The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, issue 1 | Page 8

lightly borne, his interest in all the active affairs of
men, and his continued powers of social enjoyment, I may well repeat
the wish of the poet Horace, expressed in one of his invocations to the

Emperor Augustus: 'Serus in coelum redeas.'"
Major Poore said: "Mr. President, I am confident that the distinguished
gentlemen around these tables will long remember to-night, and recall
with pleasure its varied homages to Colonel Wilder, thankful that we
have so pure a shrine, so bright an oracle, as the common property of
all who reverence virtue, admire manhood, or aspire to noble deeds.
Succeeding years will not dim the freshness of Colonel Wilder's fame;
and the more frequently we drink at this fountain, the sweeter we shall
find its waters.
'You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of
the roses will hang round it still.'"
* * * * *

THE OLD TAVERNS AND STAGE-COACHES OF GROTON.
BY THE HON. SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D.
It has been said that there is nothing contrived by man which has
produced so much happiness as a good tavern. Without granting or
denying the statement, all will agree that many good times have been
passed around the cheerful hearth of the old-fashioned inn.
The earliest tavern in Groton, of which there is any record or tradition,
was kept by Samuel Bowers, Jr., in the house lately and for a long time
occupied by the Champney family. Mr. Bowers was born in Groton on
December 21, 1711, and, according to his tombstone, died on "the
Sixteenth Day of December Anno Domini 1768. Half a hour after
Three of the Clock in ye Afternoon, and in the Fifty Eight year of his
age." He kept the house during many years, and was known in the
neighborhood as "land'urd Bowers,"--the innkeeper of that period being
generally addressed by the title of landlord. I do not know who
succeeded him in his useful and important functions.
The next tavern of which I have any knowledge was the one kept by

Captain Jonathan Keep, during the latter part of the Revolution. In The
Independent Chronicle (Boston), February 15, 1781, the Committee of
the General Court for the sale of confiscated property in Middlesex
County, advertise the estate of Dr. Joseph Adams, of Townsend, to be
sold "at Mr. Keep's, innholder in Groton." This tavern has now been
kept as an inn during more than a century. It was originally built for a
dwelling-house, and, before the Revolution, occupied by the Reverend
Samuel Dana; though since that time it has been lengthened in front
and otherwise considerably enlarged. Captain Keep was followed by
the brothers Isaiah and Joseph Hall, who were the landlords as early as
the year 1798. They were succeeded in 1825 by Joseph Hoar, who had
just sold the Emerson tavern, at the other end of the village street. He
kept it for nearly twenty years,--excepting the year 1836, when Moses
Gill and his brother-in-law, Henry Lewis Lawrence, were the
landlords,--and sold out about 1842 to Thomas Treadwell Farnsworth.
It was then conducted as a temperance house, at that time considered a
great innovation on former customs. After a short period it was sold to
Daniel Hunt, who kept it until 1852, and he was followed by James M.
Colburn, who had it for two years. It then came into the possession of J.
Nelson Hoar, a son of the former landlord, who took it in 1854, and in
whose family it has since remained. Latterly it has been managed by
three of his daughters, and now is known as the Central House. It is the
only tavern in the village, and for neatness and comfort can not easily
be surpassed.
In the list of innholders, near the end of Isaiah Thomas's Almanack, for
1785, appears the name of Richardson, whose tavern stood on the
present site of the Baptist church. It was originally the house owned
and occupied by the Reverend Gershom Hobart, which had been
considerably enlarged by additions on the north and east sides, in order
to make it more suitable for its new purposes. Mine host was Captain
Jephthah Richardson, who died on October 9, 1806. His father was
Converse Richardson, who had previously kept a small inn, on the
present Elm Street, near the corner of Pleasant. It was in this Elm Street
house that Timothy Bigelow, the rising young lawyer, lived, when he
first came to Groton. Within a few years this building has been moved
away. Soon after the death of Captain Jephthah Richardson, the tavern

was sold to Timothy Spaulding, who carried on the business until his
death, which occurred on February 19, 1808. Spaulding's widow
subsequently married John Spalter, who was the landlord for a short
time.