F 74 
 .GS B82 
 Copy 1 
 
 People and Their Homes 
 
 GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 OLDKN TIMK. 
 
 FRANCIS MARION BOUTWELL. 
 
 GROTON : 
 
 1890. 
 
People and Their Homes 
 
 GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 OLDKN TIME. 
 
 FRANCIS MARION BOUTWELL. 
 
 GROTON 
 
 1800. 
 
f1^ 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FACTS ABOUT SEVERAL PEUSONS AND SEVERAL THINGS. 
 
 Mis« Elizabeth Farnsworth's lather, known in his hiter 
 years as Major Amos Farnsworth, was in the l)attk; of Bunker 
 Ilill. He was then twenty-one years of age, and was wounded 
 twice in that tight, one ball entering his arm and another 
 scraping the skin oil" of his side. On the lUth of October, 
 1880, as my minutes show, while calling u[)on Miss Farns- 
 worth, retercncc was made to the theory entertained by some 
 persons that General Putnam was in command of the Ameri- 
 can forces at this battle. I asked her what lun- father said of 
 what he saw and did there, and if he ever intimated that any 
 other than Colonel William Prescott was in command. She 
 replied that her father always said that Colonel Prescott was 
 the connnander, and llial she had never heard anything to the 
 contrary until recent years. She said that her father was an 
 under officer, })robal)ly a non-conmiissioned officer. Of all 
 men engaged in the ])attle of Bunker Hill, Major Farnsworth 
 was fully as likely to know what position Colonel Prescott 
 held on that day as could have l)een known l)y any other man 
 there, for Major Farnsworth's father and i^njther were both 
 own cousins to Colonel Prescott, and were cousins to each 
 other, and Prescott lived only about seven miles from Farns- 
 worth's honie in what was then the District of Pepperell, but 
 a part of Groton, incor})orated later as a se[)arate town. 
 
 Miss Farnsworth stated that her father told her that when 
 the ammunition was gone Prescott turned to those of his men 
 who were within hearing, and said: "We have Hred all our 
 "powder away, and must get away the best way we can." 
 And upon that the retreat commenced. Major Farnsworth 
 
heard his cousin make this remark. He told his daughter, 
 and she repeated it to me. Within an hour after this con- 
 versation with Miss Farnsworth I made the minutes that are 
 now the guide to my memory. 
 
 Major Farnsworth also made the same statement to his 
 daughter that we get from other sources, viz.. That when 
 Colonel Prescott was leaving the field he met General Put- 
 nam, and asked him why he did not come up and support 
 him, to which the General replied that he " could not drive 
 "the dogs along;" and Colonel Prescott said, "You should 
 " have led them. General." It is well known that General 
 Putnam was a very rough man in his manner. 
 
 Under all the circumstances, and in view of his relation- 
 ship to Colonel Prescott, it does not seem possible that 
 Major Farnsworth could have been in error as to who com- 
 manded at that mcmoral>le battle. 
 
 Colonel Prescott was born in Groton, at the south end of 
 the village. The site of his father's home is described on 
 page 9 of my " Old Homesteads." 
 
 Quite a number of the "Arcadian farmers " were brought to 
 Groton after they were removed from Nova Scotia in 1755, and 
 INIiss Farnsworth once told me that one of these families lived 
 upon the west side of what we now know as the old road to 
 Ayer, and at the top of the hill a short distance north of No. 
 2 (Moors) schoolhouse. There is now a house upon the site, 
 ])ut it is not the same building. INliss Farnsworth may have 
 learned this fact from her grandmother, whom she remem- 
 bered well, or perhaps even from her father, who was born 
 in 1754. 
 
 Miss Farnsworth o;ave me an interesting account of the 
 purchase by the town of the northern portion of what we 
 
now know :is tlic old huiying ground, the .^outlierl}' part 
 having l)ccn added subsequently. 
 
