SAMUEL Lawrence's recollections. 6i 



time is called Bennett's Brook, named after an early settler of 

 the neighborhood. Staples's Mills were on the right bank of 

 the Nashua, near the site of William Mitchell's woollen mill in 

 Ayer, which was burned on the afternoon of August 4, 1873. 

 The heights of certain points along the proposed route of 

 the canal are given in the Report, and are counted from low 

 water mark in Boston harbor. I copy from page 113 those 

 which were then in Groton, but are now in Ayer, as follows : 



Feet. 



Shaker's Brook, on line between Littleton and Groton, 220.28 



Spectacle Pond, in Littleton and Groton, 212.54 



Sandy Pond, Groton. 226.90 



Top of under-pinning of school-house, No. II, do. 237.64 



Stone's saw-mill pond, on Sandy pond brook, do. 223.89 



Sandy pond and Bear hill brook, do. 213 03 



Stone at corner of Nuttings barn, do. 224.95 



SAMUEL LAWRENCE'S RECOLLECTIONS. 



The following reminiscences were written at my request, 

 more than thirty-five years ago, by the late Samuel Lawrence, 

 who was born at Groton on January 15, 1801, and died at 

 Stockbridge on March 18, 1880. He was the youngest child 

 of Major Samuel and Susanna (Parker) Lawrence, and the last 

 survivor of his generation. He was the only child of his 

 generation that was born in the present Lawrence mansion 

 on Farmers' Row. . The other children with the exception of 

 Luther, the eldest child, were born in the old Tarbell house, 

 which stood substantially on the same site. Luther was born 

 in the house, occupied when I was a boy by Stow Hildreth, 

 about a mile from the village on the road to Harvard. The 

 old elm in front of the present Lawrence farm is said, on good 

 authority, to have been set out in the year 1740. 



My earliest recollection of Groton is the death of Capt. Henry 

 Farwell in the year 1804. Dr. Chaplin was the only minister. Hon. 

 Timothy Bigelow, one of the most prominent lawyers of the State, 

 resided there, and being a graduate of Harvard College, as was Dr. 



