1 66 NATURAL HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF GROTON, MASS. 



death. On the mother's side, Mrs. Rockwood was related to Col. 

 Prescott of Bunker Hill fame, and her childhood memories took in 

 the scenes and incidents of the Revolution with the same interest and 

 enthusiasm that we have for the days of the Rebellion. There is to- 

 day a large old elm in the yard at the Chaplin homestead in Groton, 

 Mass., set out by Mrs. Rockwood, when a little girl of seven or eight, 

 on a rainy day after a cranberry expedition down in the swamp. She 

 attended Groton Academy, and had as a schoolmate the late Amos 

 Lawrence of Boston, who was a distant cousin. She often related 

 with great animation their particularly good times at the monthly 

 dances that were given at the close of school on the village common, 

 and the " treats " of gingerbread handed around by the young men. 

 She spent different years with her brother. Dr. James Prescott Chaplin, 

 in Cambridgeport, who had the first private retreat for the insane in 

 this country. She became a widow six months after her marriage to 

 Mr. Abel Rockwood, and long after a half century she fondly cherished 

 his memory. She spoke with a great deal of feeling of the visits paid 

 her from time to time by the historian Prescott, who was as charming 

 in manner as he was fine in mind. Advanced in years she came to 

 New York State to be with her youngest brother, William L. Chaplin, 

 who gave his Hfe to the anti-slavery cause. He died in 187 1, and is 

 buried in your beautiful cemetery. It was a frequent saying of Mrs. 

 Rockwood's that she belonged to a generation taught to preserve life 

 as long as possible. She certainly put in use the precepts of extreme 

 carefulness in the way of diet, exercise, and methodical habits. She 

 was eminently loyal to the past, and never forgot a friend. She also 

 believed in and loved the present, while she waited the coming of her 

 Lord with a calm and cheerful heart. 



A Venerable Ladv. — Mrs. Rebecca Huse of Harvard, now 106 

 years old, is probably the oldest person in New England. She was 

 born at Groton, but moved to Harvard at the age of 15, and has no 

 near relative living except a single daughter, having buried a large 

 family of children. This venerable relic of a bygone age still retains 

 to a remarkable degree of perfection her sense of sight and hearing, 

 being but slightly deaf, and is remarkably active, making her own fire 

 in the morning, and attending through the day to a large part of her 

 household duties. Till the present year she has kept and cared for a 

 cow, and attended to some gardening. 



" Daily Evening Traveller" (Boston), October 27, 1S65. 