 The original purchase was made of the Rev. (lershoni 
 Hobart toward the end of the seventeenth or very early in 
 the last century. The town neglected to pay for the land 
 until Mr. Ilobart became very much out of patience ; and 
 though several burials had been made, he threatened Unit if 
 the amount agreed upon were not forthcoming and the trans- 
 action closed, he would proceed to plough and cultivate the 
 land. This threat had no ellect, and so he commenced to 
 carry it into execution by ploughing, but only a few furrows 
 round the outer edge of the ground were recjuircd to bring 
 the town to terms, and the money was })aid. i\Ir. Ilobart, 
 as the minister, had more or less trouble with the ])eople, 
 and the ill feeb'ng that prevailed on both sides no d<)ul)t had 
 its influence in this matter. INIiss Farnsworth said that when 
 she was a child there were ridges noticeable round the out- 
 side of the burying ground, that were said to be the remains 
 of iNIr. Hobart's furrows. 
 
 Miss Farnsworth once told me that she rememl)ered, when 
 a child, her grandmother, Lydia Longley Farnsworth, had an 
 old pin cushion which she told her was a gift received when 
 a 3'oung girl from her Munt, Fv^'dia Ijongley, who was in the 
 convent of Notre Dame at Montreal. ISIrs. Farnsworth told 
 her granddaughter that having been named for her aunt, that 
 lady sent little gifts from time to time during her childhood. 
 
 Lydia Longley w'as the oldest of the children of William 
 Longley, taken captive in 1()91 by Indians and carried to 
 Canada. The site of their home is marked by the tablet near 
 th(! house of Zachariah Fitch. The sad story of the fate 
 of the unfortunate family has been often told. Mrs. Farns- 
 
worth's father, John Longley, was captured at the same time, 
 but escaped after a few years and returned to Groton. ' 
 
 Ljdia remained in Montreal, was converted to the Roman 
 Catholic faith, and on Tuesday, April 24, 1696, was bap- 
 tized. She remained in the convent above referred to the rest 
 of her life, and Mrs. Farnsworth never saw her. In August, 
 1880, l)cing at Montreal, I went to the house of the parish 
 priest of the parish of Notre Dame, and there saw the origi- 
 nal record of the baptism of Lydia Longley, to which her 
 signature was attached. The record was of course in the 
 French language, but I secured a certified copy, and also a 
 translation of the copy, besides a tracing of the signature. 
 
 At the time of the Indian assault upon the Longley fimiily, 
 father, mother, and five children were killed, and Miss Farns- 
 worth said slie always understood that one other person, an 
 inmate of the house l)ut not a meml)er of the family, was 
 killed also, making eight in all. The}'' were laid in one 
 grave and upon the premises. Until within a])out fifty years 
 the mound was carefully preserved, l)ut all trace of it has 
 now disappeared. I have, however, taken some pains to 
 ascertain exactly where it was, and will give the result of my 
 investigation. 
 
 Mr. Abel Lawrence, of Groton, lived upon the same farm 
 when a boy, and he says that he remembers sitting upon 
 the mound many tunes. In December, 1881, I went with 
 Mr. Lawrence to the place and asked him to locate the 
 grave according to the best of his memory. His father and 
 grandfather both had lived there, and he says that the 
 latter set out an apple tree to mark the spot. Mr. I^awrence 
 remembers the tree, and says that it never bore fruit. He 
 indicated the place where the apple tree stood, and we then 
 ran the following lines : Measure from the centre of the front 
 of the Longley monument in a straight line toward the road, 
 
17 feet (S inches, then make a riiihl aiiiiU^ north, run a line 
 52 feet and yon reach the phico where the tree stood. This 
 spot is (SI feet S* inches from the ience ahmi:; the road in a 
 straight line. A sister of Mr. Lawrence is of the same 
 opinion as to the k)cation of the grave. 
 
 Miss Farnsworth once tohl me tliat sh(> had been a reader 
 of the newspapers since the beginning of this century, and 
 that she used to read ah)ud to her parents the accounts of 
 the campaigns of the tirst NapokH)n 1)efore the battle of Wa- 
 terloo. She said that her father, in those days, subscribed 
 for the only [)aper that was taken by any one ))et\veen the 
 villages of Shirley and Groton ; and it was but a weekly, as 
 daily papers are of comparatively recent origin. 
 
