps these marriages were solemnized by a 
 Commissioner of Small Causes, who was authorized equally 
 W'ith a magistrate to conduct the ceremony. These oflficers 
 were empowered to act in all cases within the jurisdiction of 
 a magistrate, and were approved, either by the Court of As- 
 sistants or the County Courts, on the request of any town 
 where there was no resident magistrate. They were three 
 in number in each of such towns, and were chosen by the 
 freemen. 
 
37 
 
 Another instance of a change in early customs is found in 
 connection with funerals, which formerly were conducted 
 with severe simplicity. Our pious forefathers were opposed 
 to all ecclesiastical rites, and any custom that reminded them 
 of the English church met with their stern disapproval. And, 
 furthermore, prayers over a corpse were ver}' suggestive of 
 those offered up for the dead by the Roman church; and to 
 their minds such ceremonies savored strongly of heresy and 
 superstition. A body was taken from the house to the grave, 
 and interred without ceremonj'; and no religious services 
 were held. Funeral prayers in New England were first made 
 in the smaller towns before they were in the larger places. 
 Their introduction into Boston was of so uncommon occur- 
 rence that it caused some comment in a newspaper, as the 
 following extract from "The Boston Weekly News-Letter, " 
 December 31, 1730, will show: — 
 
 Yesterday were Buried here the remains of that truly honourable & 
 devout Gentlewoman, Mrs. SARAH BYFIELD, amidst the affectionate 
 Respects & Lamentations of a numerous Concourse. — Before carrying 
 out the Corpse, a Funeral Prayer was made, by one of the Pastors of the 
 Old Church, to whose Communion she belong'd; which, tho' a Custom 
 in the Country-Towns, is a singular Instance in this place, but it's 
 wish'd may prove a leading Example to the general Practice of so chris- 
 tian & decent a Custom. 
 
 At a funeral the coffin was carried upon a bier to the place 
 of interment by pall-bearers, who from time to time were re- 
 lieved by others walking at their side. The bearers usually 
 were kinsfolk or intimate friends of the deceased; and they 
 were followed by the mourners and neighbors, who walked 
 two by two. After the burial the bier was left standing over 
 the grave ready for use when occasion should again require. 
 
 Two centuries ago, writers of poetical compositions in 
 memory of the dead were more common in New England 
 than they are today. They gave utterance to their feelings 
 in a form of verse known as the Elegy. Occasionally such pro- 
 ductions were printed on single sheets, and circulated among 
 the friends of the family. They were generally crude in their 
 
metrical constru(5li:on, but they afforded a certain kind of saol 
 satisfaction to the mourners. Sometimes manuscript copies 
 were made from the printed sheet, and these, too, were sent, 
 round to the friends of the departed. An entry in Judge 
 Sewall's Diary, under date of June 9, 1685, would seem to- 
 show that such verses were sometimes pinned cr placed 011 
 the coffin,, as in modern times flowers are laid on the graves. 
 It is found in the paragraph describitig the funeral of the 
 Reverend Thomas Shepard at Charlestown, as foUow^s — " It 
 seems there were some verses ; but none pinned on the Herse. 
 Scholars [from Harvard College] went before the Herse'* 
 (1.82). The meaning of the old form " herse " is eoffin„ 
 grave, tomb, etc., and the word has its modern representative 
 in "hearse," a carriage for conveying the dead to the grave. 
 Many years ago an old citizen of the town told me that 
 once he served as a pall-bearer at the funeral of a friend who 
 died in Squannacook Village (West Groton). Lt took place 
 near midsummer, in very hot weather : and he related how 
 the procession was obliged to halt often in order to give a 
 rest to the bearers, who were nearly prostrated by the heat 
 during their long march. 
 
 Hearses were first introduced into Boston about 1796, and 
 into Groton a few^ years later. In the warrant for the Groton 
 town meeting on April 4, 1803, Article No. 7 was 
 
 To see if the town will provide a herse for the town's use, and give 
 such directions about the same as they shall think fit. 
 
 In the Proceedings of that meeting, after Article No. 7, it 
 is recorded : — 
 
 Voted that the town will provide a herse for the Town's use. 
 
 Voted and chose James Brazer, Esqr Jacob L. Parker, and Joseph 
 Sawtell 3d a Committee and directed them to provide a decent herse at 
 the Town's expence. 
 
 From the earliest period of our Colonial history training- 
 days were appointed by the General Court for the drilling 
 of soldiers; and at intervals the companies used to come to- 
 
39 
 
 get1"iei as a regiment and practise various military exercist'.-?. 
 From this custom sprang the regimental muster, so common 
 before the War of the Rebellion. 
 
 During a long time, and particularly^ in the early part of 
 the nineteenth century, many such musters were held here. 
 A training-field often used for the purpose was the plain, 
 .situated near the Hollingsworth Paper-mills, a mile and a 
 half northerl)- from the village. vSometimes thej- were held 
 on the eastern .side of the road, and at other times on the 
 westerly side. During my boyhood musters took place, twice 
 •certainly, on the easterl}^ slope of the hill on the south side 
 of the Broad Meadow Road near Fai'mers' Row : and also, 
 once certainly, intlie field lying southeast of Lawrence Acad- 
 emy, near where Powder House Road now runs. 
 
 Musters have been held on land back of the late Charles 
 Jacobs's house, and in the autumn of 1S50, in afield near the 
 dwelling where Benjamin Moors used to live, close byjames's 
 Brook, in the south part of the town. The last one in 
 Groton, or the neighborhood even, took place on September 
 13-14, 1852, and was held in the south part of the town, near the 
 line of the Fitchburg Railroad on its northerl}^ side, some 
 distance ea.s't of the station. This was a muster of the Fifth 
 Regiment of Light Infantry, and occurred while Mr. Boutwell 
 was Governor of the Commonwealth; and I remember well 
 the reception which he gave to the officers on the intervening 
 evening at his house, built during the preceding year. 
 
 Akin to the subject of military matters, was a custom which 
 formerly prevailed in some parts of Massachusetts, and per- 
 haps elsewhere, of celebrating occasionally the anniversary 
 of the surrender of Yorktown, which falls on October 17. 
 Such a celebration was called a " Cornwallis"; and it was 
 intended to represent, in a burlesque manner, the siege of the 
 town, as well as the ceremony of its surrender. The most 
 prominent generals on each side would be personated, while 
 the men of the two armies w^ould wear what was supposed to 
 be their peculiar uniform. I can recall now more than one 
 such sham fight that took place in this town during my boy- 
 hood. In 10 Cushing, 252, is to be found a decision of the 
 
40 
 
 Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, enjoining a town 
 treasurer from paying money that had been appropriated for 
 such a celebration. 
 
 James Russell Lowell, in his Glossary to " The Biglow 
 Papers," thus defines the word : Cornwallis, a sort of vnister 
 in masquerade ; supposed to have had its origin soon after the 
 Revolution, and to commemorate the surrender of Lord Corn- 
 wallis. It took the place of the old Gu}' Fawkes procession." 
 Speaking in the character of Hosea Biglow, he asks. 
 
 Recollect wut fun we hed, you'n' I an' Ezry Hollis 
 
 Up there to Waltham plain last fall, along o' the Cornwallis? 
 
 He further saj'S in a note: "i hait the Sight of a feller with 
 a muskit as i du pizn But their is fun to a cornwallis I aint 
 agoin' to deny it." 
 
 The last Cornwallis in this immediate neighborhood came 
 off about sixt)^ years ago at Pepperell ; and I remember wit- 
 nessing it. Another Cornwallis on a large scale occurred at 
 Clinton in the year 1853, in which nine uniformed companies 
 of militia, including the Groton Artillery, took part. On this 
 occasion the burlesque display, both in numbers and details, 
 far outshone all former attempts of a similar character, and, 
 like the song of a swan, ended a custom that had come 
 down from a previous century. At the present day nothing 
 is left of this quaint celebration but a faded memory and an 
 uncertain tradition. 
 
 The first settlers of Massachusetts brought with them from 
 England a good supply of seeds and stones of various fruits, 
 grains, and vegetables, which were duly planted. In this way 
 was begun the cultivation of apples, pears, peaches, plums, 
 cherries, wheat, rye, barley, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, hops, 
 currants, etc., and in the course of a few years they raised 
 fair crops of all these products. 
 
 As early as 1660 all inn-holders and tavern-keepers were 
 required to have a license in order to be allowed to carry on 
 their business ; and they were obliged to be approbated by the 
 selectmen of the town and to be licensed by the County 
 Court. At the same time a restriction was placed on makers 
 
41 
 
 of cider, who were not allowed to sell by retail, except under 
 certain conditions ; " and that it be only to masters of families 
 of good and honest report, of persons going to Sea, and they 
 ijuffer not any person to drink the same in their houses, cel- 
 lars or yards." This reference, found in "The Book of the 
 General Lawes and Libertyes" (Cambridge, 1660), shows 
 that at an early date in the history of the Colony the pro- 
 hibitory principle was recognized by legislative enactment, 
 and that it is by no means a modern idea. The reference 
 shows furthermore that cider was made by the settlers at an 
 early period. Few persons of the rising generation are aware 
 of the great quantities of cider made fifty or seventy-five 
 years ago on almost every farm in an agricultural commu^ 
 nity. I am placing the estimate within moderate bounds when 
 I say that every good-sized farm in Groton had an apple or- 
 chard and a cider-mill- on the premises. Many a farmer 
 would make all the way from ten to thirty barrels of cider 
 for home use, besides what he would sell elsew^here or make 
 into vinegar; and this large stock was kept in the cellar. 
 There are now in this audience men and women who remem- 
 ber how years ago the}'- used to suck sweet cider through a 
 long rye straw, as it ran from the press. At such times the 
 children were often as thick as honey-bees round the bung- 
 hole of a hogshead of molasses in summer time. 
 
 Many plants were brought to New England originally from 
 other countries for their medicinal virtues, and many were 
 introduced by chance. Some have multiplied so rapidly 
 and grown so plentifully in the fields and by the roadside, 
 that they are now considered common weeds. Wormwood, 
 tansy, chamomile, yarrow, dandelion, burdock, plantain, 
 catnip, and mint all came here by importation. These exotic 
 plants made their way into the interior, as fast as civilization 
 extended in that direction ; though in some instances the 
 seeds may have been carried by birds in their flight. 
 
 Dr. William Douglass, in "A Summary, Historical and 
 Political, of the first Planting, progressive Improvements, 
 and present State of the British Settlements in North 
 
42 
 
 America," published at Boston (Volume I. in the year 1749, 
 and Volume II. in 1753), says: — 
 
 Near Boston and other great Towns, some Field Plants which accident- 
 ally have been imported from Europe, spread much, and are a great 
 Nuasance in Pastures, ... at present they have spread Inland from 
 Boston, about 30 Miles (II. 207). 
 
 According to this statement, the pioneers of some of these 
 foreign plants or weeds had already reached the township of 
 Groton near the middle of the eighteenth century. Dr. 
 Douglass gives another fact about the town which may be 
 worthy of preservation, as follows: — 
 
 There are some actual Surveys of Extents which ought not to be lost 
 in Oblivion; as for Instance, from 3ferriinack River due West to Groton 
 Meeting-House are 12 miles; from Groton Meeting-House (as surveyed 
 by Col. Stoddard, Major Fulham, and Mr. Divight, by Order of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly) to Northfield Meeting-House W. 16 d. N. by Compass are 
 41 Miles and half (I. 425 note). 
 
 Such surveys, as those given in this extra(5l, were of more 
 interest to the public, before the days of railroads, than they 
 are now; but, as the author says, thej' " ought not to be lost 
 in Oblivion." 
 
 The greatest advance in social and moral life during the 
 last one hundred and twenty-five years has been in the cause 
 of temperance. Soon after the period of the Revolution there 
 arose an abuse of spirituous liquors, perhaps induced in part 
 by the return home of young men from the army, who while 
 absent had acquired the habit of drinking to excess. There 
 was no public occasion, from a wedding to a funeral, or from 
 the ordination of a minister to the raising of a house or barn, 
 when rum in many of its Protean shapes was not given out. It 
 was set on the festive sideboard, and used freely both by the 
 old and young ; and sometimes even the pastor of the church 
 yielded to the insidious seduction of the stimulant. Liquors 
 were sold at retail at most of the trading shops in town, and 
 at the three taverns in the village. The late Hlizur Wright, 
 an eminent statistician, and nearly eighty years ago a resident 
 
43 
 
 of Grotoii, once told me in writing that, according to an esti- 
 mate made by him at that period, the amount of New Eng- 
 land rum sold here in one year was somewhat over 28,000 
 gallons. This was not a guess on his part, but was taken 
 from the books of dealers in the fluid, who had kindly com- 
 plied with his request for the amount of their sales during 
 the previous year. We judge of the whole from the specimen. 
 It is generally supposed that the huge department stores in 
 the large cities are a modern institution, so far as they relate 
 to the variety of articles sold ; but in this respect they are only 
 an imitation of the old-time country store. Fifty years ago the 
 average trading shop kapt about everything that was sold, 
 from a pin to a plough, from silks and satins to stoves and 
 shovels; and from tea and coffee to tin dippers and cotton drill- 
 ing, flour, all kinds of dry goods and groceries, molasses, 
 raisins, bricks, cheese, hats, nails, sperm oil, grindstones, boots 
 and shoes, drugs and medicines, to say nothing of a supply of 
 confectionery for the children; besides a daily barter of any 
 of the aforesaid articles for fresh eggs and butter. The 
 traders were omniverous in their dealings, and they kept on 
 hand nearly everything that was asked for by the customers. 
 In this respedl they have set an example to the proprietors 
 of the department stores, who offer for sale an equally mis- 
 cellaneous assortment of goods. 
 
 Within the last three-quarters of a century, perhaps the 
 most useful invention given to mankind, certainly one very 
 widely used, has been the common friction match. Appar- 
 ently it is so trifling and inconspicuous that among the great 
 discoveries of the nineteenth century it is likely to be over- 
 looked. This little article is so cheap that no hovel or ham- 
 let throughout Christendom is ever without it, and yet so 
 useful that it is found in every house or mansion, no matter 
 how palatial, and in every vessel that sails the sea. Bunches 
 of matches are made by the millions and millions, and broad 
 acres of forests are cut down each year to supply the wood ; 
 and in every home they are used without regard to waste or 
 economy. "No corre(5l statistics of match making can be 
 given, but it has been estimated that six matches a day for each 
 
44 
 
 individual of the population of Europe and North America 
 is the average consumption." (The American Cyclopaedia, 
 New York, 1883.) Perhaps no other invention of the last 
 century comes so nearly in touch with the family and house- 
 hold in all parts of the civilized world as this necessity of 
 domestic life. 
 
