AN AFFLICTED FAMILY. 1 85 



The illumination of the heavens during the great fire that 

 occurred in Boston, on the night of November 9, 1872, was 

 distinctly seen by various persons in different parts of the 

 town. 



AN AFFLICTED FAMILY. 



John Shattuck and his eldest son John, a young man nine- 

 teen years of age, were killed by the Indians at Groton, on 

 May 8, 1709. They were returning from the west side of the 

 Nashua River and were attacked just as they were crossing 

 Stony Fordway, near the present site of the paper mills, 

 where they were killed. John Shattuck was the eldest child 

 of John and Ruth (Whitney) Shattuck, of Watertown, where 

 he was born on June 4, 1666. He married Mary, eldest daugh- 

 ter of James and Elizabeth (Longley) Blood, who was born at 

 Groton on September i, 1672. Mr. Shattuck was a farmer, 

 as everybody else was at that time. He owned land on 

 the Nod Road which leads to the Four Corners below the 

 soap-stone quarry. During the autumn of 1882 Messrs. 

 Tileston and Hollingworth, of Boston, at that time the owners 

 of the mill, caused a suitable stone to be placed by the way- 

 side, bearing the following inscription : 



NEAR THIS SPOT 



JOHN SHATTUCK, 



A SELECTMAN OF GROTON, 



AND 



HIS SON JOHN 



WERE KILLED BY THE INDIANS, 



MAY 8, 1709, 



WHILE CROSSING STONY FORDWAY, 



JUST BELOW THE PRESENT DAM. 



1882. 



By an oversight this inscription was not given in connection 

 with the " Historical Inscriptions " on pages 157, 158. 



