USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Historical sketch of Groton, Massachusetts. 1655-1890 > Part 10
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Date of Appointment.
March 8, 1759, Israel Hubbard [Hobart].
November 20, 1761, Israel Hobart.
(These two persons were the same.)
July 12, 1769, Isaac Farnsworth.
August 28, 1775, Isaac Farnsworth.
September 24, 1778, Ephraim Russell.
March 27, 1781, Ephraim Russell.
March 2, 1790, Samuel Lawrence.
March 2, 1790, Peter Edes. January 7, 1801, Samson Woods.
February 3, 1803, William Farwell Brazer.
July 4, 1803, James Lewis, Jr.
July 5, 1809, William Lawrence. February 20, 1810, Abel Farnsworth.
August 20, 1811, Jacob Lakin Parker.
March 2, 1813, Amos Lawrence. May 26, 1817, Benjamin Moors.
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GROTON.
February 9, 1820, William Austin Bancroft.
(Mr. Bancroft was a resident of Townsend at the time of his appointment.)
January 16, 1822, David Childs.
June 29, 1852, Jacob Pollard.
May 15, 1856, John Mason Porter.
April 2, 1858, Eusebius Silsby Clarke.
April 10, 1860, Asa Stillman Lawrence.
January 24, 1866, John Quincy Adams McCollester.
April 16, 1867, Asa Stillman Lawrence.
April 30, 1869, Benjamin Lincoln Howe.
April 30, 1874, Asa Stillman Lawrence.
NATIVES OF GROTON
And Residents of the Town, who have Afterward Filled Important Positions Elsewhere.
Honorable John Prescott Bigelow, born at Groton on August 25, 1797, Harvard College, 1815 ; Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1836-43 ; Member of the Executive Council, 1845-49 ; Mayor of Boston, 1849-51. Died in Boston on July 4, 1874.
Honorable Henry Adams Bullard, born at Groton on September 9, 1788, Harvard College, 1807; Justice of the Sixth District Court of Louisiana, 1822-31 ; Representative in Congress from Alexandria and New Orleans, Louisiana (Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Thirty-first Congresses), 1831-34, '50, '51; Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1834-46, with the exception of a few months in 1839, when he acted as Secretary of State. Died in New Orleans on April 17, 1851.
Mr. Bullard's father was the settled minister at Pepperell, but all the printed accounts of his life say
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GROTON.
that he was born at Groton, which is my authority for the statement.
Honorable Willard Hall, born at Westford on De- cember 24, 1780, Harvard College, 1799 ; studied law with the Honorable Samuel Dana at Groton ; Secre- tary of the State of Delaware, 1811-14, '21; Repre- sentative in Congress from Wilmington, Delaware (Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses), 1817-21 ; Judge of the United States District Court in Delaware, 1823-71. Died in Wilmington on May 10, 1875.
Honorable John Harris, born at Harvard on Octo- ber 13, 1769, Harvard College, 1791; studied law with the Honorable Timothy Bigelow at Groton; Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature of New Hamp- shire, 1823-33. Died at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, on April 23, 1845.
Honorable Amos Kendall, born at Dunstable on August 16, 1789, Dartmouth College, 1811; studied law with the Honorable William Merchant Richard- son at Groton ; Postmaster-General under Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, 1835-40. Died in Wash- ington, D. C., on June 12, 1869.
Honorable Abbott Lawrence, born at Groton on December 16, 1792; Representative in Congress from Boston (Twenty-fourth and Twenty-sixth Congresses), 1835-37, '39, '40; Presidential Elector, 1844; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, 1849-52. Died in Boston on August 18, 1855.
Honorable John Locke, born at Hopkinton, Massa- chusetts, on February 14, 1764, Harvard College, 1792; studied law with the Honorable Timothy
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GROTON.
Bigelow at Groton ; Representative in Congress from Ashby, Massachusetts (Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses), 1823-29; Member of the Executive Council, 1831. Died in Boston on March 29, 1855.
Honorable Thomas Rice, born at Pownalborough (now Wiscasset), Maine, on March 30, 1768, Harvard College, 1791; studied law with the Honorable Timothy Bigelow at Groton ; Representative in Con- gress from Augusta, District of Maine, Massachusetts (Fourteenth and Fifteenth Congresses), 1815-19. Died at Winslow, Maine, on August 24, 1854.
Honorable William Merchant Richardson, born at Pelham, New Hampshire, on January 4, 1774, Har- vard College, 1797 ; Preceptor of Groton Academy, 1799-1802; studied law with the Honorable Samuel Dana at Groton; Postmaster, 1804-12; Representa- tive in Congress from Groton (Twelfth and Thirteenth Congresses), 1811-14; removed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and afterward became Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature of that State, 1816- 38. Died at Chester, New Hampshire, on March 23, 1838.
