Looking Across the Lawn—Groton School 
GROTON-PAST AND PRESENT 
By Elizabeth Prescott Lawrence 
A T a General Court held in Boston in 1655, a 
^ Plantation, as it was then called, of eight 
square miles, was granted, in answer to a petition 
preferred hy Mr. Dean Winthrop and others. This 
plantation was to be called Groton, after the birth¬ 
place of the founder, who was a son of Governor 
Winthrop, and came from Suffolk county, England. 
In early days this tract of land was called “Peta- 
pawag,” the Indian name for swampy land, and 
the river, now known as the Nashua, was then 
called “Penacook.” All the old Indian names 
were so infinitely prettier than the present ones. 
Most of the towns about here were named by the 
founders, after their own places in England. Here 
is a rather curious thing, that the Saxon meaning 
of the word Groton is grit, or sand, just the oppo¬ 
site of the Indian 
translation. 
The English Gro¬ 
ton is a very ancient 
one, situated in a 
sandy locality, so that 
the name seems 
rather more appro¬ 
priate. A proper 
pride of birth would 
suggest that the 
name was doubtless 
also appropriate by 
reason of the grit and 
pluck, now, as well 
as then, characteristic 
of the people of any town so named. I was 
greatly interested to learn that there were fourteen 
different ways of spelling Groton, hut I suppose 
that was in the days when people spelled as they 
happened to be feeling at the moment. Here is the 
list; Groton, Grotten, Groten, Grotton, Groaton, 
Groatton, Groaten, Grooton, Grauton, Grawten, 
Grawton, Growton, Groughton, and Croaton. 
The town lies in the northwestern part of Middle¬ 
sex county, Massachusetts, and is about thirty-four 
miles from Boston, if one measures by the State 
road which runs directly through its centre, and is 
called the main street of Groton. lo my mind 
there is no lovelier village street in New England, 
as one sees it on a June afternoon, shaded by beauti¬ 
ful old elms, and bordered with white, yellow, or gray 
houses, all so com¬ 
fortable and prosper¬ 
ous-looking. 
Many people never 
heard of the town 
until the Groton 
school was built; 
but there is so much 
that is interesting in 
its history, that it 
has been the keenest 
pleasure to write this 
article. I can just re¬ 
member when the 
oldest house, built 
about I 6 9 2, a n d 
igi 