 Miss Farnsworth gave me an interesting account of tlu; 
 death of lier grandfather, Amos Farnsworth, senior, and his 
 son Fxuijamin, who were drowned in the Nashua river the 
 5th of December, 1775. She said that Mr. Farnsworth had 
 sheep in pasture upon his island, now owned by lion. Daniel 
 Nccdham. It was thought they attemi)led to take the sheep 
 from the island, one or two at a time in a boat, as winter 
 was at hand, but no other person was with them. The 
 supposition was that they bound the animals, placed them 
 in the lK)at, and started for the main land, and that they were 
 upset by the struggling of the sheep. Men at a distance 
 heard Mr. Farnsworth call to his son in an encouraging man- 
 ner to keep calm, for he was coming. The men feared that 
 there was trouble, and hurried to the bank of tlie river, but 
 when they arrived both had gone down. The remains of 
 lienjamin were soon found, but the body of Mr. Farnsworth 
 was not recovered when th(> river froze. As soon as spring 
 opened, bi> son, Miss Isarnsw (trllTs father, wall^ed down the 
 
river to see if the l)0(ly had been washed ashore- When h(^ 
 saw anything on the opposite bank, and Avas in doubt what 
 it might be, lie would throw a stone over, and usually could 
 tell by the sound what it was. lie went on thus to near 
 where the Hollis railroad depot now stands, where he found 
 the remains. The body had been carried by the current not 
 less than ten miles. This experience, together with the bat- 
 tle of Bunker Ilill, which occurred in June preceding, made 
 an eventful year for Major Farnsworth, then but twenty-one 
 years old. 
 
 The home of Amos Farnsworth, senior, was just below 
 the present site of Charles II. Joy's barn, on the same side 
 of the road to Shirley, and his farm extended back to the 
 river. The house, now occupied by Mr. Joy's foreman, was 
 built under the supervision of Miss Elizabeth Farnsworth in 
 the year 1(S34, I)eforc the death of her father, but after he 
 was an old man. Major Farnsworth had previously occupied 
 the old house just described. The house that now stands 
 below Mr. Joy's barn was built for and occupied by Luke, a 
 brother of Miss Elizal>eth. 
 
 The island which I have described was originally attached 
 to llie main land on the east side of the river, and the whole 
 was known as "The Neck," the river making a great bend 
 and flowing through the channel which we now call "Dead 
 River," and which is about seven-eighths of a mile in length. 
 As a result of the constant wearing of the land of the neck 
 l>y Ihe tendency of the river to make a straight course, the 
 water finally broke through, leaving the western end of the 
 neck as an island between the old channel on the west and 
 the present main stream on the east. There is reason to 
 suppose thai this action of tlic waters occurred in the winter 
 of 1750. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. 
 
 Upon farther investigation, I find that I was mistaken in 
 my statement found on page 2 of my pamphlet entitled " Old 
 Homesteads of Groton, iNIassaclnisctts," where I give the 
 place of residence of Ellis liarron. It .seems tliat he must 
 have lived at the south end of the village, and probably upon 
 tlic Stuart J. Park place, now owned by Francis F. Woods. 
 It is a fact, as 1 state on page (S of the above-named i)am- 
 phlet, that Jonas Prescott lived upon this estate, but that was 
 not until the return of the inhabitants after the destruction 
 of the town J)y the Indians, which occurred jMarch 13, KIKi, 
 But Ellis Barron's lands were granted to him in the year 
 1()6G ; and after the burning of the town he returned to 
 Watertown, from whence he originally came. 
 
 James Knop probably lived on the present Main street, 
 and near where the house of the late John G. Park stands. 
 This land was granted to Knop in l()f)9. The house lots of 
 Knop and Bairon wvvc both bounded on the cast- by the 
 highway and west by liroad Meadow End, which was the 
 south end of that nu'adow. 
 
 I have not mentioned James Knop's home in cither of my 
 previous publications, for though 1 havi; examined the de- 
 scription of his lands repeatedly, it was not until recently 
 that I was able to decide where he lived. 
 
