Post-Office Department, Appointment Office,
Washington, D.C., September 3, 1877.

Hon. CHARLES DEVENS, Attorney-General, Department of Justice.

_Sir_,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of a communication
from Samuel A. Green, of Boston, Massachusetts, with your endorsement
thereon, requesting to be furnished with a list of postmasters at the
office of Groton, in that State, from the date of its establishment to
the present time.

In reply, I have the honor to inform you, that the fire which consumed
the department building, on the night of the fifteenth of December,
1836, destroyed three of the earliest record-books of this office; but
by the aid of the auditor's ledger-books, it is ascertained that the
office began to render accounts on the first of January, 1801, but the
exact day is not known, Samuel Dana, was the first postmaster, and the
following list furnishes the history of the office, as shown by the
old records.

Groton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Office probably established in
November, 1800. Samuel Dana began rendering accounts January 1, 1801.
Wm. M. Richardson, October 1, 1804.

From this time the exact dates are known.

Abraham Moore, appointed postmaster January 31, 1812.

Eliphalet Wheeler, August 20, 1815.