 I have mentioned these facts in some detail as the friction 
 match has had such a close connection with country life in 
 New England, as elsewhere. In early days when fire was 
 kept on the domestic hearth, from month to month and from 
 year to year, by covering up live coals with ashes, sometimes 
 from one cause or another it would go out ; and then it was 
 necessary to visit a neighbor to "borrow fire," as the ex- 
 pression was. If the distance was short, live coals might be 
 brought on a shovel ; but if too far, a lighted candle could 
 be carried in a tin lantern and furnish the needed flame. 
 Often a flint-and-steel was used for striking fire, but some- 
 times even this useful article was wanting. I have heard of 
 instances where a man would fire off a gun into a wad of tow 
 and set it on fire, and thus get the desired spark to start the 
 blaze. 
 
 Another invention, which has come into general use within 
 the last sixt}' years, and has changed the destinies of the 
 world, is Morse's electric telegraph. In the sending of mes- 
 sages it practically annihilates space, and has worked wonders 
 in science and in the every-day affairs of life. By means of 
 it the words of Puck become a reality when he says : 
 
 I '11 put a girdle round about the Earth 
 In forty minutes. 
 
 If the ocean telegraph had been in operation at that time, 
 the battle of New Orleans, on January 8, 1815, would not 
 have been fought. It took place a fortnight after the 
 treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent, though the tidings 
 of the treaty were not received in this country until a month 
 after the action. The chances are that Andrew Jackson 
 would never have been President of the United States if he 
 
45 
 
 liad not gained that "battle ; nor would Martin Van Buren liave 
 .■succeeded to the same high office if as Secretar}- of State or 
 as Vice-President he had not been associated with Jackson. 
 This will serve as an illustration of the influence which the 
 telegraph ma}' have on human affairs. 
 
 Little short of fifty j'ears ago I spent an evening with Pro- 
 iessor Morse at his rooms in Paris, and he told me a thrilling 
 tale of the circumstances which led up to his great discovery 
 of the application of electricity to the sending of messages ; 
 and how the thought first came to him man}- years before, 
 when in a packet ship on the voyage from Havre to New 
 York. I have often regretted that I did not then write down 
 at once my recollections of the visit, while they were fresh in 
 ni}^ memory; but unfortunately I did not do so. 
 
 A telegraph office in this village was opened on Saturday, 
 March 20, 1880, and the first message along its wires was 
 sent to Nashua, New Hampshire. The office was in the 
 railway station, where it has since remained. 
 
 The telephone office here was first opened on Friday, April 
 29, 1881, in the building at the south corner of Main Street 
 and Station Avenue, where it still remains ; and there are 
 now more than one hundred and twent}' subscribers. 
 
 By the side of the investigations connected wath this ad- 
 dress I am reminded that the First Parish Meeting-house is 
 now one hundred and fifty years old. During one half of this 
 period it was the only designated place of worship within the 
 limits of the town ; and for these seventy-five years it was the 
 centre of the religious life of the people. From its walls went 
 forth all the efforts that made for the highest and noblest 
 activities of human nature. It was the fourth meeting-house 
 used by the town, and stands on the site of the third building, 
 a spot which was by no means the unanimous choice of the 
 town when that structure was built ; and the usual contro- 
 versy then took place over the site. It was begun in 17 14, 
 and was two years in process of building. In early times there 
 was always much contention in regard to the local position of 
 the house, some wanting it put in one place, and others in 
 another, according to the convenience of their respective 
 
46 
 
 fanrilfes. Mr. Butler, in his History of Groton, says r "'But 
 the momentous affairs of deciding upon a spot on which to> 
 set a public building, and choosing and settling a minister, 
 are not usually accomplished without much strife and con- 
 tention, and are sometimes attended with long and furious, 
 quarrels and expensive lawsuits" (page 306). The Rever- 
 end Joseph Emerson, the first minister of Groton West Par- 
 ish, now known as Pepperell, explains the cause thus ; "It 
 hath been observed that some of the hottest contentions in this 
 land hath been about settling of ministers and building meet- 
 ing-houses ; and what is the reason? The devil is a great 
 enemy to settling ministers and building meeting-houses; 
 wherefore he sets on his own children to work and make 
 difficulties, and to the utmost of his power stirs up the cor- 
 ruptions of the children of God in some way to oppose or ob- 
 struct so good a work." 
 
 With no desire to dispute Mr. Emerson's theory in regard 
 to the matter, I think that the present generation would 
 hardly accept this explanation as the correct one. 
 
 For some months, perhaps for one or two years, before the 
 present house of worship was built, the question of a new 
 structure was considered and discussed at town-meetings. It 
 was then in the air, and finally the matter took concrete 
 shape. On May 6, 1754, the town made definite plans for a 
 raising of the frame ; and on such occasions at that period of 
 time rum was supposed to be needed, not only to bring to- 
 gether a crowd to help along the work, but also to give 
 strength to the workers. At that meeting the following vote 
 was passed: — 
 
 at a Legal meeting of the Inhabitants at Groton qualleyfied 
 by Eaw for voting in Town affairs assembled chose Cap' ban- 
 croft moderator for s'' meeting 
 
 The question was put which way they would face the meet- 
 inghouse and the major vote was for facing s'' house to the 
 west. 
 
 Voted that The meeting house Com'"^ prouide one hogs- 
 head of Rum one Loaf of white Shugar one quarter of a hun- 
 dred of brown Shugar also voted that Deacon Stone Deacon 
 
47 
 
 Sarwell Lt Isaac woods benje Stone Lt John Woods Cap'^ Sam* 
 'Tarbell iVmos Lawrence Ensign Obadiah Parker Cap' ban- 
 croft be a Com""' and to prouide Victuals and Drink for a hun- 
 dred men and If the people Dont subscribe among them the 
 Com'"^ to purchas the Remainder up on the Towns Cost. 
 
 Voted that The Com''" that Got the Timber for The meet- 
 ing house haue Liberty with such as shall subscribe thear to 
 to build a porch at the front Dore of the meeting house up on 
 their own Cost 
 
 Then voted that the Select men prouide some conuiant 
 place to meet in upon the Sabbath Till further order. 
 
 According to Joseph Farwell's note-book the raising took 
 place on May 22, 1754, — which day fell on Wednesday, — 
 and lasted until Saturday, May 25. It is to be hoped that 
 during these three days no accident happened on account of 
 the liquid stimulant. Probably the work of the building w^as 
 pushed with all the speed then possible and available; and, 
 probably too, it was used for worship long before it was fin- 
 ished. During this period of interruption in the public ser- 
 vices it is very likely that the Sunday meetings were held at 
 the house of the minister, Mr. Trowbridge, who then lived 
 on the site of the High School building. 
 
 According to Farwell's note-book, on August 18, 1754, 
 Mrs. Sarah Dickinson became a member of the church, the 
 first person so admitted in the new meeting-house. She was 
 the widow of James Dickinson, who died only a few weeks 
 before, and was buried in the old grave-yard. According to 
 the same authority, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was 
 administered in the new building for the first time on Novem- 
 ber 15, 1754. 
 
 The early settlers did not believe much in outward cere- 
 mony; and the new meeting-house was never formally dedi- 
 cated by a special service. Perhaps, when the house w^as 
 first opened for worship, Mr. Trow^bridge preached a sermon 
 in keeping with the occasion; and very likely in his prayer 
 he made some allusion to the event. We are told that the 
 prayer of the righteous man availeth much. The homage 
 
48 
 
 pafd to the Creator of the universe each Siinda5', both by the 
 pulpit and the pews» would consecrate any such structure to 
 its high purpose. Simple in their religious faith, the wor- 
 shippers had no use for ecclesiastical forms. Not alone by 
 their words, but by their thoughts, they dedicated the meet- 
 ing-house, Sonxetimes words not spoken have more mean- 
 ing than those which are uttered. 
 
 The Common, in front of the present meeting-house, was a 
 place closely connected with the life of the town. Here at 
 an early period the two militia companies used to meet and 
 drill at regular times, known as training-daj's. On the Com- 
 mon the two companies of minute-men rallied on the morning 
 of that eventful nineteenth of April, and received their 
 ammunition from the town's stock, which was stored in the 
 Powder-House near by. Here they took farewell of friends 
 and families, knowing full well the responsible duties that 
 rested on their shoulders, and the dangers that threatened 
 them. These men marched hence on that memorable day as 
 British subjects, but they came back as independent citizens 
 who never knew again the authority of a king. 
 
 In that house Mr. Dana, a young and rising lawyer of 
 Groton, pronounced a eulogy on General Washington, which 
 was delivered on Saturday, February 22, 1800, a few weeks 
 after his death. The military companies of the town attend- 
 ed the exercises. Miss Elizabeth Farnsworth (1791-1884) 
 as a little girl was present on the occasion, and Mrs. Sarah 
 (Capell) Gilson (1793— 1890), remembered the event, though 
 not present at the exercises ; and they both gave me their 
 faint recollections of the day. • 
 
 The meeting-house was remodelled in the year 1839, when 
 it was partially turned round, and the north end of the build- 
 ing made the front, facing the west, as it now stands. For- 
 merly the road to the east part of the town went diagonally 
 across the Common, and passed down the hill to the south of 
 the meeting-house; and there was no highway on the north 
 side. Before this change in the building was made, the town- 
 meetings were always held in the body of the house; and the 
 
49 
 
 voting vv'as done in front of the puI]Mt. In my miners eye 1 
 'Can see now the old pulpit, with the sounding^-board hang- 
 ing overhead. 
 
 The town-clock in the steeple, so familiar to every n:an. 
 woman, and child in Grotou, was made by James Ridgway, 
 .and placed in the tower some time during the spring of 1809, 
 It Vv^as paid for in part, by the town, and in part by private 
 suo.s:ription. Mr. Ridgway was a silversmith and a clock- 
 maker, who during the war with England (1812-1815) car- 
 ried on a large business in this neighborhood. He afterward 
 removed to Keene, New Hampshire, where he lived for man}" 
 years. His shop was situated on Main street, nearly opposite 
 to the Groton Inn, but it disappeared a long time ago. 
 
 The bell of the meeting-house was cast in the j^ear 1819 by 
 -Revere and Son. Boston, and, according to the inscription, 
 weighs 1 1 28 pounds. 
 
 On this interesting occasion we are all glad to have present 
 with us the venerable Zara Patch, a native of Groton and the 
 oldest inhabitant of the town. His ancestry in both branches 
 of the family runs back nearly to the beginning of the settle- 
 nient, and in his person is represented some of the best blood 
 of old Groton stock; and we welcome him at this time. He 
 is the last survivor of nineteen citizens who signed the call 
 for the due observance of the Bi-centennial anniversary, on 
 October 31, 1855. which was issued in the preceding May. 
 
 Fifty years ago the town had a celebration of the two- 
 hundredth anniversary of its settlement, similar to the one 
 we are now holding. On that occasion Governor Boutwell 
 was President of the day, and the Reverend Arthur Buck- 
 minster Fuller, a younger brother of Margaret Fuller, — of a 
 family once resident here, ^ made the historical address, 
 which was delivered in the Congregational Meeting-house. 
 Colonel Eusebius Silsby Clark, who lost his life in the War 
 of the Rebellion, at Winchester, Virginia, on October 17, 
 1864, was the Chief Marshal. Of his six aids on that day 
 John Warren Parker and myself are the sole survivors, and 
 the only representatives of those who had an official connec- 
 tion with the exercises ; and now we are left the last two leaves 
 
5^ 
 
 on the branch. At that celebration Mr. Parker was also one 
 of the Committee of Arrangements ; and we are all glad to see 
 him present on this occasion. 
 
 Groton is a small town, but there are those who love her 
 and cherish her good name and fame. She has been the 
 mother of many a brave son and many a fair daughter, duti- 
 ful children who through generations "arise up and call her 
 blessed." She is the Mount Zion of a large household. Of 
 her numerous famil}', from the nursling to the aged, by her 
 example she has spared no pains to make them useful citizens 
 and worthy members of society. In former j^ears she was 
 relatively a much more important town than she is now. At 
 the time of the first national census in 1790, in population 
 Groton was the second town in Middlesex County, Cambridge 
 alone surpassing it. In order to learn the true value of some 
 communities, and to give the inhabitants of Groton their 
 proper rank, they should be weighed and not counted; and 
 by this standard it would be found that the town has not 
 been lessened even in relative importance. Bigness and great- 
 ness are not synonymous words, and in their meaning there 
 is much difference between them. In all our thoughts and 
 deeds, let us do as well by the town as she has done by us. 
 
 Fellow Townsmen and Neighbors, — the stint you set me 
 is now done. On my part it has proved to be not a task, but 
 a labor of love. If anything that I may have said should 
 spur others to study the history of an old town that was typi- 
 cal of life among plain folk in the early days of New Eng- 
 land, and one that has left an honorable record during the 
 various periods of its existence, my aim will have been 
 reached. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The Narnc of Grot on. 
 
 I AM indebted to the courtesy of Dr. P^dward Mussey 
 Hartwell for the following paper on the origin of the name 
 of Groton. From any other source I could not have obtained 
 such a scholarh' essay on the subject ; and it places me under 
 great obligations to him. Dr. Hartwell passed his boyhood 
 in Littleton, where his father's family belonged; and he fitted 
 for college mostly at Lawrence Acadeni}', so that he has in- 
 herited an historical interest in the neighborhood. 
 
 Statistics Department. 
 Boston, July 3. 1905. 
 Hon. Samitei, A. Green, Librarian, 
 
 Massachusetts Historical Society. 
 
 Dear Dr. Green, — ^ What follows contains the gist of my notes on 
 Groton. For the sake of conciseness and brevity, I forbear (i) from fully- 
 describing the sources whence my citations are derived, and (2) from 
 quotation of authorities regarding the linguistic affinities of the com- 
 ponents of the word Groton. However, I may say that I can support 
 every statement by documentary evidence that seems conclusive to me. 
 
 Groton occurs as a place name both in England and the United 
 States. Groton in England, which is situated in the County of Suffolk, 
 appears to be a small parish of some 1560 acres, of which 39 are in com- 
 mon. The " Dictionnaire des Bureaux de Poste " published at Berne in 
 1895, gives six post offices in various parts of the United States having 
 the name of Groton. Two of them, viz., Groton, Massachusetts, and 
 Groton, Connecticut, date from Colonial times, i. e., from 1655 and 1705 
 respectively, and numbered among their original grantees or proprietors 
 
52- 
 
 rrrembers of the Wintlirop family whose ancestral seat was Grotoii in the- 
 Babenbera; Hundred, County Suffolk, England, whence it is reasonable to- 
 suppose all Grotons in this country have derived their name. Among 
 eheni Groton, Mass., is the most ancient. The name (spelt Groaien) ap- 
 pears in a vote of the General Court dated Maj- 29, 1655, to grant a new- 
 plantation at Petapawag to- Mr. Deane Winthrop and others. In later 
 records of the General Court, e. g.. May 26, 1658, the form Grofen ap- 
 pears; and in the same records under date of November 12, 1659, both 
 Groten and Groaten appear. 
 
