THE RICHARDS FAMILY. 37 



personality, her wifely affection and her motherly love, I have heard 

 ample testimony. 



The attractiveness of the Groton home was heightened by the fre- 

 quent presence of grandfather and grandmother Richards, and also of 

 the widowed grandmother Haughton, who seemed to find no place so 

 charming as that where these children were, and who spent her last 

 years with them. 



Mr. and Mrs. Richards united with the Congregational Church, then 

 under the charge of Rev. Dudley Phelps (Y. C. 1823), and came to 

 know intimately the family of their pastor. The children were members 

 of the Sunday School, one or more of the daughters being in the class 

 taught by Mrs. Mary Woodbury, who quickly won the love and 

 respect of her pupils. Mrs. Woodbury, before and after the death of 

 her mother, Mrs. Samuel Lawrence, lived at the Lawrence homestead 

 where she often gathered the children in entertainments remembered 

 still with delight. Mrs. Woodbury's sister, Mrs. Eliza Green, had a 

 pleasant home in the village where the Richards children were made 

 welcome ; and she too figures largely in the sunny memories of 

 Groton. Indeed the family seems to have been well liked in the 

 place, to have found many pleasant acquaintances, and to have 

 formed some friendships which long survived the shock of separation 

 and the formation of new ties. All the children, except the young- 

 est, attended the Lawrence Academy. Here the eldest daughter, in 

 a class with five young men, was fitted for college by the principal, 

 Rev. James Means, whom she esteemed a most learned, kind and 

 efficient teacher. 



Of the Groton stories told to me, I repeat one which illustrates 

 not only the way in which children were then brought up, but also 

 the curiously persistent cHnging of an unimportant incident in the child- 

 ish memory. A few years after the arrival of the family, " tall Miss 

 Butler " (so described to me) paid a formal call, and of course was 

 received in the best room. Charles and Mary, being at home, were 

 brought into the parlor and perched on tall ottomans, one on each 

 side of the fireplace, where they remained during the call perfectly 

 quiet and apparently unnoticed. But when Miss Butler took her 

 leave, she said in words remembered to this day: " Mrs. Richards, I 

 really must tell you how much I admire your mantel ornaments'^ 



Mr. Richards worked on his farm for eight years, with such appar- 

 ent benefit to his health that, when his brother Peter offered him 

 a partnership in the wool business in New York City, he did not hesi- 

 tate to accept the offer. He sold his farm in 1849, and in 1850 after 