 In connection with my account of the home of James IMooil 
 on page 2 of "Old Homesteads," I will slate that since that 
 pamphlet was written 1 have been with Mr. George D. r>rig- 
 ham to the old cellar to which 1 have there referred. We 
 left the present road at the eastern end of the narrow cut 
 
10 
 
 through which the road passes, and went into the woods in a 
 direction about due north, and for a distance not exceeding 
 a quarter of a mile, where we found an old cellar, which I 
 firmly believe belonged to the house of James Blood. 
 
 I would correct what I say on the last-named page of the 
 same pamphlet in regard to the residence of Nathaniel Blood, 
 by stating that he probably lived on the west side of Gibbet 
 Plill, near its base and about one-eighth of a mile west of the 
 barn formerly owned by Andrew Spaulding, and now the 
 property of Hon. Daniel Ncedham. Traces of a cellar are 
 still to be seen, and I am informed l)y those older than ni}^- 
 self that forty years ago the cellar was plainly visible. 
 
 In connection with the house which has for many years 
 been occupied by Luther G. Osborn, I can state, in addition 
 to what I have said of it on page 10 of " Old Homesteads," 
 that I was informed by Miss Elizabeth Farnsworth that 
 Eleazer Green built it when he was about to take as his wife 
 Elizal)eth, a daughter of Jonas Prescott and a sister of Ben.- 
 jamin, the father of Colonel William Prescott. The house 
 stands upon land originally owned by William Green, the 
 father of Eleazer, who lived near where Lawrence Academy 
 stands, as mentioned on page 4 of "Old Homesteads," and 
 owned land u[)on both sides of the great road. I do not 
 find in what year the marriage took place, but I do find that 
 their first child was born in January, 1 ()*.)(). It thus appears 
 that this, the oldest house in Groton, as I believe, was prob- 
 ably built a year or two before that time, perhaps about the 
 year 1694. It has recently been sold and will soon be moved 
 to another site. 
 
 The next oldest house in town is probably the one now 
 owned by Charles B. l^aldwin, which stands next north of 
 the house of Andrew Spaulding on IloUis street. It has un- 
 dergone extensive r(>i)Mirs, and the additions on the north 
 
11 
 
 side, as well as the pi:iz/:i, have been huilt wiliiiii coiiiparn- 
 lively recent years, but some portion of the house was iirst 
 erected in the year 17()(). In the early days religious teach- 
 ing was maintained at the public expense, and not by socie- 
 ties as now, and this house was built by the town for a par- 
 sonage. The vote providing for its construction is found in 
 the Indian Iloll. The vote provided for a lean-to eleven feet 
 wide, to extend the entire length of the north side of the 
 house, I)ut this has long since disappeared. The dimensions 
 for the building are set forth in the vote, and the Avidth there 
 given varies but little from that of the })rescnt house. Its 
 length, however, is several feet more than was provided for 
 originally. The town also voted to build a small barn with 
 the house. The meeting house, the second built in town, 
 then stood upon the connnon near where the Chaj)lin school 
 is now situated. 
 
 On page 10 of my " Old Homesteads " I give the place 
 where stood early in tlu; last century, and for more than one 
 hundred years later, the house originally owned by rxMijamin 
 Farnsworth. Clillbrd K. Weld l)uilt a lanu house there a 
 few years ago, and he foun<l an old well, which now comes 
 in the cellar of this new house. Mr. George 1). Brigham 
 remembers the old house, and says that this is the well which 
 belonged to it. 
 
 Again in the same pamphlet, and on page 10 thereof, I 
 refer to the home of John Longley as being the so-called 
 Stephen Kendall place. Jackson N. Potter sold the house 
 not long ago, and a large \r.irl of the farm, to the (Jroton 
 School. After the purchase, Charles F. Fcabody, while en- 
 iraued in rei)airinii; the house, found indications of great aixv.. 
 Amonir other evidc^nces he found laths lasbuied with wooden 
 pins instead of nails, notably in the north fiout room. I am, 
 in view of these facts, of the o|)ini()n that some portion at 
 
12 
 
 Icfist of this house was built by John Longley. He Wcas great- 
 grandfather of the late Miss Elizabeth Farns worth, and his 
 daufijhter Lydia, Miss Farnsworth's grandmother, was born 
 on that place in 17 IG, and it seems not unlikely that she may 
 have first seen the light within these very walls. 
 