 The Manor of Groton in Babenberg Hundred in the Liberty of St. Ed- 
 mund and the County of Suffolk, England, according to the Domesday 
 Book (1086) belonged to the Abbey of Bury of St. Edmund's in the time- 
 of Edward the Confessor (1042-1065). In 1544 the request of Adam Wyn- 
 thorpe to purchase " the Farm of the Mauor of Groton (Suffolk) late of 
 the Monastery of Burj^ St Edmund's " was granted by Henry VIII. (intO' 
 -whose hands it had come when the monasteries were suppressed) for the 
 sum of ^408. i8s. 3d. Governor John. Winthrop, grandson of Adam 
 tVynthorpe, was Lord of the Manor of Groton in 1618. In 1630 or 16311 
 he sold his interest therein for ^'4,200. I find the name of this manor 
 spelt variously at different times as follows: 
 
 1. Grott'w^ (a) in Domesday Book in 1086. 
 
 (b) in Jocelin de Brakeloud's Chronicle in 1200. 
 
 (c) in the Hundred Rolls in 1277. 
 
 2. Qixotene (a) in Joe. de Brakelond about 1200. 
 
 (b) in the Patent Rolls, 1291 and 1298, 
 
 3. Qixotona in Joe. de Brakelond about 1200. 
 
 4. Groto;/^ (a) in Joe. de Brakelond about 1200. 
 
 (b) in the Patent Rolls in 1423. 
 
 (c) in Dugdale's citation of a Ms. of 1533. 
 
 5. Groton (a) in Dugdale's citation of a Ms. of 14th Century. 
 
 (b) in Records of the Augmentation Office, 1541 and 1544. 
 
 Jocelin de Brakelond -was a monk of Bury St. Edmund's who, as Chap- 
 lain of the Abbot, wrote the Chronicle which bears his name. It covers 
 the period 1173-1203, i. e., the incumbency of Abbot Samson. The fre- 
 quent mention of Groton in this Chronicle, written just at the beginning 
 of the thirteenth century, may be accounted for by the fact that the Ab- 
 bey and certain claimants named de Cokefield had a law-suit over lands 
 at Groton. 
 
 Since 1541 Groton appears to have been the form of the name of the 
 English manor, parish or hamlet. It vt\a.y be remarked: (i) that " de 
 Grotena " is found as a personal name in the Hundred Rolls 1297; and 
 " de Grotton " in the Scotch Rolls, 1327; while a holding named Grot- 
 ton, " late of the Monastery of Delacres in Staffordshire" is mentioned 
 in the records of the Augmentation Office, 1547; and Grotton, a railway 
 
53 
 
 station in Lancashire, is mentioned in a "Comprehensive Gazetteer of 
 Encrlaud and Wales," a recent but undated work. 
 
 The Latinized in " Grotena " and " Grotenam " of the Domesda}' Kook 
 give rise to the suggestion that Gioten has the force of an adjective 
 (meaning gravelly, gritty, stony or sandy), which served to characterize 
 a tract of land, or perhaps a hill, a pit, a ham, or a ton. I take grot to 
 be one form of the Old English greot, grut (Middle English, greet, gret, 
 and Modern English, grit) meaning gravel. 
 
 The following is a series of forms in which variants of gtedt seem to 
 have adjectival force: 
 
 (i) Greotan edesces lond relating to land in Kent in a charter dated S22. 
 Possibly .t'Td'tiA?;/ ma}^ stand ior grcatan, meaning big. 
 
 (2) (^/r/dV/linkes, in Hampshire, in a land charter of 966. 
 
 (3) GrctinAMVL (later Gretton in Dorsetshire), mentioned in a charter 
 
 of 1019. 
 
 (4) Gretcnhovi(t, the name of Gretna in Scotland, in 1376. 
 
 (5) G";'f//«tune, a manor in Shropshire, Domesday Book, 1086. 
 
 (6) Gra/fiiion (?) , a manor in Berkshire, Domesday Book, 1086. 
 
 On the other hand, the form Greot<?;/ may be the dative plural of greot 
 (for greot;^;/; ?) used in a locative sense "at the gravels," since Gravclal 
 and Gravelei occur as place names in Domesday Book and Gravell oc- 
 curs in the Hundred Rolls, temp. Edw. I. 
 
 The following scheme, derived from various standard lexicons, exhib- 
 its the etymological affinities of Greot (grit). 
 
 cf 
 
 Middle 
 
 English and Ger- 
 man, 
 Greot, Greet, grit, gryt, 
 
 gret, 
 Griesz, 
 
 Modern 
 cf. English, German 
 
 and Norse. 
 Grit, grot, grout. 
 
 Old 
 Saxon Griot, griet, 
 
 greot, 
 English Greot, grut, 
 
 grot 
 High Genua II Grioz, 
 Norse : 
 
 Icelandic Grjot (griot), Grjot, 
 
 Danish and 
 
 Norwegian Grjot, Grjot, Gryt(e), 
 
 Szuedish 
 Old Frisian gret. 
 Low German grott. 
 
 Grot ioT greot, appears to be an old and rather rare form. It should 
 be stated that British place (and personal) names having Gret are much 
 more numerous than those having Grot in the first syllable. Gretton is 
 
 Gries, Gruse, Grans. 
 
 Grjot, Gryttn. 
 
 Gruus, Grus, Gryttn. 
 Grus, Grytt. 
 
54 
 
 the name of several manors mentioned in Domesday, e. g., the present 
 Girton (formerly called Gritton) (cf. Girton College), near Cambridge 
 (Cambs.) and Gretton in Northamptonshire, still called Gretton. The 
 last was Gretton (gryttune in 1060), Greton in 1086, Gretton in 1277, 
 1678, and 1895. 
 
 Other forms besides Gretton are: Gret-a = Gritwater, a stream in Cum- 
 berland, cf.Greta-marsc( = Grit-water-marsh?), 821; Greta-bridge =Grit- 
 water bridge, Gret-ford, Gret-ham, Gret-land, Gret-well. Southey, the 
 poet, lived at Greta Hall. 
 
 Greta river in Cumberland had its counterpart in Grjotd^ in the eleventh 
 century in Iceland, translated Gritwater by Dasent in " The Burnt 
 Niaiy Gryttnbakki = Gravel hill or Gravel bank, is the name of (i) a 
 modern post-office in Iceland and (2) another in Denmark. Grytten is a 
 place name of today in Norway. 
 
 The Icelandic (Old Norse) Grjot-garth meant stone fence. Akin to 
 garth (gard) are the Norwegian ^ff a r^ and Swedish gard, a landed estate 
 or homestead; and the English Cloister-garth, yard, garden, and or- 
 chard (ort-geard). 
 
 Ton in Groton, Boston, etc., is related to M. E. Ton (Tone), O. E. tun, 
 tune, O. Norse tun, O. Frisian tixn, O. H. German taun, and German 
 zaun, a hedge or fence, meant also, field, yard, manor, hamlet, village 
 and town or city. 
 
 Garth (yard) presents a parallel series of similar meanings, e. g., O. 
 Norse for Constantinople was Myckel-gard, i. e., the Great City. 
 
 I think that Groton stands for Grot-ton (cf. Gretton, Grit-ton) and is 
 practically equivalent to the Icelandic Grjot-garth, and that your sug- 
 gestion in 1876 as to the meaning of Groton was a happy one. Floreat 
 Grotena! 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Edward M. Hartwell. 
 
 Bi-ce7itennial Celebration. 
 
 The following extracts from the town-records relate to the 
 celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the settle- 
 ment of Groton, which took place fifty years ago. They have 
 never yet been printed, but are given here, as they have a 
 certain connection with the celebration recently held. With 
 the exception of the Reverend Edwin A. Bvilkley, every man 
 
55 
 
 whose name is mentioned in these extracts is now dead, show 
 ing the ravages which half a century may l)ring al)Out. 
 
 In the warrant for the Town Meeting, November 13, 1854, 
 Article 2 is as follows : — 
 
 To see if the towu will take any measures to notice or celebrate the 
 Two Hundredth anniversary since the settlement of the town of Groton 
 in the year 1655 or pass any vote in relation to the same. 
 
 [p- 389-] 
 
 In the proceedings of the meeting it is recorded that : — 
 
 The subject matter of this article [2] was referred to the following com- 
 mittee with instructions to report at a future meeting. 
 
 Stuart J. Park 
 Josiah Bigelow 
 Wm. Shattuck 
 Willard Torrey 
 Norman Shattuck 
 John Pingree 
 Elnathan Brown 
 Charles Prescott 
 
 Jacob Pollard 
 Abel Tarbell 
 Joseph Sanderson 
 Calvin Blood 
 Joseph Brown 
 Silas Nutting 
 Joseph Rugg 
 Charles A. Hutson 
 
 [P- 392- 
 
 Proceecdings at the Town Meeting, March 5, 1855 : — 
 
 The committee chosen in Nov. last upon the Article "To see if the 
 Town will take any measures to notice or celebrate the two hundredth 
 anniversary since the settlement of the town of Groton in the year 1655 
 or pass any vote in relation to the same " have attended to that duty and 
 submit the following Report : 
 
56 
 
 That there are eras or waymarks in the history of a people which it 
 well becomes them to notice or celebrate, and such we consider the ap- 
 proaching anniversary of the incorporation of this town, and would 
 therefore recommend to the town to celebrate said anniversary with be- 
 coming festivities, and that a committee be chosen to take the whole 
 subject into consideration and report at the next April meeting a plan or . 
 mode of celebrating said anniversary-. 
 
 Stuart J. Park 
 Joseph Bigelow Wm. Shattuck 
 
 Joseph Rugg Willard Torrey 
 
 Norman Shattuck Silas Nutting 
 
 [p- 403-] 
 
 The above report was accepted and the following gentlemen were 
 chosen a committee to report a plan or mode of celebrating said anniver- 
 sary at the next April meeting. 
 
 Geo. S. Boutwell Josiah Bigelow 
 
 Rev. David Fosdick David Lakin 
 
 B. Russell Dr. George Stearns 
 
 S. J. Park Norman Smith 
 
 Peter Nutting Daniel Needham 
 
 Nath' Stone ^ Rev. Daniel Butler 
 
 B. P. Dix John Spaulding 
 
 Rev. Crawford Nightingale Curtis Lawrence 
 
 " E. A. Bulkley Geo. W. Bancroft 
 
 " George E. Tucker J. F. Hall, Jr. 
 
 " [John M.] Chick Noah Shattuck 
 
 Geo. F. Farley Joshua Gilson 
 
 Calvin Fletcher P. G. Prescott 
 
 Abel Tarbell J. G. Park 
 
 Walter Shattuck Wm. Shattuck 
 
 [p- 403-] 
 
 Proceedings at the Town Meeting, April 2, 1855 : — 
 Voted, That the report of the Committee on the second Centennial 
 Anniversary celebration be accepted and placed on file, also chose the 
 following persons a committee to make preparations and arrangements 
 for the celebration as mentioned in said report with discretionary pow- 
 ers as to the same, to wit. 
 
 Geo. F. Farley ^ 
 
 Joshua Green 
 
 S. J. Park 
 
 Geo. S. Boutwell 
 
 David Fosdick, Jr. 
 
 General 
 Committee. 
 
57 
 
 District No. i 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 4 
 5 
 6 
 
 Henry A. Bancroft 
 Curtis Lawrence 
 Josiah Bigelow 
 Edmund Blood 
 Wm. Shattuck 
 Solomon Story 
 Reuben Lewis 
 Calvin Blood 
 
 District No. 
 
 9- 
 
 ID. 
 II. 
 12. 
 
 13- 
 14. 
 
 15- 
 16. 
 
 Thos. Hutchins 
 Rufus Moors 
 John Pingree 
 Nath' Stone 
 E. D. Derby 
 S. W. Rowe 
 Ch's. Prescott 
 Allen Blood 
 
 [p. 407.] 
 
 Many years ago I obtained the letters and other manu- 
 scripts, together with the printed circulars, connected with 
 the Bi-centennial Celebration ; and I have had them carefully 
 arranged, bound in a volume, and placed in the Library of 
 the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
 
 List of Indian Words. 
 
 The following Indian names, applied by the early settlers 
 to streams, ponds, or places, in the original township of 
 Groton and neighborhood, for the most part are still in com- 
 mon use. The spelling of these words varies, as at first they 
 were written according to their sound and not according to 
 their derivation. In the absence of any correct standard 
 either of spelling or pronunciation, which always character- 
 izes an unwritten language, the words have become so twisted 
 and distorted that much of their original meaning is lost; but 
 their root generally remains. It is rare to find an Indian 
 word in an early document spelled twice alike. In the lapse 
 of time these verbal changes have been so great that the red 
 man himself would hardly recognize any of them by sound. 
 Even with all these drawbacks such words now furnish one 
 of the few links in a chain of historical facts connedling mod- 
 ern times with the prehistoric period of New England. As 
 the shards that lie scattered around the site of old Indian 
 dwellings are eagerly picked up by the archaeologist for criti- 
 cal examination, so these isolated facts about place-names 
 are w^orth saving by the antiquary for their philological 
 value. "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing 
 be lost." 
 
5S 
 
 Babbitasset — formerl}' the name of a village iu Pepperell, now included 
 
 in East Pepperell. 
 Baddacook — a pond in the eastern part of the town. 
 Catacoonamtig — a stream in Shirley, which empties into the Nashua. 
 Chicopee — a district in the northerly part of the town, and applied to 
 
 the highway approaching it, called Chicopee Row. 
 Hiimhaw — a brook in Westford. 
 Kissacook — a hill in Westford. 
 
 Jllassapoag — a pond lying partly in Groton and partly in Dunstable. 
 Mulpus — a brook in Shirley. 
 ^'^Sog — a pond in Littleton. 
 Nashoba — the old name of the Praying Indian village in Littleton, now 
 
 applied to a hill in that town as well as to a brook in Westford. 
 Nashua — a river running through the township, and emptying into the 
 
 Merrimack. 
 NatiDiox — a district near the Longley monument, lying west of the East 
 
 Pepperell road; said to have been the name of an Indian chief. 
 Nissitisset — applied to the neighborhood of HoUis, New Hampshire, 
 
 and to a river and hill in Pepperell. 
 Nonacoicus — a brook in Ayer, though formerly the name was applied to 
 
 a tract of land in the southerly part of Groton, and is shortened often 
 
 to Coicus. 
 NubanussHck — a pond in Westford. 
 Petaiipauketf — a name found in the original petition to the General 
 
 Court for the grant of the town, and used in connection with the terri- 
 tory of the neighborhood; sometimes written Petapawage and 
 
 Petapaway. 
 Quosopojiagon — a meadow "on the other side of the river," mentioned 
 
 in the land-grant of Thomas Tarbell, Jr., the same word as Quasaponi- 
 
 kin, formerly the name of a tract of land in Lancaster, but now given 
 
 to a meadow and a hill in that town, where it is often contracted into 
 
 Ponikin. 
 Shabikin, or more commonly Shab~okin, applied to a district in Harvard, 
 
 bodering on the Nashua, below Still River village. 
 Squanvacook — a river in the western part of the town flowing into 
 
 the Nashua; a name formerly applied to the village of West Groton. 
 Tadi)iiick — a brook and a meadow in Westford. 
 Unquetenassett, or Unqnetenorset — a brook in the northerly part of the 
 
 town; often shortened into Unquety. 
 Waiibansconcett — another word found in the original petition for the 
 
 grant of the town, and used in connection with the territory of the 
 
 neighborhood. 
 