Honorable Ether Shepley, born at Groton on No- vember 2, 1789, Dartmouth College, 1811; Senator in Congress from Maine, 1833-36 ; Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1836-48; Chief Justice of the same Court, 1848-55. Died in Portland on Janu- ary 15, 1877.
Honorable Samuel Emerson Smith, born at Hollis, New Hampshire, on March 12, 1788, Harvard Col- lege, 1808 ; studied law with the Honorable Samuel
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GROTON.
Dana at Groton; Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Maine, 1822-1830; Governor of Maine, 1831-1833; Justice of the Court of Common Pleas again, 1835-1837. Died at Wiscasset, Maine, on March 3, 1860.
Honorable Asahel Stearns, born at Lunenburg, June 17, 1774, Harvard College, 1797; Preceptor of Groton Academy during a short period immediately after his graduation ; studied law with the Honorable Timothy Bigelow at Groton ; representative in Con- gress from Chelmsford, Massachusetts (Fourteenth Congress), 1815-1817 ; University Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, 1817-1829. Died in Cam- bridge on February 5, 1839.
Honorable James Sullivan, born at Berwick, Maine, on April 22, 1744; Member of the three Provin- cial Congresses, from Biddeford, 1774, 1775; resident of Groton, 1778-1782; delegate to the Continental Congress, 1782; Member of the Executive Council, 1787; Judge of Probate, Suffolk County, 1788-1790 ; Attorney-General, 1790-1807 ; First President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1791-1806 ; Gov- ernor of the Commonwealth, 1807, 1808. Died in Boston on December 10, 1808, while in office.
Honorable John Varnum, born at Dracut on June 25, 1778, Harvard College, 1798; studied law with the Honorable Timothy Bigelow at Groton ; Repre- sentative in Congress from Haverhill, Massachusetts (Nineteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses), 1825-1831. Died at Niles, Michigan, on July 23, 1836.
In the spring of 1765 the odious Stamp Act was
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passed, which did much to hasten public opinion to- ward the American Revolution. This town sympa- thized warmly with the feeling, and prepared to do her part in the struggle. A large number of her in- habitants had received their schooling in the French War, as their fathers before them had received theirs during the Indian troubles. Such persons did not now enter upon camp life as raw troops, but as ex- perienced and disciplined soldiers. The town had men willing to serve and able to command. The leaders of the Revolution displayed great foresight in the careful attention paid to the details of their work ; and the final success of the struggle was due as much to their sagacity as to the deep feeling of the people. On the side of the patriots the skirmishes of April 19, 1775, were fought by companies made up of minute- men, organized on a recommendation of the First Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, in a resolve passed at Cambridge on October 26, 1774. It was at that time recommended to the field officers of the various militia regiments that they should enlist at least one-quarter of their respective commands, and form them into companies to be held in readiness, at the shortest notice by the Committee of Safety, to march to the place of rendezvous. Such soldiers soon became known as minute-men, and proved to be of very great help and strength to the popular cause. Two companies were enlisted at Groton; and at the desire of the officers, the Rev. Samuel Webster, of Temple, New Hampshire, on February 21, 1775, preached a sermon before them, which was afterward printed. It was there stated that a large majority of
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GROTON.
the town had engaged to hold themselves in readi- ness, agreeably to the plan of the Provincial Congress, to act in the service of their country. The sermon is singularly meagre in those particulars which would interest us at the present time, and is made up largely of theological opinions, perhaps as valuable now as then, but not so highly prized.
On the memorable 19th of April two compa- nies of minute-men, under the respective commands of Captain Henry Farwell and Captain Asa Law- rence, marched from Groton to Concord and Cam- bridge ; and on the same day for the same destination two other companies of militia, under the respective commands of Captain Josiah Sartell and Captain John Sawtell. According to the company rolls at the State- House, there were in Farwell's company, at the time of marching, three commissioned officers and fifty-two men, and in Lawrence's three officers and forty-three men; and in the two militia companies (Sartell's) three officers and forty-five men, and (Sawtell's) one officer and twenty-five men, respectively, though in Sawtell's company some of the men were from Pep- perell.
In the battle of Bunker Hill, on June 17, 1775, one commissioned officer and eleven soldiers, residents of Groton, were either killed in the fight or mortally wounded. This roll of honor comprises the names of Lieutenant Amaziah Fassett, who fell wounded and died a prisoner on July 5th; Sergeant Benjamin Prescott, a son of the Hon. James Prescott, and a nephew of Colonel William Prescott, who commanded the American forces, and privates Abraham Blood,
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GROTON.