 General Henry Woods, who was major of Colonel William 
 Prescott's regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill, lived on the 
 great road, within the limits of Pepperell. The house is still 
 standing, a short distance back from the road, on the east 
 side thereof and nearly opposite to the building known as 
 the Coburn brick tavern. 
 
 Caleb Woods, a brother of General Henry Woods, and 
 later his son Caleb, lived at the east part of the town, near 
 the crotch of the roads about a quarter of a mile east of the 
 house where George W. Woodward now lives. The cellar 
 can still be seen on the west side of the road leading north. 
 Tub Meadow, which is a short distance east of Mr. Wood- 
 ward's house and on the sa-me side of the road, was formerly 
 a part of the Caleb Woods farm. This farm was at one time 
 within the limits of Dunstable, but when the line l)etween 
 the two towns was straightened, toward the end of the last 
 century, this place was brought into Groton. Noah Woods, 
 now of Fitchl)iu'g but formerly of Bangor, Maine, is a grand- 
 son of Caleb Woods, senior. 
 
 The farm near Baddacook pond known as the John Sawtell 
 place and now owned and occupied by Arthur W. Shattuek, 
 was, many years ago, the home of Joseph Bennett. A story 
 is told of a very strange experience through which JVIr. Ben- 
 nett passed. It is narrated that on one occasion ho started 
 in the small hours of the morning with a load of produce 
 which he intended to carry to Charlestown. As he proceeded 
 along the road he became impressed with the feeling that 
 something was wrong at home, and so strong did that im- 
 
13 
 
 pression become that iii)ou reacliinii; Bedford he re.solved to 
 return. Upon his arrival he found that his house had been 
 destroyed l)y fire. It was so early in the morning that the 
 fjxmily were still sleeping. IMost of them escaped, but the 
 youngest child, Kate, was l)urned to death. This occurred 
 in the autumn of 1811, and the present house was l)uilt by 
 Mr. IJennett, probably in the following year, to replace the 
 one destroyed. Joseph Bennett was Captain Asa S. Law- 
 rence's maternal urandfather. 
 
 In connection with the home of the old sexton, Timothy 
 Allen, described on pages 1 and 2 of "Old Homesteads," I 
 would say that my father has told me recently that since he 
 bought the land, now many years ago, he filled in a well 
 there. The place where the well was situated is still visible, 
 and is just at the edge of the hard land close by Little Half- 
 Moon Meadow, and at some distance back from Martin's Pond 
 road. This would indicate that ]Mr. Allen's house was situ- 
 ated a few rods farther east than I described it in my former 
 pam})hlet, but hack from the road, as there stated. The 
 well al)Ove described [jrobably belonged to Timothy Allen's 
 house, for it was not in a place where it could l)e of any 
 use in later years, so far as is known. 
 
 On page 7 of my i)amphlet entitled "Old Highways and 
 Landmarks of Groton, Massachusetts," where I mention a 
 road that passed along the eastern base of the hill upon 
 which my father's barns stand, it woidd be more accurate to 
 say the southern base of the hill. 
 
 On page 11 of "Old Highways and Landmarks " I refer 
 to the old mill, which was the first grist mill of which we 
 have knowledge. Jonas Prescott run the mill, though it 
 
14 
 
 was built by his llithei-, John Prcscott, of Lancaster. Jonas 
 was at the time a young man. Jonas Prescott afterward 
 moved to Groton village. On page 8 of my " Old Home- 
 steads " I describe the situation of his house. 
 
 In describing the location of the old mill definitely, I 
 would state that it was on Nonacoicus brook, a short dis- 
 tance west of the road from Ayer to Harvard, and within 
 the present limits of Harvard. There is a mill now on or 
 near the old site where glue is manufactured. 
 