59 
 List of Tozuns 
 
 established in the two Colonies, before the township of Groton was 
 granted in 1655, together with the year when they are first mentioned 
 in the records of the General Court. 
 
 PLYMOUTH COLONY. 
 
 I 
 
 1620 
 
 Plymouth 
 
 7 
 
 1639 
 
 Taunton 
 
 2 
 
 1633 
 
 Scituate 
 
 8 
 
 1641 
 
 Marshfield 
 
 3 
 
 1637 
 
 Duxbury 
 
 9 
 
 1643 
 
 Eastham 
 
 4 
 
 1638 
 
 Barnstable 
 
 10 
 
 1645 
 
 Rehoboth 
 
 5 
 
 " 
 
 Sandwich 
 
 II 
 
 1652 
 
 Dartmouth 
 
 6 
 
 1639 
 
 Yarmouth 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS-BAY 
 
 COLONY. 
 
 I 
 
 1630 
 
 Charlestown 
 
 19 
 
 1640 
 
 Braintree 
 
 2 
 
 
 Salem 
 
 20 
 
 " 
 
 Salisbury 
 
 3 
 
 
 Boston 
 
 21 
 
 1641 
 
 Haverhill 
 
 4 
 
 
 Dorchester 
 
 22 
 
 " 
 
 Springfield 
 
 5 
 
 
 Watertown 
 
 23 
 
 1642 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 6 
 
 
 Medford 
 
 24 
 
 " 
 
 Woburn 
 
 7 
 
 
 Roxbury 
 
 25 
 
 1643 
 
 Wenham 
 
 8 
 
 1631 
 
 Lynn 
 
 26 
 
 1644 
 
 Hull 
 
 9 
 
 " 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 27 
 
 
 Reading 
 
 10 
 
 1633 
 
 Marblehead 
 
 28 
 
 1645 
 
 Manchester 
 
 II 
 
 1634 
 
 Ipswich 
 
 29 
 
 1646 
 
 Andover 
 
 12 
 
 1635 
 
 Newbury 
 
 30 
 
 1648 
 
 Topsfield 
 
 13 
 
 ' ' 
 
 Hingham 
 
 31 
 
 1649 
 
 Maiden 
 
 14 
 
 " 
 
 Weymouth 
 
 32 
 
 1650 
 
 Medfield 
 
 15 
 
 " 
 
 Concord 
 
 33 
 
 1653 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 16 
 
 1636 
 
 Dedham 
 
 34 May, 1655 
 
 Groton 
 
 17 
 
 1639 
 
 Rowley 
 
 35 
 
 " " 
 
 Billerica 
 
 18 
 
 
 Sudbury 
 
 36 
 
 " " 
 
 Chelmsford 
 
 Trees from England. 
 
 I,ast September I wrote to the Reverend John W. Way- 
 man, rector of the Groton Parish in England, and through 
 his courtesy I procured several young elms and some acorns 
 and beechnuts from the mother town. During the winter 
 Professor Charles S. Sargent, who is at the head of the 
 Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, kindly took charge of 
 the trees ; and he also planted the acorns and nuts which 
 came up in the spring. These trees and saplings have been 
 set out temporar ily on my land, and in due time, when of 
 suitable size, they will be transplanted in some public place. 
 It is hoped that they will foster and keep alive an interest 
 
6o 
 
 between the two towns which are connecfled by sentiment, 
 though separated in age by centuries of time and in distance 
 by thousands of miles. 
 
 First Parish Meeting-house. 
 
 This cut was taken from a drawing made in the year 1838 
 by John Warner Barber, and originally appeared in his His- 
 torical Collections of Massachusetts (Worcester, 1839). It 
 represents the First Parish Meeting-house before it was re- 
 modelled in 1839, when it was partially turned round, and 
 the north end made the front, facing the west. The Academy 
 building on the right of the Meeting-house, was enlarged in 
 the autumn of 1846, and afterward burned on July 4, 1868. 
 The fence now around the Common in front of the Meeting- 
 house was built in the autumn of 1842, the last post being 
 placed at the northwest corner on October 3 of that year. 
 The trees within the enclosure were set out about the same 
 time, excepting the row of elms along Main Street, which 
 were transplanted in 1828. 
 
FIRST rAKISlI CHUKCII, 1905. 
 
6i 
 
 It is manifest that we are all agreed that another important 
 chapter has been added to the records of the Town of Groton. 
 And this exercise is ended. The next exercise is the dinner, 
 but that, I am informed, wnll not take place until one o'clock. 
 It is some time between now and then, and I am told that the 
 First Parish Church is open. It is a very interesting struc- 
 ture. Also the Public Library where there is an interesting 
 exhibition of historical articles. And the house of Mrs. 
 Ward Dix, one of the old houses of the town, through her 
 kindness, is open to the public, where some very interesting 
 things which once belonged to General Ward are to be seen. 
 
PRAYER BY REV. BYRON F. GUSTIN. 
 
 We thank Thee for these occasions when Thy people can 
 meet, and thus gather to do honor to a noble past, and do 
 honor to the men and women that made that past possible, 
 and a bright and beautiful future, too. We pray Thee that 
 this love for town and home may be extended so that the 
 nation itself may be honored, and this nation become a nation 
 worthy of imitation by the world. Wilt Thou graciously 
 bless these Thy gifts and all other temporal gifts to the use 
 of man and to Thy holy service, and strengthen Thy chil- 
 dren here gathered. 
 
REMARKS 
 
 BY 
 GENERAL WILLIAM A. BANCROFT. 
 
 The Town of Groton, like a gracious matron, in holida}^ 
 attire, her face radiant with the smile of welcome, not all re- 
 gretful of her age; on the contrary, rather proud of it as she 
 contemplates her nvimerous and vigorous daughters, the eld- 
 est of whom have the charms of a hundred and thirty years, 
 and the youngest of whom, has the air (Ayer) of more than 
 thirty-four 5'ears, extends cordial greetings to all whom 
 she has asked to join in her birth year, and settles herself 
 with motherly composure to listen to the pleasant things 
 they may have to say of her, or of — themselves, speak- 
 ing, as I am admonished that they will, with that soulful 
 brevity which men of wit always command, and with that 
 consideration for the listener which youth shows when it ad- 
 dresses age. 
 
 Fifty years ago the illustrious man who presided at the 
 two hundredth anniversary of the town, and who would have 
 presided again today, had a few more months of life been 
 vouchsafed to him, after adverting to the early struggles, 
 and to the important episodes in the history of the Com- 
 munity, spoke as follows : 
 
 "But it will be a sad perversion of the proper objects of 
 this day, if we devote ourselves exclusively to joyous festiv- 
 ity, or even to calm reflections upon the Past. 
 
64 
 
 The Present should use the Past as a guide to the Future, — 
 we pass from one century to another at a period of unex- 
 ampled prosperity. This prosperity is attended by corre- 
 sponding dangers. If our career thus far has been illustrated 
 by instances of individual virtue, of devotion to duty, of sac- 
 rifices in the cause of freedom, of valor in war and charity in 
 peace, of liberality in the cause of learning, of sincerity and 
 ardor tempered with meekness in the cause of religious 
 liberty and truth, then there are so many examples that we 
 are to imitate and if possible to excel." 
 
 Since these words were spoken what momentous issues 
 have been decided! What great crises have been passed; 
 and with what a continuance of unexampled prosperity has 
 the country been blessed ! And this unexampled prosperity 
 has had indeed its corresponding dangers. Within six short 
 years the country was plunged in the terrible throes of a civil 
 war, unparelleled in modern times, and then surely were 
 needed "virtue" and "devotion" and "sacrifices" and 
 "valor" and "liberality." 
 
 Who shall say that the examples of which Governor Bout- 
 well spoke have not been imitated, perhaps excelled? Meas- 
 ured by conspicuous virtue and devotion to duty in public 
 affairs, his own honorable career makes conclusive answer 
 for the individual; and he did not stand alone. 
 
 America which gave the world a Washington in the Eigh- 
 teenth Century, gave it a Lincoln in the Nineteenth. 
 
 Measured by the Country's previous standard of achieve- 
 ment, these fifty years will not be overlooked. The govern- 
 mental methods established by the fathers in this country of 
 vast resources have made possible the accumulation of great 
 material wealth. It is the fashion in some quarters to regard 
 the accumulation of wealth as an evil. It is not, however, 
 from the accumulation of wealth that a community will suf- 
 fer, but rather from the abuse of the power that wealth be- 
 stows. 
 
 To create saner conditions for a community, the accumu- 
 lation of wealth is essential. Public and private institutions 
 whose purpose it is to point out methods of physical well be- 
 
65 
 
 ing, moral advancement, and spiritual uplifting all need 
 wealth to support them. It is onl}- a wealthy community 
 that can afford to maintain institutions of study and research. 
 From such institutions result saner laws, saner morals, and 
 saner religions. 
 
 A community all of whose members are engaged constantly 
 in a struggle for physical existence cannot advance either 
 physically, morally, or spiritually. Such, however, has not 
 been our fortune. 
 
 Through the prescient wisdom of our fathers, were laid the 
 foundations which have made possible our present happy 
 conditions. In the main, the wealth of our Country has been 
 devoted to righteousness. The many useful creations of 
 modern life: the countless institutions, both public and pri- 
 vate, devoted to learning, to benevolence, and to religion, 
 for the benefit of mankind, has been the result of accumu- 
 lation. 
 
 Higher standards of living have come, and with material 
 wealth have come the refinements of life, not onl}' to the very 
 wealthy, but to those of smaller means. Wealth has made 
 possible the great inventions which have blessed mankind in 
 so many ways, and wealth has made possible the great intel- 
 lectual and moral awakenings which have raised the average 
 of individual character. 
 
 Wealth means civilization instead of savagery. It means 
 progress instead of stagnation. It means order instead of 
 anarchy. Wealth is a blessing. Poverty is a curse. And 
 yet there is abroad a spirit, which, regardless of our history 
 and of the experience of mankind, would overthrow the 
 established principles of society and change our conception 
 of government. The New England ideal was independence. 
 The other notion is dependence. The immigrant whose 
 enterprise we commemorate, in worldly affairs at least, be- 
 lieved in individual freedom to the very uttermost, and 
 to the very uttermost he was willing to strive, knowing that 
 the result of his striving, except in so far as society needed 
 its share, was his own. No hardship, no peril, no adversity, 
 diverted or discouraged him. Toil was his instrument. 
 
66 
 
 Fatigue and danger were necessary incidents. His pride 
 was to support himself. His shame was through fault of his. 
 own to be supported by others. He w^as thrifty, saving,, 
 "close" if you please. To be so was virtuous, and thus he 
 was independent. Nevertheless he was public spirited where 
 the Commonwealth was concerned and he gave to the extent 
 of his ability, even life itself. Self-reliant, resourceful, am- 
 bitiouSv persevering, enterprising and successful, he repre- 
 sents the spirit which has built the republic. Undoubtedly 
 there are evils incident to the conditions he has created, but 
 the cure he has provided to be administered. If there are 
 foolish or unscrupulous men who have come into control of 
 great wealth, their folly or their iniquity may be stopped 
 without changing the plan of society. It is a barbarous doc- 
 trine which kills the patient to cure the disease. But what is 
 proposed? A S)\stem which provides that the invidual shall 
 have, not what he is able through industry and self-denial to 
 create, but what it is said vaguely his needs require, as oth- 
 ers may determine. 
 
 By taking away the inducement to human effort, it is ex- 
 pected that the sum of human happiness will be increased. 
 The industrious, the courageous, and the efficient are to get 
 more than the idle, the cowardly and the inefficient. The 
 services of Daniel Webster would command no more than his 
 office boy's. President Eliot would get no more than a col- 
 lege janitor ; and the inventor of the telephone or of the air 
 brake would get nothing for his invention. 
 
 Such a scheme will not answer the constitution of human 
 nature. It will fail, but before it fails, much mischief may 
 be done. Demagogues and self seekers will mislead with 
 their sophistries the vicious, the lazy and the unfortunate. 
 Well meaning men seeking to remedy injustices which can be 
 dealt with otherwise, or seeking to change conditions which 
 cannot be changed, will urge an abandonment of the methods 
 of our fathers, and will make some trouble. The thought- 
 less will find it easy to assail large aggregations of wealth, 
 whether in corporate or individual holdings; but when the 
 man who has saved a hundred dollars or more, finds it to be 
 
5? 
 
 a part of the plan, as it surely must hj, that he is to give up 
 his hard earned savings, then there will be a reaction. 
 Moreover, intelligent youth will rebel at a system which de- 
 -stroys all hope of self-betternient,— one of the most powerful 
 stimulants of human action. Great organizations will resist; 
 .among them the patriotic societies, which will not surrender 
 tamely the heritage for which their fathers fought; the trade- 
 unions when their eyes are opened to the machinations of the 
 agitators who are endeavoring to exploit them; the fraternal 
 orders whose watchword is "thrift;" and many, if not most, 
 •of the great churches. In the meantime, through insidious 
 forms, such as the municipalization of so-called public utili- 
 ties, and by the constant advocacy of impracticable theorists 
 who are to be found in all vocations, gains are being made. 
 
 In Europe where this movement against wealth is much 
 older and more insolent than it is here, it has assailed like- 
 wise the fundamental institution of marriage upon which the 
 existence of the sanctity of the family and indeed our entire 
 moral code depends; it has assailed religion, without which 
 the peoples would drift as aimlessly as a ship without a com- 
 pass; and it has assailed the idea of nationality from which 
 patriotism springs. It is only a question of time when the 
 same things will be assailed in this country. 
 
 Today there is danger, too, as there was fifty years ago, 
 and as there will be fifty years hence. Every period has its 
 dangers, for such is life; but today the danger is not of the 
 savage Indian nor of civil war. Today the danger is 
 that a doctrine which undermines the very foundation of 
 societ}', which disregards the teachings of the past, which de- 
 rides New England and the New England town, which mis- 
 conceives human nature, which would thwart human aspir- 
 ations and would destroy human progress — today the danger 
 is that this pernicious doctrine will be adopted. The New 
 Englander — the American — must choose. Do we meet to 
 reaffirm the principles of our fathers and to follow their foot- 
 steps in the path of human advance, or do we acknowledge 
 that for two hundred and lift}' years we and those we vener- 
 ate have been deluded b}- a misconception? Do we move 
 
68 
 
 forward or backward? Here is a chance for courage no less 
 than was his who braved a savage foe; or than was his who 
 bared his breast to the bayonets of rebellion. It will not be 
 popular to oppose this new doctrine, but opposition must be 
 made. Scattered now through the length and breadth of 
 our country, shall the successors of our progenitors, the 
 hardy frontiersmen of this and manj' an other New England 
 town be recreant ? 
 