Chambers Corey, James Dodge, Peter Fisk, Stephen Foster, Simon Hobart, Jonathan Jenkins, David Kemp, Robert Parker and Benjamin Woods. This was the largest loss experienced by any town in the battle, and it shows the patriotic character of the citi- zens at that period. Colonel Prescott, the commander on the American side, and three of the Pepperell soldiers who lost their lives in the fight, were natives of Groton.
During the War for the Union the record of the town is equally honorable. According to General William Schouler's "History of Massachusetts in the Civil War" (ii. 409), she furnished four hundred men for the public service, which was a surplus of forty- nine over and above all demands; of whom twenty- four were commissioned officers. Forty of these sol- diers were either killed in battle or died of their wounds, or of sickness contracted in the army. A marble tablet with their names cut in the stone has been placed in the hall of the Town-House in grate- ful recognition of their services and dedicated to their memory. The whole amount of money raised and appropriated by the town for war purposes, exclusive of State aid, was thirty-one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four dollars and forty-seven cents ($31,- 724.47).
CAMP STEVENS AT GROTON .- During the War of the Rebellion, in the autumn of 1862, the Common- wealth of Massachusetts established a military camp at Groton, on the triangular piece of land situated in the southwesterly part of the town, and bounded by the Peterborough and Shirley Railroad, the Nashua
GROTON. 145
River and the road to Shirley Village. It contained eighteen or twenty acres, more or less, and at that time belonged to Joseph Cutts; the entrance was near the angle made by the railroad and the highway. The Fifty-third Regiment of Infantry, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, while its ranks were recruiting, was encamped on this ground. The regiment was raised from Groton and Clinton, Leominster, Fitch- burg and other towns in the neighborhood belonging to Worcester County, and was mustered into the public service for nine months.
Special Order, No. 916, issued by the Adjutant- General of the Commonwealth, September 19, 1862, contains the following :
" A camp of rendezvous is established at Groton Junction, Middlesex Co., where barracks are being built, which is designated Camp Stevens. Capt. W. C. Sawyer, 23d Regt. Mass. Vols., is appointed Commandant. Due notice will be given when the barracks are ready for use."
Special Order, No. 955, under the date of Septem- ber 23d, has the following :
"Lindsey Tilden [Charles Linzee Tilden], 20th Regt. Mass. Vols, is detailed for Post Adjutant at Camp Stevens, Groton."
The camp was so named in memory of General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, a native of Andover and a graduate of West Point, who was killed in the battle of Chantilly, Virginia, on September 6, 1862, only a fort- night before the camp was established.
The commandant was Wesley Caleb Sawyer, born in the adjoining town of Harvard, on August 26, 1839, who graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1861. Soon after leaving Cambridge he was com- missioned, on October 8, 1861, as a captain in the
10
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Twenty-third Massachusetts Volunteers, and he left the State with that regiment. He was attached to Burnside expedition, that went to North Carolina; in the battle of Newbern, March 14, 1862, he was se- verely wounded, which resulted in the amputation of his left thigh, and necessarily prevented him from further participation in an active campaign.
The regiment left Camp Stevens on Saturday, No- vember 29th, for New York, where it remained until January 17, 1863, at which time it embarked for New Orleans. Subsequently to the departure of the troops from Groton, the following order was issued ;
" COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, "HEAD QUARTERS, BOSTON, Dec. 20, 1862.
" Special Order, No. 1311.
"The troops which were enlisted and mustered into service at Camp Stevens, Groton Junction, having left the Commonwealth for the seat of war, Capt. Wesley C. Sawyer, Commandant of the Camp, is relieved from further service, and I am directed by His Excellency, the Com- mander-in-Chief, to thank Capt. Sawyer for the acceptable manner in which he has performed the duties of his post.
" By order of the Commander-in-Chief, " WILLIAM SCHOULER, "Adjt. General."
Since the war Captain Sawyer has studied at Göttingen, Germany, where he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He has held the professorship . of Philosophy and Rhetoric at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, but is now connected, as a professor, with the Normal School at Oshkosh, Wis- consin.
The barracks and other structures used by the soldiers at Camp Stevens have long since disappeared, and not a trace of the former occupation is to be seen.
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GROTON.
Years ago some of the buildings were taken down, and the rest were removed, mostly to Ayer. George James Burns, Esq., a lawyer of that town, wrote an interest- ing article for The Groton Landmark, June 25, 1887, which traces the history of many of these build- ings.