 I am indebted to Mrs. Sarah (Capell) Gilson for the fol- 
 lowing information in regard to the mills in Groton owned 
 and run by her father, John Capell. He came to town in 
 1793, and Mrs. Gilson was born in Groton in November of 
 that year. Mr. Ca[)ell purchased saw and grist mills that 
 stood upon the present site of Messrs. Tileston & Hollings- 
 worth's paper mills. He bought with the property a one- 
 story house Avhich was then old. The original purchase was 
 made in company with a man named Cook, who subsequently 
 sold his interest to Mr. Capell. Mrs. Gilson says that the 
 mills were not new at the time her ftither bought them, but 
 of whom the purchase was made she does not know. 
 
 Mrs. Gilson well remembers the death of General Wash- 
 ington, which occurred in Deceml)er, 1799, and she says that 
 at that time they were living in the old house, but that her 
 father was then building a new one, and they moved into it 
 soon after. That new house is the one now standing oppo- 
 site to the i)aper mills and on Ihe corner of the great road 
 and the Nod road. This house, then, is just aI)out as old as 
 this century. 
 
 Until 1823 the Nod road intersected with the 2:rcat road 
 a short distance south of this present Capell house above 
 described, so that in old times Mr. Capell's house and mills 
 were all in his grounds together, with no road between them. 
 
15 
 
 The great road, liowcver, crossed the river then in the same 
 phiee as now, and the bridge was known as Capell's bridge. 
 
 Near where the Nod road crosses Nod brook, a sliort (h's- 
 tance east of the })aper mills and south of the road, can now 
 be seen traces of the old road as it existed u\) to \i>2'.\. The 
 location of the road from this point to the four corners at 
 Nod does not seem to have been changed. 
 
 Dr. Oliver Prescott, senior, lived where the house; of the 
 late John B. Sanderson stands, which is now owned by 
 Parker Fletcher. In the evening of the first day of I'\'b- 
 ruary, 1815, the house was entirely consumed l)y tire. It 
 had previously, however, passed out of the hands of Dr. 
 Prescott's family. At the time it was burned it was owned 
 by one John Wethered, and was set on lire in ihc upper 
 story by a servant of the family. Though a wooden build- 
 ing, its destruction was remarkably slow, occu[)ying several 
 hours. After all the furniture had been removed, the house 
 was dismantled by taking out the doors, windows, &c. 
 Lieutenant William Bancroft, who then owned the old John 
 J. Graves place on Farmers' Row, now the property of the 
 Groton vSchool, was about to ])uild the house at present occu- 
 [)ied by the foreman of the school. These doors and win- 
 dows were sold at auction, and Lieutenant. liancroft l)()ught 
 a part, if not all of them, for his new house, and it is not 
 inn)robable that some of them still remain. 
 
 The ruins of the Prescott house stood for :i numl>cr of 
 years, until the present dwelling was built by Miss Susan 
 Prescott, a daughter of Judge James and a great niece of 
 Dr. Oliver and Colonel William Prescott. She there kept 
 a l)oarding-school for young ladies. 
 
 The burning of the Prescott house was the event tliat lirst 
 put it in the minds of citizens to form the old Fire Chib, 
 
16 
 
 which was oignnized only a few days after, on Fel^ruary 4, 
 1815. 
 
 The house now owned by Lawrence Academy and situated 
 south of the school building was built by James Brazer, 
 Esq., about the year 1802. The house that preceded this 
 uj)on the same site was burned in January of that year. 
 The town had no conveniences for extinguishing fires, the 
 weather was very cold, and the house was entirely destroyed. 
 Loammi Baldwin, junior, a son of the distinguished engineer, 
 was then studying law in Groton. He went to the fire, and 
 seeing the need of an engine, concluded that he could build 
 one. He did most of the work in the cabinet shop of Jona- 
 than Loring, the iron work being done in the blacksmith 
 shop opposite. Mr. Loring's shop stood aljout where William 
 H. Bruce's drug store is situated. He there had the use of 
 wood-workino; tools. This same eno;ine, known as " Torrent 
 No. 1," has lasted from the year 1802 until now, and has 
 done great service at fires within recent years. It is at 
 present kept at West Groton, and is the only engine there, 
 except the fire apparatus at the leather-board mill. 
 