 In the sky of our Country's glory we read the names of the 
 shadowy hosts that beckons us on, — statesmen and soldiers 
 and orators and poets — but patriots all. We seem to hear 
 their harmonious voices like a strain of lofty music, as they 
 call upon us to do our duty, and with reverent hearts, trust- 
 ing in Him before whom the glory of the kings of this world 
 passes away like a tale that is told, we respond to the inspir- 
 ing summons, resolve to transmit to our children, and we 
 hope to our children's children, even to the latest generation, 
 our heritage of American citizenship, unrestricted by folly 
 and unimpaired by hatred. 
 
69 
 
 HON. GEORGE A. MARDEN. 
 
 Among the distinctions which Groton possesses is the cir- 
 cumstance that two presidents of the United States have tar- 
 ried within its borders. I am quite sure, however, that 
 neither could have continued to interest a Groton audience 
 as he whom I am to ask to speak. 
 
 Many years ago, I think perhaps the Civil War in which 
 he took part as an officer in the Union Army, had been 
 fought, I heard him in the Town Hall for the first time ; al- 
 though I feel certain that it was not the first time that oth- 
 ers had heard him here. Many times since then he has 
 spoken acceptably to Groton audiences, and his speech will 
 be heard today with as much interest as it will be read fifty 
 3-ears from now at the three hundredth anniversary. 
 
 In his long and useful public career the only mistake I 
 ever heard that he has made was when Speaker of the Massa- 
 chusetts House twenty years ago, he appointed me Chairman 
 of the Committee on Military Affairs. For this I hope he 
 has not suffered unduly. He represents the government of 
 the United States, but everything that he says may not relate 
 to that subject. I present Assistant United States Treasurer, 
 
 HON. GEO. A. MARDEN OF LOWEEL. 
 
 Man is an animal. I am a vice-president of the Society 
 for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I heard General 
 Bancroft, a few minutes ago, speaking to one of the battery 
 of orators which he has a list of, who asked him how long 
 this thing will be kept up, and he said, "It will depend on 
 you orators." I do not propose it shall be kept up unduly 
 on my account. 
 
 I did make (not then "Major General") Bancroft Chair- 
 man on Military Affairs, but I had a purpose in it, and I 
 have seen the result of that appointment. Whether he has 
 been inoculated, by his patriotic associations, with a recur- 
 
70 
 
 rence of the fear, of the urgent fear, of the Groton people, of 
 an attack by the Indians, I don't know; but he has fortified 
 your Main street. And he is building, I understand, as a 
 simple soldier might, a very plain set of barracks somewhere 
 back in the woods. When we get so fortunate as to be at the 
 head of the Elevated Railway, we will fortify all our towns, 
 and build our barracks, and pay dividends, and accommo- 
 date the people. 
 
 I never saw so large an audience in so melting a mood 
 when I began with them. I have learned a new recipe to- 
 day, which is to serve your potato salad, and your corned 
 beef, and your baked beans with melted butter. This is a 
 part of my remarks which does not relate to the "national 
 government." 
 
 When the General read the list of the distinguished men 
 who have served the public, and who are natives of Groton, 
 modesty incomprehensible forbade him to speak of a certain 
 Major-General, the only one on the list, but as he read the 
 list, — presidents, senators, members of congress, members of 
 the cabinet, — as he came to each class, I said to myself, 
 George S. Boutwell; but he tells me that he didn't need to 
 take Ex-Governor Boutwell as the sole representative of an\' 
 class, because these distinguished men have hunted in cou- 
 ples and in triplets as well. 
 
 Groton, — let me come to the words of my text, — "Groton 
 as related to the Nation." The most obvious remark is that 
 but for Groton we wouldn't have any nation. The General 
 has spoken of the early patriots who settled in New Eng- 
 land. We have the pilgrims of Plymouth and the puritans 
 of Boston, and they spread out over this way into Middlesex 
 County, and Massachusetts was the result. New England 
 followed Massachusetts, and the nation followed New Eng- 
 land. And you in Groton not onl}^ have welcomed the presi- 
 dents, two of the chief magistrates of America, but you have 
 started an institution which shall educate boys for future 
 presidential chairs. 
 
 Groton, — I have come to the cattle shows of Groton many 
 times. Two hundred and fifty years have done much for an 
 
71 
 
 old town like this, but the old town, two hundred and fifty 
 years old, has done for the country, which for the moment I 
 am honored to represent, what no other town in New^ Hng- 
 land has done. The cavaliers of Virginia and of Maryland, 
 and the Dutchmen of Manhattan Island have done their part, 
 but except for New England where would we be today? We 
 were told in the address of Dr. Green that Groton's future 
 depended at one time on three immigrants from Chelmsford 
 who, by permission of the church, were allowed to come here. 
 What would Groton have been but for the decision of those 
 who surrounded her? 
 
 Three towns, he told us, had their two hundred and fiftieth 
 anniversary this year, — Billerica and Chelmsford and Gro- 
 ton. Ah, but Billerica! poor old Billerica! of whom I am 
 ashamed — because a lineal ancestor of mine came from 
 Billerica. She has failed to appreciate the advantages of a 
 record, and she has left it for the anniversary fifty years 
 hence, to take hold and make up the loss and disgrace of her 
 indifference, this year. 
 
 Here is a battery of oratory to come after. The General is 
 polite. He was very modest in intimating that the speakers 
 ought to be brief. L,et me say that I have given them an ex- 
 ample. I had sixty rounds of cartridges in my belt, and I 
 have fired but twenty. 
 
 GOVERNOR GUILD. 
 
 The people of this tow^n are under great obligation to the 
 lyieutenant Governor, who at no small inconvenience to him- 
 self, has come here not only to bring the greetings of the 
 Commonwealth, but to delight us by his own attractive pres- 
 ence and his felicitous speech. Massachusetts is fortunate 
 in counting him among her honored sons, and I suppose it 
 will not transgress the proprieties of the occasion, if I men- 
 tion that he is exposed to the bestowal of still further honors. 
 
72 
 
 If the manifest desire of a great political party is recognized 
 at the polls, our state will have next year another excellent 
 Chief Magistrate. I have much gratification in presenting 
 to you a public-spirited citizen, a patriotic soldier, a capable 
 public servant, a consummate orator. His Honor, the Lieu- 
 tenant Governor, 
 
 GENERAL CURTIS GUILD, JR. 
 
 Mr. Toashnaster, Ladies and Gentlemen : I thank you, sir, 
 for your very kind reference, and you for yovir very agreeable 
 reception. We will let the future take care of itself, sir. 
 At present it is my privilege and extremely pleasant duty to 
 present to you the greetings of the present chief magistrate 
 of Massachusetts, — a conscientious, clean, upright public 
 servant, justly honored by the people, — William L. Douglas, 
 Governor of Massachusetts. 
 
 In looking over the proceedings of the last celebration of 
 Groton, on the train, on the way to this tent, for that is all 
 the preparation I have been able to make, I observed that 
 fifty years ago the toast of the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts was supposed to be fittingly responded to by a combina- 
 tion of hot air and brass. It was responded to by the band. 
 On this occasion, you furnish the hot air, and if I should ac- 
 cept too many prophesies, I am sure yovi would think I was 
 furnishing the brass. 
 
 The first guide book of New England, Wood's New Eng- 
 land, published but a short time after the arrival of the New 
 England settlers and citizens that marched into the interior, 
 speaks of the great danger on account of the vast numbers 
 of lions in the frontier settlements. Groton was one of these 
 towns. In a foot note he adds, honestly enough, "I have 
 not seen any of these lions myself, but there proceed at night 
 times such dreadful roarings that there must be either lions 
 or devils." The devils are not present today, but rather 
 their opposite in the pleasant presence of the opposite sex, 
 who represent angels rather than devils. But the good old 
 coasts of Wood's time are represented, for if there are no^ 
 
77 
 
 to adopt the simple colonial style in the erection of the Law- 
 rence Academy, how much more beautiful the town would 
 be. In the last twentj'-five years the town has steadily im- 
 proved in appearance. In fact, if I might make a sugges- 
 tion, how much more beautiful the town may be if every 
 citizen would do his part toward making his paths, his barn 
 and shed as neat, simple and attractiv^e as possible. It is 
 not so much a question of money as of a desire to put a little 
 thought and work into \nllage improvements. When Mr. 
 Bryce was here a few months ago the first question he asked 
 me was whether I could give him the constitution of a vil- 
 lage improvement society, for he had seen so much of it in this 
 country that he wished to organize the movement in Scot- 
 land, whose hamlets are bare, hard and ugly. Thus the in- 
 fluence of America spreads even from the smallest villages. 
 
 Groton has a history so great that it should stand to all 
 who pass through it as a model Massachusetts village. 
 Grateful for what the men and women of Groton have done 
 in the past we should do our part toward the town, the 
 Church and the nation in the future. 
 
 I remain, with kind regards. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 (Signed) William Lawrence. 
 
 CONGRESSMAN TIRRELL. 
 
 It would have been regrettable, indeed, if this commemor- 
 ative gathering had not been graced by the presence of the 
 representative of the Congressional District of which this 
 town is a part. Almost at any time during the last century 
 had our honored guest been in the House he would have 
 found there as an associate a Groton man, either a native or 
 a resident, and sometimes he would have found more than 
 one, for, as I mentioned this morning, the town has had at 
 least eleven congressmen. I presume our distinguished 
 friend is of the opinion that Groton has had its share, and 
 having supplied so large a part of the membership of Con- 
 
78 
 
 gress during the nineteenth century, some other town — 
 Natick for instance — might be intrusted to contribute mem- 
 bership during the twentieth century. He comes from a. 
 town of much historic interest ; but though the town still 
 retains the Indian name, the Indians have long since de- 
 parted. In this part of the cbuntry they are rarely to be 
 found except in large cities, where it is current knowledge 
 that they are used only for political adversaries or for tobac- 
 conists' signs. While I do not suppose that our able and 
 genial Congressman would arrogate to himself the mantle of 
 John Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians, yet I can testify that 
 in the cause of temperance and good citizenship, he has 
 proved himself an excellent disciple of that worthy. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, I present our Congressman, the 
 
 HONORABLE CHARLES Q. TIRRELL. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlernen : I am sure that if a 
 stranger from a distance ventured into the town of Groton 
 today, and saw the bright and expectant faces upon 
 your Main Street, which has been so thronged, he could with 
 difficulty determine whether this was an old home week 
 gathering, or whether it was in commemoration of some one 
 of the many interesting events for which this town has been 
 distinguished in its long and eventful history. But I am 
 sure that he would agree with the man who was invited to a 
 distant mansion in the country, not aware of the object for 
 which he was invited. It seems it was a funeral occasion. 
 He arrived very late. The ceremony was over. They had 
 all gathered together at the dining table, and, as it was in 
 anti-temperance days, the guests became somewhat exhilar- 
 ated, and, finally, rising with unsteady feet, with glass in 
 hand, he said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I propose a toast to 
 the bride and bridegroom." Thereupon, a friend attempted 
 to put him right by saying, "Sit down, man; this isn't a 
 wedding, this is a funeral." He said, "I don't care what it 
 is, I know one thing, it is a grand success." I am sure those 
 of us who are not natives can say that of this celebration. 
 
79 
 
 I have always been interested in colonial matters, perhaps 
 because I was brought up in an old colonial town. M}- 
 father's ancestors were of the town of Weymouth. It was 
 settled in 1622, and incorporated in 1636. In another respect 
 it also has a little advantage over Groton, Whereas in 1676, 
 when King Philip swept like a besom of destruction through 
 this part of the province, and laid forty of }-our homesteads 
 in ashes, in 1622, w^hen the Indians of Weymouth gathered 
 together into a conspiracy to exterminate our settlers Miles 
 Standish was informed, and he with eight of his warriors 
 inarched up through the woods of Marshfield and Scituate 
 and massacred them all. No trace of Indians has been found 
 in that ancient town since that time. 
 
 I do not propose to touch upon any of the matters in refer- 
 ence to ancient histor}- which have been already presented to 
 3'ou by the orator of the occasion and by those v.dio have ad- 
 dressed you. I do not even propose to speak upon educa- 
 tion generally. But there is one line of education not 
 touched upon by the Lieutenant-Governor or by any of the 
 speakers, which is applicable to this occasion. Why is it 
 that the leaders in business and professional life, those en- 
 titled to take front rank not only in industrial matters but in 
 national pursuits as well, are those who have been educated 
 in just such towns as these? What is the subtle influence 
 which such a town has upon the human mind? Why does it 
 develop all the characteristics which tend to make a man 
 great among his fellow creatures? Here is a young man 
 born far away from the madding crowd. 
 
 The old homestead is overshadowed by a lofty mountain. 
 Here at its base he plays in childhood, sometimes climbing 
 its almost inaccessable heights until he stands upon its 
 snowy summit. From the foot of the mountain the daisied 
 meado\v stretches far beyond to a brook dashing down from 
 the mountain's side flows onward to the sea. Here also he 
 plays and fishes and whiles away the hours. At last early 
 manhood is obtained. It is lonely at the old homestead. 
 There are no companions to cheer him. He longs for an ac- 
 tive life. He is ready for life's battles. So he leaves his 
 
8o 
 
 home for tlie distant city. There he struggles working his 
 way up, rung by rung, until his object is secured. Then old 
 and gray headed he revisits the old homestead. For the 
 first time he realizes the debt he owes to his native towm. 
 His steadfastness of purpose, his patriotic impulses, his 
 avoidance of evil, his honesty, his integrity, all that com- 
 bined to make him an honorable, upright and respected citi- 
 zen, was moulded there amid those mighty hills. 
 
 So it is to those of you who perhaps after many wanderings 
 have returned once again to Groton, your native town. Here 
 you were educated. Here you spent your youthful days^ 
 here you got the education which has made you, largely, 
 what you are; education which differs according to the tem- 
 perament and the susceptibility of each individual person. 
 But such as you are, and the honorable career which you 
 have attained, is largely owing to this indefinable education 
 which the old town has given you. 
 
 I was much interested in the record given by General Ban- 
 croft, the long list, the innumerable list almost, of Groton 
 people who became distinguished and rendered service to 
 their country. When he came to the eleven congressmen, 
 he looked at me and stopped. He had just reached the point 
 where if he had continued he must have given the fact that 
 you elected here in the town of Groton Col. William Lawrence 
 as your Representative to the State L<egislature for seventeen 
 times, and then you elected the Hon. Mr. Prescott for fifteen 
 times in succession, and then later on, I don't know for how 
 many years, the Hon. George S. Boutwell. Think what the 
 General might have done for me if he had only stated those 
 facts. 
 
