n front of
this house, which was the Reverend Dr. Chaplin's dwelling for many
years.

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

The Groton post-office was established at the very beginning of the
present century, and before that time letters intended for this town
were sent through private hands. Previous to the Revolution there were
only a few post-offices in the Province, and often persons in distant
parts of Massachusetts received their correspondence at Boston. In
the Supplement to The Boston Gazette, February 9, 1756, letters are
advertised as remaining uncalled for, at the Boston office, addressed to
William Lakin and Abigail Parker, both of Groton, as well as to Samuel
Manning, Townsend, William Gleany, Dunstable, and Jonathan Lawrence,
Littleton. Nearly five months afterward these same letters are
advertised in The Boston Weekly News-Letter, July 1, 1756, as still
uncalled for. The name of David Farnum, America, appears also in this
list, and it is hoped that wherever he was he received the missive. The
names of Oliver Lack (probably intended for Lakin) and Ebenezer Parker,
both of this town, are given in another list printed in the Gazette of
June 28, 1762; and in the same issue one is advertised for Samuel
Starling, America. In the Supplement to the Gazette, October 10, 1768,
Ebenezer Farnsworth, Jr., and George Peirce, of Groton, had letters
advertised; and in the Gazette, October 18, 1773, the names of Amos
Farnsworth, Jonas Farnsworth, and William Lawrence, all of this town,
appear in the list.

I find no record of a post-rider passing through Groton, during the
period immediately preceding the establishment of the post-office;