 Young Baldwin boarded with Dr. Oliver Prescott, senior, 
 and in the house previously described. Mrs. Prescott was 
 a cousin of his father. Miss Elizabeth Farnsworth told me 
 that she remembered the young man avcII. He dropped the 
 law and followed in the f()otste})s of his father, in which pro- 
 fession he, too, became distinguished. Baldwin studied law 
 in the office of the Hon. Timothy Bigelow. This distin- 
 guished lawyer, together with Hon. Sanuiol Dana, had his 
 office in a small building that stood near the present site of 
 my father's dwelling, but now forms the southerly' half of 
 the house near the railroad station which has a brick base- 
 ment. After the above-named tenants had left the build- 
 ing, it was occupied by Hon. Luther Lawrence as a law 
 
17 
 
 ofl5ce, later by Dr. Amos Bancroft, a leading physician in 
 Groton, and his son, Dr. Amos B. Bancroft, used it for the 
 same purpose. He built and occupied the house where Cap- 
 tain Asa S. Lawrence lives. The old office was moved to 
 the place wliere it now stands more than thirty 3^ears ago. 
 
 The great road, in the north part of the village, was 
 straightened in the year 1797, or in any event soon after that 
 time, for in book No. 5, page 152, of the town records there 
 appears a report of a committee who had arranged with Cap- 
 tain Jephtha Kichardson to let the town have a certain jjart 
 of his lands situated where the main street now is and be- 
 tween the present site of the Calvin Childs blacksmith sho}), 
 now occupied by Thomas Bywater, and the house of ISIiss 
 Harriet Hemenway. In exchange for this Captain Richard- 
 son was to have the land then used for the road, near 
 the south side of the old grave^^ard. This report was sub- 
 mitted to a town meeting held in May, 1797. Up to that 
 time the main road, after crossing James' Brook, was the 
 present Hollis street to a point near where the house of 
 Zara Patch now stands ; it then passed near the south 
 side of the burying ground, coming close to the pres- 
 ent site of Miss Hemenway's house, and it was so located 
 that the house now owned by Mrs. Lydia Hodgman fronted 
 upon it. The old road then kept upon the high land a short 
 distance west of the present highway to a point nearly oppo- 
 site to where Deacon William Livermore lives, where the 
 road was the same as it now is. The original main road of two 
 hundred years ago, however, was the present Hollis street 
 in its entire length, and so on to the river, where the village 
 of East Pepperell is now situated. The location of the great 
 
18 
 
 road south of James' Brook has been changed but a very 
 little since the beginning of the town. 
 
 The land for the present main road between the corner of 
 Main and Hollis streets and a point near the blacksmith's 
 shop above mentioned was taken from the estate of Samuel 
 Tarbell, who had died a short time before the improvement 
 was made. His house stood where the store of the late 
 Thomas K. Stevens, now occupied by Messrs. William J. 
 Boynton & Son, stands, and his barn was the main part of 
 the present barn of Colonel Daniel Needham that joins his 
 house, though it is hardly necessary to state that Colonel 
 Needham's house did not then exist. So that the new road 
 was built through Mr. Tarbell's dooryard and between his 
 house and barn. The Tarbell house now stands on the south 
 side of Court street and is owned by Frank L. Blood. 
 
 The late Charles Woolley, of Waltham, but formerly of 
 Groton, once gave me an interesting account of Samuel 
 Tarbell. He said that Mr. Tarbell joined the British army 
 during the Eevolutionary war, and as a result all his real 
 estate in Groton was confiscated except his house above de- 
 scribed and twenty-four acres of land about the house. 
 Under these circumstances it is perhaps not strange that jNIr. 
 Tarbell did not entertain the kindest of feelings toward his 
 fellow-townsmen, who probably had very little sympathy for 
 him. The subject of straightening the road was agitated 
 for some time before the improvement was made and before 
 the death of Mr. Tarbell, and it was said that he threatened 
 to shoot the first man who attempted to take down his fence 
 for the purpose of building the new road ; Imt as he passed 
 away before the final day came, we are not permitted to 
 know whether he would have carried his threat into execu- 
 tion. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 078 527 1