 But I must not detain you longer, delightful as it would 
 be. I congratulate this town, so memorable in its history, 
 for a record which cannot be excelled if equalled among the 
 old colonial towns of the Commonwealth. 
 
73 
 
 lions here, what have we here in the front row of this table 
 today ? 
 
 At the late visit of the President of the United States to 
 Massachusetts, he brought a new story (at least, new to nie) 
 from the west, speaking of the care that fellow men should 
 show for one another. A new mine was being opened in 
 Arizona, and over the main shaft, which was some sixty feet 
 deep and without any railing, with the old fashioned wind- 
 up, truck, and windlass, the thoughtful owners of the mine 
 had put up the inscription, " Please do not fall into this hole; 
 there are men working below." I do not propose to fall into 
 a hole myself today, because I find that there are nine men 
 whose names occur below mine, and I am sure you will greet 
 the nine with three times three. 
 
 But if I must give one serious word for the good old Com- 
 monwealth that we all honor, let me say something in regard 
 to the one product of Groton which remains steadfast in the 
 light of the world. I mean the old fashioned education. 
 Beneath the eaves of the Public Library in Boston, there 
 runs this inscription, "The Commonwealth demands the ed- 
 ucation of her citizens as the safeguard of order and liberty." 
 But education cannot be the safeguard of order and liberty if 
 the educated man neglects to use his education for the benefit 
 of the commonwealth. And education cannot be the safeguard 
 of order and liberty if it is merely that technical education 
 which, as the late William E. Russell said, " may teach a 
 man to make a living, but which does not teach a man to 
 make a life." That old fashioned education, with something 
 of philosophy and more of history, and something of the class- 
 ical languages in it, was taught from time immemorial here 
 in the old schools, and later in the Lawrence Academy, and 
 now in the splendid new Groton School. It seems to me that 
 if our Commonwealth is to hold her head high, as she does 
 today, as she has from the beginning, that we cannot afford 
 altogether to abandon that old fashioned education. It is a 
 magnificent thing for us to be able to boast that whereas, ten 
 years ago, when the builders of battleships sought their 
 models, they had to go to Paris or England for a school of 
 
74 
 
 naval architecture, today, the first school of naval architec- 
 ture in the world is the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
 nology. It is a superb thing for us to be able to boast that, 
 if twenty years ago our physicians and surgeons were obliged 
 to go abroad to complete their education, today the best 
 medical schools in the world are within the Commonwealth 
 of Massachusetts. But it is an infinitely better thing to 
 think of that a leader of the United States that leads his 
 party, and represents liberality, breadth, progress, and the 
 bursting of the old shackles, may owe his birth to New York, 
 and his parentage to different races, but he owes the educa- 
 tion that inspired his toils to the education of Massachusetts. 
 And so, in that spirit, I venture to sa}^ just one word, not 
 against technical education, — even let us encourage it — but 
 against the utter abandonment of the education in history, in 
 philosoph)^ in poetry, in literature, that shall turn out a 
 man a mere part of an industrial machine. If in war, as has 
 been proved, the best soldier is the man with some power 
 of initiative, so it is true in peace that the best citizen is the 
 man who is not merelj- a money making cog in a mere in- 
 dustrial machine. The danger of which you speak, sir, and 
 it is a real danger, is much less if, not this man or that man, 
 but all the people have a knowledge of history, and of the 
 examples that have gone before. If, when the demagogic 
 machinist, wnth his speech that appeals so to the ears of an 
 uninformed man, speaks to an audience that has already 
 heard similar words that were spoken in France by Robes- 
 pierre, that have been spoken before in this country, and 
 that struck down the splendid structure that was raised b}- 
 the patriotism of our forefathers. 
 
 Not that we should neglect technical education, but we 
 should not confine our education to it. The mere skillful 
 machinist may become a burglar. The skilled chemist who 
 is that and nothing else may become a counterfeiter. The 
 skilled accountant who is that and nothing more may let his 
 knowledge find its scope in embezzling. It isn't merely ne- 
 cessary that we should build up skilled artisans to add to the 
 wealth of Massachusetts, but that, by education of the old 
 
75 
 
 sort, we should build up sound citizens to lift up the citizen- 
 ship of Massachusetts. With the basis of character, we can 
 safely build the other form of education. Our industries 
 are threatened by child labor in Georgia, and by yellow labor 
 in the steam cotton mills in Japan. We will seek to make 
 our labor even more skilled, Ijut if we keep our character 
 true as well, we may alwaj^s answer in the future to any 
 boast of any contesting state or section of country as the 
 Governor of Massachusetts, not born in Massachusetts, for- 
 eign born citizen, one of the truest Americans that ever lived, 
 Frederick T. Greenhalge, Governor of Massachusetts, — as 
 he answered the boast of the Governor of Georgia. The 
 Governor of that state threatened that ultimately they would 
 take away all the industries of New England. I can see 
 Governor Greenhalge now, standing in the midst of that 
 southern exposition, under that hot Georgia sun, answering 
 Governor Atkinson : " We congratulate you on )'Our pros- 
 perity. We wouldn't take from it a single tithe. Every bar 
 of iron that drops from a southern forge, every reel of yarn 
 that falls from a southern spindle adds but another link in the 
 chain that binds the north and south together in a common 
 countr}-. Spin j-our yarn if you will, you must send it to the 
 north to be woven. Weave your cloth if you will, you must 
 send it to Massachusetts to be finished and dyed. Finish 
 and dj-e it if you will, you must come to Massachusetts for 
 your machinery with which to make it. Build j'our machin- 
 ery if 3^ou will, you must still come to Massachusetts for edu- 
 cated Yankee boys with Yankee brains to officer your in- 
 dustries." 
 
 BISHOP WILLIAM LAWRENCE. 
 
 I might tell you of a worthy family whose representatives 
 have had habitations here almost from the beginnings — to 
 the story of whose services to municipality, to state and to 
 country, in public and private relation, in its last four gen- 
 erations, it would be profitable to listen for a longer period 
 
76 
 
 than we shall have remained under this shelter; but I am in- 
 stead to read a letter from a member of that family whom the 
 community has had ample reason to honor, without in the 
 least drawing upon the claims of his distinguished ancestors 
 or relatives, the Right Reverend, the Bishop of Massachusett, 
 
 DOCTOR WILIvIAM LAWRENCE. 
 
 Bar Harbor, Me., July 4, 1905. 
 My Dear General Bancroft : 
 
 It is a source of real regret to me that I cannot be present 
 at the 250th anniversary of the founding of Groton, but hav- 
 ing once gotten away from official engagements I find it 
 necessary, if I am to get a rest, to stay away for awhile. 
 
 With the scenes and the people of Groton are bound up 
 many of ni}^ happiest memories and associations. I can re- 
 call how, as a small boy, we used to walk across the meadow 
 road to Church, and the ringing of the bells gave forth 
 sweeter sounds than any city bells. The thrills ran down 
 my back as the bass in the quartet thundered out his note. 
 
 My Aunt Woodbury's old horse. Doctor, used to drop her 
 at the old Meeting House and make his way around to the 
 shed. Then at the singing of the Doxology he backed out 
 and drove around to the front porch to take her home. Some 
 of the people used to bring their noonday lunch and be ready 
 for the second service. 
 
 The handsome face and kind heart of Aunt Eliza Green are 
 no doubt, familiar to some of the older inhabitants, and the 
 smell of her pies still seems to linger about the house as I 
 pass it on my visits to Groton. 
 
 I even go as far back as Peter Hazard, the old negro ; and 
 I remember with a shudder how his old wife pulled a black 
 pipe out of her mouth and gave me a kiss. 
 
 Farmers' Row, with its unsurpassed view across the Nashua 
 Valley, even with its many changes, still remains beautiful. 
 
 Lawrence Academy has done, and is doing, its noble work. 
 If the architects of a generation ago had been wise enough, 
 or the towns-people had been smart enough, to compel them 
 
8i 
 DOCTOR GREEN. 
 
 On this platform sits my cousin, the venerable Zara Patch, 
 a Vice President, who was one of the petitioners for the cele- 
 bration fifty years ago. Last winter, at the age of ninety- 
 two, he spurned my advice to use a cane when lie walked 
 upon the icy sidewalk. 
 
 It is the fortune, however, of Dr. Green and that of only one 
 other now living, Mr. John W. Parker, a Vice President, to 
 have had any official part in the celebration of fifty years ago, 
 and also, in that of today. Such a fortune can never be that of 
 but few; although, speaking of this town, many of us were 
 here fifty years ago. For one, however, I did not feel 
 especially interested in what was then going on. 
 
 We should like to have heard a word from the orator of 
 the day. He knows the town from the "Throne" to the 
 "Ridges" and from " Massapoag " to the river. He loves 
 ever)^ foot of it. He loves its history. He loves its people, — 
 and its people love him. 
 
 He was by unanimous choice requested to represent the 
 w^omen of Groton. They have always been among the best 
 in the world, and no one of all has been more beautiful, both 
 in character and in person, than that same Eliza Green of 
 whom Bishop Lawrence wrote, and whose son would have 
 spoken to 3^ou. Doctor. Colonel, Mayor, Honorable, Histo- 
 ian, Antiquarian, Genealogist, and many other things, a real 
 Groton boy, — "Sam" Green. But the heat of the day, 
 and the fatigue attendant upon his effort this forenoon, has 
 deprived us of the pleasure which we should have felt in 
 listening to him again this afternoon. 
 
 HON. CHESTER W. CLARK. 
 
 In the changes of time and political plan, the Councils 
 which created this township have passed away, but in some 
 sort the Great and General Court is their successor. So the 
 town has asked its Representative in the upper branch of 
 that renowned legislature to address the people of this 
 
82 
 
 corporation. The town is old enough now to enable him to 
 judge whether his predecessors acted wisely in allowing it to 
 be settled. 
 
 I have the honor to introduce the Hon. Chester W. Clark 
 of the Sixth Middlesex Senatorial District. 
 
 HON. CHESTER W. CEARK. 
 
 Mr. President, Citizens of Groton, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 I am glad to have this opportunity of being present and 
 enjoying with you the celebration of this most important 
 epoch in the history of your beautiful town. Time passes 
 swiftly; the lives of men soon vanish away; and even the 
 quarter-millennium of a municipality, when it is passed, is 
 but as a tale that is told. It is interesting and profitable to 
 pause at the end of such periods of time and look back upon 
 the dim and half forgotten years of its earliest history, and to 
 discern the pathway by which it has arrived to its present 
 state of prosperit}^ and happiness. 
 
 I understand that I am expected to say something about 
 the General Court, and especially about the Senate. This is 
 a subject befitting the occasion; for the very cause of our be- 
 ing assembled here today was an act of incorporation passed 
 by the General Court two hundred and fifty years ago. That 
 incorporation was one result of the tremendous activity that 
 characterized this part of the new world during the few years 
 next succeeding the first settlements. 
 
 What exhibitions of heroic toil and unyielding energ}^ are 
 disclosed as we bring those old days before the imagination 
 and consider what was accomplished by onl}^ a few, unaided 
 by the implements and machiner}' and motive power of later 
 invention. 
 
 Upon the arrival of Governor Winthrop and his company 
 in 1630 there were only about two thousand persons in the 
 territory now included in Massachusetts. Five years later 
 their numbers had augmented to about four thousand. That 
 was only twenty j'^ears prior to the settlement of Groton ; and 
 yet, before this town was incorporated, more than fifty others 
 
S3 
 
 had been established in Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, 
 comprising about forty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 The harmony, order, and economy of means that made 
 possible such wonderful achievements in two decades could 
 not have been secured and preserved, even among a people 
 as small in number as were they, without the control and 
 direction of some form of government. And so that essential 
 element of civilization was inaugurated at the verj^ first, bear- 
 ing the outward semblance and designation of the General 
 Court, — an institution and a name that have come down from 
 that remote origin to the present time. 
 
 The charter of Charles the First provided that there should 
 be a governor, a deputy governor, and eighteen assistants of 
 the company, to be elected yearly by the freemen; that the 
 governor or deputy and the assistants should hold a court 
 periodically for directing their affairs; and that four times a 
 year there should be held by the governor or deputy and as- 
 sistants and all the freemen who might be present, a general 
 assembly to be called the four Great and General Courts. 
 There was then no rivalry, as there sometimes is at the pres- 
 ent da)- , nor any caucuses, to determine who should be sent 
 to the General Court; for every freeman had a right to go. 
 In that respect it resembled a town meeting of the present 
 day. The number of freemen in the colony grew gradually 
 more numerous, so that it became impracticable for all of 
 them to meet in General Court. Thereupon it was provided 
 that each town might be represented by two or three dele- 
 gates, or, if it chose, by all of its freemen in a body; and 
 later it was decided that each town should send two delegates 
 only. The similarity between the original and the present 
 General Court now begins to appear. The first meeting of 
 the General Court was held in October, 1630. 
 
 The court held by the governor or deputy and the as- 
 sistants was called the Court of Assistants. Its province 
 was to sit in the interim between the sessions of the General 
 Court ; and the latter might repeal any action previously taken 
 by the former. To this Court of Assistants and to the General 
 Court alike belonged all legislative, judicial, and executive 
 
84 
 
 functions. From time to time thereafter certain of those 
 powers were eliminated, so that at length the General Court 
 possessed only the power of legislation, as it does today. 
 The foundation of our present General Court may therefore 
 be said to date from 1630, for all its powers were then exer- 
 cised, although in conjunction with others. It then exisited 
 under the government of England; it now exists under the 
 constitution of Massachusetts; but in point of historical suc- 
 cession its life has been continuous. By including therein 
 two classes, the governor and assistants forming one, and 
 the freemen, the other, it was analogous to the form of our 
 present legislature of representatives and senators but the}- 
 sat together as one body. 
 
 To a curious circumstance that happened very early, we 
 ma}' trace the separation of the two classes of legislators 
 mentioned, which furnishes the historical basis for the forma- 
 tion of our legislature into two branches. During that period 
 all sorts of petty cases came before the General Court. At 
 one of its sessions a case was brought by a Mrs. Sherman 
 against Captain Keayne,to recover damages caused by a stray 
 hog which had rooted up all the cabbages in the widow Sher- 
 man's garden. After a protracted hearing, commensurate 
 with the magnitude and importance of such a case, two as- 
 sistants and fifteen freemen voted in favor of the widow, and 
 seven assistants and eight freemen voted in favor of the hog. 
 A majority of the whole, but not of each class, had thus vot- 
 ed in favor of the widow. A point arose as to whether it was 
 necessary that a majority of the assistants and of the freemen 
 should concur, to enable the plaintiff to prevail. 
 
