ject of this memoir, was the fifth
in descent from the founder of the family, and was himself a gallant
officer of the American army in the War of the Revolution, the close of
which found him the possessor of a small farm, which yielded a modest
support for his family.

Young Amos was brought up on the farm, with none of the advantages of
wealth, and with but a limited education, which he gained at the village
schools, and which was seriously interfered with by his delicate health.
He received his final training at the Groton Academy, to which, in after
life, he became a liberal patron. "As we children came forward," he
wrote, late in life, "we were carefully looked after, but were taught
to use the talents intrusted to us; and every nerve was strained to
provide for us the academy which is now doing so much there." Toward the
close of the year 1799, when but a little over thirteen years of age, he
took his final departure from school, and entered a store in the village
of Dunstable, as clerk.

He remained there but a few months, and then returned to Groton, where
he obtained a place as apprentice in the store of a Mr. Brazer. This was
the largest establishment in the place, and conducted a very important
trade with the country for miles around. Boston was so far, and so
difficult to reach in those days, that Groton came in for nearly all the
business of its vicinity which the railroads have now taken to the city.
Mr. Brazer's establishment, which was known as a "variety store," came
in for the best part of this trade. Every thing was sold there;
"puncheons of rum and brandy, bales of cloth, kegs of tobacco, with
hardware and hosiery, shared attention in common with silks and threads,
and all other articles for female use." Even medicines were sold there;
and Dr. Wm. B. Lawrence, the son of our hero, assures us that his father
was obliged to sell medicines, not only to customers, but to all the
physicians within a circuit of twenty miles, who depended on this
establishment for their supplies. "The confidence in his good judgment,"
he adds, "was such that he was often consulted in preference to the
physician, by those who were suffering from minor ails; and many were
the extemporaneous doses which he administered for the weal or woe of
the patient."

The Brazer store was a prominent feature in Groton. It was a place of
general resort, and close by was the tavern where the mail coaches
stopped. Travelers were constantl