remember it at that time a faithful representation, though it has since
undergone some changes.

Near the end of the last century, Major William Swan traded in the house
now occupied by Charles Woolley, Jr., north of the Common near the old
burying-ground. It was Major Swan who set out the elm-trees in 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