 The question created great agitation and was warmly 
 debated on either side. At length it was determined that a 
 majority of each class was essential to any action, and such 
 was thereafter required. The two classes continued to sit 
 together, but each in a portion of the room by itself. In the 
 course of time they came to occupy separate quarters. 
 The custom of one body having a negative upon the other 
 afterwards became embalmed in the constitution of our 
 Commonwealth. 
 
85 
 
 The sessions were opened at eight o'clock in the morning, 
 and the assistants who were not then present were fined, not- 
 withstanding there were no public conveyances, but each 
 must travel on foot or on horseback to the square, homely, 
 frame building which was the capitol. Now the sessions 
 never begin before half-past ten in the morning, and even 
 then manj^ of the members are dilator3% 
 
 As before stated, the General Court both made laws and 
 enforced them. It may not be uninteresting to notice vsome 
 of the peculiar enactments and judgments of those days. 
 
 Sir Richard Saltonstall was one of the assistants and ap- 
 parently a man of importance. He furnished considerable 
 business for the General Court, as appears by these records: 
 
 "Sir Richard Saltonstall is fined four bushels of malt for 
 his absence from the court." 
 
 "It is ordered that Richard Duffy, servant to Sir Richard 
 Saltonstall, shall be wliipped for his misdemeanors towards 
 his master." 
 
 "Sir Richard Saltonstall is fined 5 ^^ for whipping two 
 persons without the presence of another assistant, contrary 
 to an act of court formerly made." 
 
 " Chickataubott is fined the skin of a bear for shooting a 
 swine of Sir Richard Saltonstall's." 
 
 It seems that the inhabitants coveted good societ}', for we 
 find the following ; 
 
 "Mr. William Foster, appearing, was informed that we 
 conceive him not fit to live with us ; wherefore he was wished 
 to depart before the General Court in March next." 
 
 It would seem that treason was allowed no breathing place 
 in the colony. 
 
 " It is ordered that Philip Ratcliffe shall be whipped, have 
 his ears cut off, fined 5 £ and banished out of the limits of 
 this jurisdiction for uttering malicious and scandalous 
 speeches against the government and the church of Salem." 
 
 The proximity of the Indians jeopardized the public safety 
 and occasioned the following provisions: 
 
 "It is ordered that there shall be a watch of four kept 
 every night at Dorchester, and another at Watertown ; watches 
 
S6 
 
 to begin at sun-set ; and that if any person shall shoot o^ 
 any piece after the watch ia set he shall forfeit 40s or be 
 whipped." 
 
 We made paper money legal tender in war time, but eveii 
 that expedient was surpassed by the genius of the earliest. 
 settlerSv of which this evidence appears: 
 
 " It is ordered that corn shall pass for payment of all debts at 
 the usual rate it is sold for." 
 
 In those daj^s there were no political " fences " to be looked 
 after, but concerning the other kind they enacted that, 
 
 "The town of Hingham for not making sufficient fences is 
 fined 5s and hath time to mend their fences until the fourth 
 month." 
 
 The inhabitants also looked well to their ways :. 
 
 "The town of Boston for defect of their ways between 
 Powder Horn Hill and the written tree is fined 20s and en- 
 joined to mend them." 
 
 There are many humbug nostrums at the present day with 
 which unscrupulous persons prey upon the public; but here 
 is what happened in the olden time ; 
 
 "Nicholas Knapp is fined 5 £ for taking upon him to cure 
 the scurvy b}' water of no worth or value, which he sold at 
 a very dear rate, to be imprisoned till he pay his fine, or else 
 to be whipped." 
 
 Another instance illustrates how trivial was some of the 
 business : 
 
 "Bartholomew Hill is adjudged to be whipped for stealing 
 a loaf of bread from John Hoskins." 
 
 Much of the time of the present General Court is consumed 
 in the consideration of the so-called "labor bills," all which 
 aim to limit the hours and to secure for the workmen a greater 
 rate of compensation. In contrast to these, the labor bills 
 that then came before the General Court tended to decrease 
 rather than to enlarge the compensation, which fact is notice- 
 able as indicating the change of conditions or sentiment that 
 has taken place. These are samples of the former kind : 
 
 " It is ordered that laborers shall not take above i2d a day 
 
87 
 
 ior their work and not nbove 6d and meat and drink, un- 
 der pain of los." 
 
 " It is ordered that sawyers shall not take above r2d a score 
 for sawing oak boards, and lod a score for pine boards, if 
 they have their wood felled and squared for them." 
 
 "It is ordered that no master carpenter, mason, joiner, or 
 bricklayer shall take above i6d a day for their work if they 
 have meat and drink; and the second sort not above i2d a 
 •day under pain of los both to giver and toreceiver." 
 
 The punishment of death was inflicted for a variety of of- 
 fences, some of which would not be considered of very great 
 magnitude in our time. The town of Groton was incorpor- 
 ated at the session of the General Court held in March, 1655. 
 At the same session the following act was passed: 
 
 "In answer to the petition of Edward Sanders, craving the 
 favor of this court of the leaving off from his neck his sen- 
 tenced halter, the court, having received some testimony of 
 some good effect his punishment hath produced, do grant 
 his request." 
 
 I must not dwell longer on the quaint and curious doings 
 of bygone days. 
 
 That the division of the legislature into two branches is a 
 wise safeguard against hasty action is being constantly dem- 
 onstrated. The senate has been facetiously styled ' ' the grave- 
 yard of legislation." During the last winter more than 
 twenty bills which passed the House were buried in the Sen- 
 ate beyond hope of resurrection. In most of those cases the 
 measures would have passed b}- a majority if the House and 
 Senate had voted unitedly as one body. The Senate obvi- 
 ously believed them to be unwise measures. If there was 
 any doubt, it was better to err on the side of conservatism 
 than on the side of new and untried statutes. There is more 
 danger of too much legislation than of too little. The effect 
 of the operation of a particular law cannot always be foreseen ; 
 and moderation in respect to changes is to be commended. 
 It is often "better to bear the ills we have than fly to those 
 we know not of." 
 
88 
 
 The men who compose the General Court in colonial times 
 were possessed of strong characters; but their knowledge 
 and experience were very limited. They would have been 
 incompetent to have dealt with questions of the magnitude and 
 complexity of those which now engage the attention of the 
 General Court. With the development of time there has 
 come a broadening of the minds of men, but the virtues of 
 those old characters may well be imitated and perpetuated. 
 
 It has been said by critics from abroad that the legislature 
 of this Commonwealth is superior — in the character and in- 
 telligence of its members, the order and decorum of its ses- 
 sions, and the seriousness with which it undertakes the 
 transaction of business, Let us hope that this high standard 
 may be maintained. 
 
 Groton has furnished a legislator of especial worth in the 
 eminent statesman whose life-work has recently ended. It 
 is a signal honor to this town to have been the dwelling place 
 of one who was a tower of strength to the Nation and the 
 Commonwealth. The exemplary career of Governor Bout- 
 well will always summon to noble action those who under- 
 take the service of the public. We may justly point to him 
 as the embodiment of our highest ideals. 
 
 "What constitutes a state? 
 Not high raised battlement or labored mound, 
 
 Thick walls of moated gate; 
 Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned ; 
 
 Not bays and broad-armed ports 
 Where, laughing at the storms, rich navies ride; 
 
 Not starred and spangled courts 
 Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 
 
 No! Men, high-minded men. 
 
 Men who their duties know, 
 But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain 
 
 Prevent the long-aimed blow. 
 And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain. 
 
 These constitute a state." 
 
89 
 
 HON. CHARLES S. HAMLIN. 
 
 We are favored with the presence of a distinguished gnest 
 who, though not himself a native or a resident of the town, 
 lias reason to feel a strong attachment to it from the circum- 
 stance that his famil}^ once lived in that part of it which is now 
 the sightly town of Westford. He very willingly responded to 
 the Committee's invitation to join in this observance, and 
 has given gratification by so doing. An eminent publicist, a 
 profound student of our Country's concerns, who has served 
 with credit in high official station, I present to you the 
 
 HONORABLE CHARLEvS S. HAMLIN. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is a very great 
 pleasure to me to be able to be here toda3% and to take part 
 in these memorable festivities. In this connection, let me 
 say that my brother told me yesterday- that he was sitting in 
 his office, when suddenly the telephone rang with such a rat- 
 tle that he jumped hastily from his seat, and, rushing to the 
 instrument heard the voice of General Bancroft, in imperious 
 tones, as if, as Major General, he were giving a command to 
 some corporal in the ranks. The General said he desired to 
 know "what your brother's interest in Groton was, anyway." 
 He was so frightened, he said, all he could think of was that 
 some of our ancestors lived and died in Westford, I am very 
 glad that my brother's courage gave out, because if it hadn't, 
 the General would have made my speech, and there would 
 have been nothing left for me to say. I really feel, however, 
 that I have a right to be here today. In the first place, I 
 come as a trustee of the time honored Academy of Westford, 
 and bring the very best greetings of the Board of Trustees. 
 Secondly, my wife is a collateral descendant of that James 
 Sullivan who was once an honored citizen of this town. 
 And, thirdly, my grandmother, Harriet Fletcher Hamlin, 
 w^as born in and married from this town. She was a daugh- 
 ter of Pelatiah Fletcher, and her grandfather commanded a 
 regiment in the Revolutionary War; they lived on what is 
 now^ called the Timmins farm. I came here once to look at 
 
that farm and see where she was born, but I remembered a story 
 of four beautiful chairs which once belonged in the family, 
 and when I arrived in the town I was sorely perplexed. I 
 felt that I ought to go and see the ancestral home, but I 
 wanted those chairs; and so, after thinking it over, I post- 
 poned my visit to the ancestral home, and tried to secure the 
 chairs, but I was unfortunate, as the owners would not part 
 with them. I shall not give the name of the people who 
 own those chairs, because I do not accept that defeat, but in- 
 tend to come here sometime again and get them. 
 
 My great-great-grandfather, Eleazer Hamlin, built a house 
 in Harvard, only a few miles from here, which is still stand- 
 ing. He had nineteen children, and for his second wife he 
 married a lady w^ho had a bountiful supply of her own, so 
 you can imagine he must have been a man of some property, 
 or must have been a heavy charge on the town. He moved to 
 Pembroke, and I went down there a few years ago to see his 
 old house there. I saw in the house an old fashioned fire 
 back which I thought must have belonged to my great-great- 
 grandfather, and I wanted to buy it. I made up my mind to 
 pay ten, twenty, or even tw^enty-five dollars. For the sake 
 of old associations I would gladly have paid that amount. I 
 said, "I know that must have belonged to my great-great- 
 grandfather." My wafe looked it over, and then with that 
 calm air of superiority which wives often visit upon their 
 foolish husbands, she pointed to one corner of the fire back 
 where I saw the words " Worcester, patented 1876." So I was 
 saved making the purchase. Eleazer named four of his 
 children for the continents, Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
 America. I am a descendant of Asia. I wish I could say 
 that I owe all my allegiance to this town. I do owe a good 
 part of it. I love it. I used to spend the summer in West- 
 ford, and belonged there to a celebrated baseball team, but 
 skilful as we thought w^e were, we couldn't beat the Groton 
 nine. We were mercilessly defeated once, and when we made 
 up our minds to try again, Providence thoughtfully sent 
 a storm which prevented the match, and that was my last ap- 
 pearance on the base ball field. To the neighboring towm of 
 
91 
 
 Westford also 1 owe allegiance, and as well to other towns 
 on the Cape; they are all memorable, and they all mean 
 practically the same thing in our public life. It reminds me 
 of a story of an old lady who once made famous pies, mince 
 and apple ; one day some one asked her how she could tell 
 them apart. " Why, by that mark," she said. The mince 
 pies were marked " T. M." He found the same mark on the 
 apple pies. "But how can 3'ou tell," he said, "thej'are 
 both marked alike." She said, "Why, one stands for 'tis 
 mince,' and one for 'tisn't mince' ." So we have all the same 
 mark, the same heritage of American citizenship of which we 
 are all proud whether we come from Groton or Ayer or 
 Westford. This town of Groton has reason to be proud, 
 if for no other reason, because it has given to the countrj' 
 that great statesman and patriot, George S. Boutwell; it 
 would take its place in history for that reason alone. 
 
 The secret of the success of Massachusetts is that the 
 towns have practiced the principle of home rule which our 
 ancestors gave us, and which we will always cherish. There 
 is a spirit about the people of Massachusetts, whether in the 
 North, the South, the East or the West; there is a fine old 
 Massachusetts spirit that takes its rise from the home rule 
 doctrines. You cannot define what that Massachusett spirit 
 is. You can feel it, you can watch its effects, and you know 
 it is there. If I were to try to define it I should have to 
 define it as a minister once tried to define religion: — "You 
 get religion when you don't want it; when you get it you 
 don't know it ; if you know it, you haven't got it; when you 
 get it you can't lose it; if you lose it, you never had it." 
 And that is the spirit of Massachusetts. There has been a 
 marvellous development of this, our country, in the last 
 twenty, thirty, or forty years. We are getting welded 
 together more and more with a true national spirit. The 
 best proof of this, to my mind, is that in the early days, after 
 1776, or rather after 1789 when the Constitution of the United 
 States was framed, when the words "United States" were 
 used they were invariably followed by the plural verb, — the 
 United States are not is. Whereas, in modern days, the 
 
Jisost recent illustration being the treaty of peace witfi Spain, 
 the phrase was used, — -" The United States is." The United 
 States is now a common unit, a great iiational government. 
 It was welded together by the genias of interpretation of John. 
 Marshall, by the great Secretary of State Daniel Webster, 
 and by many succeeding statesmen. Today we stand both 
 a great united people- If there is one idea more than another 
 that I can. brin^ hire, it is that when the United States faces, 
 a foreign power it shall be as one undivided nation. Let no 
 political dissension come into play to defeat or defend a treaty 
 when the United States speaks to another nation. If there 
 are differences in the Senate, let us forget our partisanship 
 when we face another power, in the common love of our 
 grand united country. 
 
 Now, my friends, I wish I had time to say more to you. 
 I have much more to say, but time is precious to me, for it is 
 hay day, and I have got to go home to my farm at Matta- 
 poisett and see what has been done today. My genial friend, 
 the lyieutenant-Governor, has the advantage of me, — he has 
 been making hay all day. We can all make hay when the 
 sun shines. He can make it just as well when it rains ; he 
 can make hay in the night; he can make it in the winter as 
 well as in summer. And I want to say, as one who has not 
 exactly been in accord with him politically, that there is no 
 one in our state who envies him his high reputation, well 
 earned and deserved. 
 