In the autumn of 1862, Dr. Edward Jarvis, of Dor- chester, was appointed by Surgeon-General Dale to visit the various camps in the State, of which there were ten, and report on their sanitary condition. The result of his labors may be found in two communi- cations printed in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for December 4 and 11, 1862 (LXVII. 364- 367 and 381-384, respectively), wherein he makes some criticism on Camp Stevens.
According to the " Record of Massachusetts Volun- teers, 1861-65" (I. 390-392), the following soldiers died in camp at Groton : Henry A. Waters, of Shir- ley, Co. D, on October 25, 1862; Spencer Stockwell, of Athol, Co. E, November 20th; and Daniel P. Hem- enway, of Barre, Co. F, December 1st.
The veterans of the war have organized a post of Grand Army of the Republic, which is called the E. S. Clark Post, No. 115. It is named after Major Eusebius Silsby Clark, of Groton, a gallant officer of the Twenty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, who was mortally wounded at Winchester, Virginia, on Sep- tember 19, 1864, and died on October 17, 1864.
THE POPULATION OF GROTON AT DIFFERENT TIMES .- The town of Groton was formerly a much more important place relatively, both in size and in- fluence, than it is at the present time. According to
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the census of 1790, it was then the second town in Middlesex County, Cambridge alone having a larger population. At that time Groton had 322 families, numbering 1840 persons; and Cambridge, 355 fami- lies, numbering 2115 persons. Charlestown had a pop- ulation of 1583, and Newton, 1360. Reading, with 341 families (nineteen more than Groton), numbered 1802 persons (thirty-eight less than Groton). Woburn then had a population of 1727; Framingham, 1598 ; Marlborough, 1554, and Waltham, 882. Pepperell contained 1132 inhabitants; Shirley, 677 ; Westford, 1229, and Littleton, 854.
There were at that time in Middlesex County forty- one towns, which number has since been increased to forty-seven towns and seven cities ; and in the mean- while Brighton and Charlestown have been merged in the municipality of Boston, and thus have lost their separate existence. Major Aaron Brown, of Groton, and General Henry Woods, of Pepperell, were the marshals who took the census of the county, with the exception of that small portion lying on the further side of the Merrimack River.
A comparison of the population of the town at dif- ferent periods is somewhat interesting to those famil- iar with its history. John Tinker, in a petition to the General Court, dated October, 1659, four years after . the incorporation of the town, says that the planta- tion "Continueth vnpeopled." The report of the committee,-of which Thomas Danforth was chair- man,-dated May 23, 1661, and already quoted, states that there were four or five families "planted " at that time. In March, 1676, when the town was
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burned by the Indians, it was estimated by the Rev. William Hubbard, in his narrative, that there were then sixty families in the place. Another writer of that period puts the number of dwellings destroyed at sixty-six, and says that only six houses were left standing. From these estimates it would appear that the population of the town at the time of its destruc- tion was between 300 and 350 inhabitants. From March, 1676, until the early spring of 1678 the settle- ment was abandoned and entirely deserted. In March, 1680, there were forty families in the town, as appears by some statistical returns printed in "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register " (V. 173) for April, 1851. In March, 1707-8, there were sixty-seven polls (" Collections of the American Statistical Association," p. 146), which would indicate a population of about 300 persons. At the beginning of the year 1755 there were fourteen negro slaves in town-seven men and seven women-who were six- teen years old or upwards.
On June 2, 1763, Governor Francis Bernard sent a message to the General Court, expressing his wish that a census of the Province might be taken; but that body paid no heed to the suggestion. On January 19, 1764, he renewed the proposition, and apparently with better success; for the Legislature, on February 2d, adopted an order carrying out his wishes. The popular heart, however, was not in the work, and no interest was taken in the measure. The people were suspicious of the rulers in England, and jealous of all political interference; and it is but natural that the census proceeded slowly. On March 5, 1765, an
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act was passed by the General Court to carry into ef- fect an order which had previously been passed for numbering the people within the Province. This ac- tion shows that the Governor's pet scheme was not re- ceiving a warm support.
