PHYSICIANS OF GROTON. I17 



card all the devices of artfulness, and find strength in quietness 

 and confidence." 



Perfectly expressed ! and that Groton is able on occasion to put its 

 hand on the one to say the fit word, is proof this old community pro- 

 duced by the law of its being representatives like Mr. Boutwell of that 

 " remarkable civilization which characterized the development of the 

 little republics of New England." Here had stood behind the counter 

 of the country store as a young man with an active managing interest 

 in the town politics and " lyceum " the studious, self-educated, serious- 

 minded, independent clerk, who in early manhood was to be governor, 

 in middle hfe to stand with Lincoln and Grant and feel them lean on 

 him for support, and in age, most glorious of all, to stand like the 

 rock in the cataract, against the popular current bearing this republic 

 down rapids where he feared Carlyle's hateful prophecy of our shoot- 

 ing Niagara might be realized. None could look on the worn frame 

 of this faithful servant of the people without feehng that he had lived 

 as he died " in the harness," and as much a hero as though he had 

 been among those who wade through slaughter to glory. There was 

 an undertone of hope and sympathy not unlike that described by 

 Mr. Mead as prevailing at Mrs. Lloyd's funeral while Rev. Charles G. 

 Ames spoke : " The most impressive funeral which I have ever attended 

 besides that was that quiet, private funeral the other day on that 

 upper floor in Boston where there were no crowds, where there were 

 only simple friends, where no word that was spoken was a word of 

 sadness, where every word made us feel that the time that is past and 

 the time to be are one, and both are now, and that this life, if we 

 understand it rightly, is simply a part of eternal life, and has not place 

 for too much sorrow and for no sorrow that weakens the mind." 



" Boston Evening Transcript," Saturday, March 4, 1905, — The Listener. 



PHYSICIANS OF GROTON. 



In the early records of Groton there are various allusions 

 to persons who are called " doctors " ; but such persons did 

 not have the title of M. D., as at that time there were no 

 medical schools here authorized to give the degree. These 

 so-called " doctors " after reading a few medical books and 

 following the natural bent of their tastes, were employed by 

 their neighbors as family physicians. 