 I take a great interest in my farm. My vocation is that of 
 law, and I took up farming as an avocation, hoping that 
 I might some day follow farming as a vocation and law as an 
 avocation. I have accumulated a vast mass of experience, 
 and not much more, but I have invented a device by which I 
 make that farm pay expenses. I charge oflf the deficit as 
 rent of the summer dwelling house in which I live, and I am 
 proud to say my farm pays its expenses. I began by raising 
 hens and chickens, and as the first cost was expensive, my 
 wife and I wrote to each of our friends to send us a hen, and 
 said we would name the hen for the donor, male or female. 
 That brought a number of hens, but not as many as we 
 
93 
 
 wanted; so I wrote again to the delinquents, and said that ii 
 the}' didn't send a hen I would name a pig for them. I have 
 carried on that farm for several years, and any man that will 
 come to me and say he is a descendant of Groton can have 
 its products at actual cost, — about one dollar apiece for eggs, 
 and somewhat more a quart for milk. 
 
 The ramblings in which I have indulged remind me of an 
 old railroad in Massachusetts called the Boston, Barre and 
 Gardner, which didn't start from Boston, didn't go through 
 Barre, and only barely reached Gardner. 
 
 I do not remember where or how I began, or whither my 
 remarks have tended, but the anxious look on the presiding 
 ol^cer's face impresses upon me the fact that I have reached 
 my destination, so thanking you for 3^our courteous invitation 
 I will take mv seat. 
 
 HON. ANDROS B. JONES. 
 
 i\t the time of Deane Winthrop's petition, Lancaster was 
 Nash-a-way; Nashua was Merimake, and a part of Nashua 
 was a part of Groton. Since then boundaries, as well as 
 names, have been changed, and today we are welcoming the 
 accomplished mayor of a beautiful city in another state, with 
 the assurance that, had his territory of Nashua remained 
 with us, he might now be Chairman of the Board of Select- 
 men of Groton. And w-e greet him and his people with the 
 cordiality of kindred, and wish him to know that we are 
 proud of our relatives from New Hampshire. I have much 
 satisfaction in introducing the Mayor of Nashua, the 
 
 HONORABLE ANDROS B. JONES. 
 
 Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 It is needless for me to mention the great pleasure which I 
 take in coming to this gathering from Nashua, to pay for her 
 a tribute of honor and a debt of gratitude to the old mother 
 who fostered and nourished her many years ago. 
 
 Nashua together with the other sister towns of the same 
 
94 
 
 common parentage gather here today to join in commemora- 
 tion of the birth of Groton. For, the citizens of Nashua, 
 whom I have the privilege and the honor of representing on 
 this occasion, date the real beginning of their town history 
 back over two centuries and a half ago, when Jonathan 
 Danforth braved the dangers of wilderness to survey the 
 original Groton plantation. 
 
 At that time the line which now marks the main thorough- 
 fare of your town was but a faintly traced path through the 
 forest. It had known no human step, save the moccasined 
 foot of the Indian. 
 
 The ancient and primitive wood had never heard the 
 sound of the white man's axe. But soon all this was 
 changed. Where once was but a scarcely perceptible tract 
 through the forest we now see a well trodden path and a 
 much wider clearing. Wreaths of smoke curling up from 
 the rude log cabins on either side gave evidence of that Anglo- 
 Saxon grit and perseverance which converted the wilds of 
 New England into a fertile and habitable land. 
 
 The red men have since become aware that the street is no 
 longer free to them, save by permission of the settlers. The 
 wild forest has shrunk back and the street has lost the odor 
 of the pine and the hemlock. And so from this humble be- 
 ginning grew the town whose birth we celebrate today. 
 
 But soon that restless energy which is so characteristic of 
 the Anglo-Saxon pushed forth into the unknown forest in 
 search of new homes. The more adventurous spirits came to 
 a spot which seemed graced by God. 
 
 At the junction of two rivers, a place which had long 
 been the favorite fishing ground of the Indian, they cleared 
 away the forest and founded a little settlement. From this 
 settlement grew the large and prosperous city of Nashua. 
 
 Because of its favorable location, its splendid water power 
 and its unsurpassed railroad facilities, Nashua is today the 
 most vigorous child of old Groton. 
 
 Although these great natural resources have contributed 
 largely to her growth and prosperity, she owes much to those 
 
95 
 
 sturdy pioneers who first cleared away the forest and opened 
 up the farms of old Middlesex. 
 
 And it is in recognition of that debt that I speak here today 
 in behalf of the citizens of Nashua. We all rejoice with you 
 on this memorable occasion. We are glad of having this 
 opportunity to express our appreciation of the services which 
 those men rendered, who here on this spot felled the first 
 trees and made possible by their untiring efforts the marked 
 success which we as a city have attained. 
 
 We have erected a monument worthy of the fathers who 
 have gone before. The busy hum of the factories, the cotton 
 mills, and the foundries of Nashua, bears an unceasing 
 tribute to the memory of the founders of Groton. I thank 
 you. 
 
 HON. GEORGE A. SANDERSON. 
 
 The duties pertaining to the office of President of the 
 Board of Trustees of the Lawrence Academy, and the duties 
 pertaining to the office of District Attorney for the Northern 
 District, which comprises Middlesex County, have been per- 
 formed of late years in a way that shows clearly that the 
 incumbent of each of these offices is well fitted to perform the 
 duties pertaining to the highest elective law office in the 
 Commonwealth. In all of these offices the people of Groton 
 feel no inconsiderable interest, and they are indeed fortunate 
 to be privileged today to listen to a gentleman, who, either 
 from association or from anticipation, is able to talk about 
 all of them, but he is also at liberty to refrain from talking 
 about any of them if he chooses. Upon any subject that he 
 may wish to select, we shall be glad to hear 
 
 HONORABIvE GEORGE A. SANDERSON. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Ge7itleme?i : A town that has 
 two hundred and fifty years of history has an inheritance of 
 all that is best in life upon this continent, and the town of 
 Groton is peculiarly fortunate in its history and its inheri- 
 
g6 
 
 tance. One of the features of that history, and one well 
 worth mentioning at a great celebration like this, is the 
 fostering care which this town has given to educational 
 institutions. Among them, the ancient academy on the hill, 
 upon whose athletic field we have today met. It was founded 
 more than one hundred and ten years ago, by forty-seven 
 subscribers, at a time when every dollar earned and given 
 meant a sacrifice of time and effort. These fort^^-seven men. 
 devoted to education, devoted to the higher and the best 
 things, subscribed sums varying from five to fifteen pounds 
 each for the erection of the first building, as they said in that 
 agreement, "to diffuse useful knowledge, and render the 
 means of instruction and information more general and less 
 expensive." The last subscriber on that list was the muni- 
 cipality, the town of Groton itself, which subscribed two 
 hundred pounds to the erection of that building, and it is 
 probable that the institution could not then have been founded 
 but for the subscription of the town. So we have in these 
 forty-seven enthusiastic individuals, and throughout the 
 whole town, a devotion to the idea of education so strong that 
 they were willing to make sacrifices for it. Since that time, 
 that institution, through long periods of its life, has furnishi,:d 
 education to many of the sons and daughters of Groton. It 
 has brought to this village thousands of boys and girls to be 
 educated, who have carried the fair fame of Groton to other 
 parts of this state, and to other states in our nation. It has 
 stood there as a silent influence for education to all those 
 who have not had the privilege of entering its walls. It is 
 said that a church building, b}^ its very existence in a com- 
 munity, is constanth^ preaching a sermon to all who look 
 upon it, by reason of the significance of things for which it 
 stands. In a similar way, this institution on the hill, 
 because of the principles for which it has stood, because of 
 the spirit of the boys and girls in it, and the teachers there, 
 has enabled this town to be a town in which its citizens have 
 high ideals, are interested in the higher things, and are 
 devoted to the things that are not whollj^ material. It has 
 not only given much to this community, but it has received 
 
97 
 
 much from it. The beautiful scenes of these hills and valle_\'s 
 have been mixed with the joys and duties of student life. 
 The churches of this town have furnished much of the 
 religious influence to those who have attended that institu- 
 tion, and the character of the people of this town has been 
 impressed upon the youth who have attended that school. 
 Many a student has formed his ideal of life from the people 
 whom he has come to know when at school here. Lawrence 
 Academy and the town of Groton are in their history indis- 
 solubly linked together. Each is a debtor to the other. As 
 we look down the future, can we not ask the town of Groton 
 for that friendly interest which was guaranteed in that 
 original gift of two hundred pounds? Can we not promise 
 for the old acadeni}' an adherence to the ideals that it has 
 stood for, and that it shall continue to !^tand for the higher 
 things of life. 
 
 " I hold it true that thoughts are things 
 Endowed with being, breath and wings; 
 And that we send them forth 
 To fill the world with goodness or ill." 
 
 HON. CHARLES W. STONE. 
 
 In the history of the Federal Union a large part has Ijeen 
 taken by the great state of Pennsjdvania. Within her borders 
 have been events of the ver}' highest concern to our nation — 
 events both in council and on the field. Her natural 
 resources have yielded wealth which we characterize as 
 marvelous, and among her men have been, and are, leaders 
 in momentous affairs. 
 
 Among those whom her people have delighted to honor — 
 a former Lieutenant-Governor and Congressman — is a Groton 
 boy whom I shall now ask to address you — the 
 
 HONORABLE CHARLES W. STONE. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies ayid Gentlemeyi : I would be a rash 
 man indeed if, at this hour of the day, and in this temperature. 
 
98 
 
 and after the wealth of eloquence, of educational history, of 
 practical agricultural experience, of political science, which 
 we have been favored with today, I should undertake to 
 detain this audience. Ordinaril^^ I would like to do that for 
 a little time. Ordinarily, I would be glad to say a few 
 words here in the place where I was born; but you are pro- 
 tected from any such possible danger, for I am advised that 
 the train which will take me toward the setting sun wall 
 soon be due, and railroad trains, like time and tide, wait for 
 no man. Consequently, Mr. Chairman, the speech which I 
 would like to have made will have to be postponed until the 
 next centennial. 
 
 Anywhere, except in Groton, and at any other time except 
 today, the eloquent, feeling, enthusiastic eulogy upon the 
 state of Massachusetts from the lip» of her Lieutenant- 
 Governor would have perhaps, provoked from me some 
 words in relation to the grand, imperial old Commonwealth 
 of Pennsylvania with its unrivalled resources and its glorious 
 history. But today, Mr. Chairman, I stand here as a loyal 
 Yankee. Today, I claim allegiance to the old state of 
 Massachusetts. I claim the right to partake with you in the 
 pride which we all feel in this grand old town of Groton. 
 Tracing my lineage back by direct descent to three of the 
 original land-holders of Groton, Simon Stone, Thomas 
 Williams and William Green, I feel that I am entitled to 
 share with you in the pride which we feel in this grand 
 town, in its historical past, and its attractive present. 
 
 Yesterday I strolled to the top of Gibbet Hill, which I used 
 to know as a boy, and I looked out upon the beautiful 
 panorama spread before us, the distant hills and mountains, 
 and the intervening fields, and it was a beautiful sight. I 
 recognized that Groton was "beautiful for situation," and it 
 seemed to me that it was a good place to be born in. I strayed 
 later into the cemetery, peaceful, delightful, quiet; nothing 
 to interfere with the peace and quiet of that solemn place, 
 and it semeed to me that Groton was a good place to die and 
 be buried in. I came today into this assemblage, with those 
 
99 
 
 bright faces and well laden boards, and wandered about your 
 streets with their houses radiant with beauty, and it seemed 
 to me that Groton was a good place to live in. And yet, no 
 man who has tasted the enticing fascination of western life, 
 who has mingled with the men who make things move, who 
 has listened to the "call of the wild" that comes from the West 
 with its vast prairies and gigantic forests, will ever be con- 
 tent to return, even to the peaceful monotony of a New 
 England town. 
 
 I noticed, in coming in on the train yesterday, what was a 
 surprise to me, because in my bo^-hood daj's there was nothing 
 noticeable in the language of this community, except possibly 
 a little of what General Scott used to call "the rich old Irish 
 brogue," but on the train yesterday, strident, drowning and 
 overwhelming the conversation of the native New Englander 
 was a foreign language, unknown to me, unintelligible to 
 me, and I wondered if I would find the same state of affairs 
 in Groton. I wondered if I should find the genuine old New 
 England element, or that conxposite element that comes from 
 foreign immigration. But while today I miss many a figure 
 which I would expect to see on this occasion, and especially 
 one that had become preminently prominent in the state and 
 nation and left a deep and lasting impress on his country's 
 history, was absent, and while many another has gone on to 
 that bourne from which no traveller returns, yet others have 
 grown up and come in, and the general character of the town 
 remains unchanged. You have the same churches and the 
 same deep religious spirit, the saiiie schools, the same town 
 meeting, and the same educating influence of the town 
 meeting, and the exemplification cf pure democracy shown 
 in the conduct of your local affairs by direct vote of each 
 individual citizen. And the town remains the same, and it 
 is a great and glorious old community. I listen to the 
 eulogies concerning New England, and I believe its influence 
 is extending beyond the nation, and I would give you as a 
 concluding sentiment, — Here's to the New England of the 
 past, the home, the birth-place of American liberty and free 
 government; here's to the United States of the present, 
 
 I, V 
 
lOO 
 
 carrying the enlightening, the elevating, the refining influence 
 of New England civilization to the uttermost parts of the 
 earth. 
 
 HON. GEORGE J. BURNS. 
 
 Unmindful of the precept that children should be seen but 
 not heard, and oblivious to the somewhat unfilial utterances 
 which were heard here thirty-four years ago, and which were 
 prompted only by eagerness for a much desired separation, 
 and by impatience for independent existence, and not by an}- 
 lack of respect or of affection for a venerable parent, I was to 
 have asked you to listen to a representative of that frisky, 
 that vivacious, that irrepressible child of old age — for so it 
 seemed to me in my boyhood — the modern — or model — town 
 of Ayer. Now that she has dropped the peevishness of 
 childhood, and has assumed the decorous serenity of a digni- 
 fied sister, and is avowedly not ashamed of her elder 
 relative — I am getting the kinship in this consanguinous 
 metaphor a bit mixed — it would be fitting that her spokes- 
 man should be one who, like herself, possesses all the 
 enthusiasm of youth together with many other estimable 
 qualities which come with the ripeness of mature age. I 
 should, therefore, have invited to speak in behalf of our 
 good neighbor now in all the bloom of full grown womanhood, 
 not all of whose beauties, however, can be seen from her 
 railroad station, one whose agreeable voice, on more than 
 one occasion has not failed to please a Groton audience, one 
 who fills a large place in this commuity, and one who, when 
 Congressman Tirrell is sent to the Senate or made Ambas- 
 sador to the Court of St. James, for aught I know, may 
 represent this district in the halls of Congress — our worthy 
 friend, the Honorable George J. Burns. But I do not see 
 him here at this moment. 
 
 The addresses then are finished and the Chair, therefore, 
 declares this gathering adjourned to the 300th anniversary 
 to which time the 200th anniversary gathering was also 
 adjourned. 
 
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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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