With these drawbacks, and under such conditions, the first census of the houses, families and number of people in the Province of Massachusetts Bay ever taken was finished in the year 1765. Singularly enough, there are now no returns of this enumeration among the Provincial or State Archives, where they were undoubtedly placed. How or when they disap- peared is a matter of conjecture; but probably they were lost amid the confusion that naturally prevailed during the Revolutionary period. Fortunately a copy of this census was found by the late Judge Samuel Dana, of Groton, among some papers of a deceased friend, which had then lately come into his posses- sion ; and by him sent to the Columbian Centinel newspaper, where it was printed for the first time in the issue of August 17, 1822, more than half a cen- tury after the enumeration was made. From this source is derived all the information concerning the figures of the census of 1765; and the printed copy, in the absence of any other, is an authority second in importance only to the original manuscript returns. At that time the town of Groton had 1408 inhabit- ants.
Akin to this subject, there is in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society a memorandum- book, which contains some interesting facts con- nected directly or indirectly with the population of
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the Commonwealth during the Revolutionary period. According to this authority the population of Groton in the year 1776 was 1639; the number of ratable polls in 1778 was 362, and the number in 1781 was 395.
In compliance with a resolution of Congress, an act was passed by the General Court of Massachu- setts on July 2, 1784, requiring the assessors of towns to make certain returns, from which it appears that there were at that time 418 polls in Groton. This was the largest number returned by any town in the county, with the single exception of Cambridge, which had 457 polls; and after Groton came Reading with 399 polls, and Woburn with 395, followed closely by Framingham with 389.
At the several decennial dates of the United States census, the population of Groton has been as follows: In the year 1790, 1,840; 1800, 1,802; 1810, 1,886; 1820, 1,897; 1830, 1,925; 1840, 2,139; 1850, 2,515; 1860, 3,193 ; 1870, 3,584, and 1880, 1,862. The town of Ayer was incorporated on February 14, 1871, and made up almost entirely from the territory of Gro- ton, which accounts for the great diminution in the population between the last two decennial periods, as given above. The new town started on its corpo- rate existence with a population nearly equal to that of the parent town, and, with all the vigor of youth, soon surpassed it in size.
The population of Groton, as taken by the State in the quinquennial years, has been as follows: In the year 1855, 2,745; 1865, 3,176 ; 1875, 1,908, and 1885, 1,987. By all the enumerations, National or
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State, made during the present century, it will be seen that there has been a steady increase in the population of the town, with the exception of the period between the years 1860 and 1865, when there was a slight decrease of seventeen inhabitants, and of the period between 1875 and 1880, when there was a falling off of forty-six inhabitants. The loss in the first instance was due, of course, to the disturbing effects of the Civil War.
The population of Ayer in the year 1885 was 2190 ; and if that village had not been separately incorpor- ated, the population of Groton would now be consid- erably more than 4000 inhabitants. According to the last State census there were thirty-two towns or cities in Middlesex County larger than Groton, and twenty-one towns smaller.
The original Groton Plantation, as granted by the General Court on May 25, 1655, has furnished the entire territory of Ayer; the whole of Pepperell, with the exception of a narrow strip lying along its north- ern boundary, which once belonged to the West Par- ish of Dunstable (Hollis); the whole of Shirley, with the exception of a small portion formerly known as "Stow Leg;" one- half of Dunstable; and has con- tributed more or less to form five other towns, namely, Harvard, Littleton and Westford (including a part of Forge Village), in Massachusetts, besides Nashua and Hollis, in New Hampshire. The total popula- tion of this territory is now more than 10,000 inhab- itants.
SUMMARY. - Population of Groton at Different Times .- Town incorporated on May 25, 1655; in Oc-
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tober, 1659, "vnpeopled ;" in May, 1661, four or five families; in March, 1676, about 300 inhabitants; in March, 1680, forty families; in March, 1708, 67 polls ; in March, 1765, 1408 inhabitants ; in 1776, 1639 in- habitants ; in 1778, 362 polls; in 1781, 395 polls, and in 1784, 418 polls.
Year.
Inhabitants.
Year.
Inhabitants.
1790
1840
1855
2745
1800
1802
1860
3193
1810
1886
1865
3176
1820
1897
1870
3584
1830
1925
1875
1908
1840
2139
1880
1862
1850
2515
1885
1987
The approximate population of the town, under the national census of 1890, is 2071, though these figures are subject to change in the official count.
SLAVERY IN GROTON .- During a long period be- fore the Revolution, Groton had one element in her population which does not now exist, and which to-day has disappeared from almost the whole civilized world. At the beginning of the year 1755 there were fourteen negro slaves in town, seven men and seven women who were sixteen years old or upwards. At that time Townsend had three slaves, two men and one woman ; Shirley had one, a man ; and Pepperell made no return of having any. Westford had five, but the sex is not given. These facts are gathered from a census of negro slaves in Massachusetts, ordered by the Province, which is published in the third volume, second series, of the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (pages 95-97).
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