QUARTERLY NEWS ( MARY BAKER EDDY MUSEUM and Historic Sites VOL. 17, NO.1 PUBLISHED BY LONGYEAR HISTORICAL SOCIETY SPRING 1980 NORTH GROTON- THEN AND NOW Part I Mary Baker Eddy, then Mrs. Patter­ son, lived in what is now the Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in North Groton, New Hampshire from 1855 to 1860. 1 The Quarterly News has pre­ viously published the reminiscences of George J. Cummings, who lived in North Groton as a boy in the mid­ nineteenth century. 2 This present ar­ ticle traces local history both prior to and subsequent to this period and provides illustrations of the changes that have occurred. The casual visitor to North Groton may not appreciate the changes that have occurred in this little commu­ c nity over the two hundred years since the settling of the town of Groton in 1770. It is today a small cluster of houses, mostly old, a few new, hid­ den if not isolated, in the hills south­ west of Rumney Village. Visitors to Mary Baker Eddy Historic House, North Groton, New Hampshire, about 1926 the Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in North Groton, maintained by Fletcher Mountain, also over 2000 reasonably accurate today, particu­ Longyear Historical Society, have feet high. Hall's Brook flows through larly in the fall color season. It was frequently enquired about the history the center of North Groton where the down this road that Mrs. Patterson of the area and have asked what it was roads from Groton center, Rumney went in a carriage one day in March like when Mrs. Eddy lived there. and Cheever join. The brook was 1860 with her sister, Abigail, to begin North Groton is a section of the dammed years ago to provide her stay in Rumney. 3 town of Groton, about five miles from waterpower for mills in the town, and The brook itself has changed the present center of the town, in a sluiceway can be found, although course over the years due to flooding Grafton County. The original grant the exact location of the dam, or and subsequent erosion and also be­ for the town was made on July 8,1761. dams, is uncertain. The remains of a cause of the removal or addition of Groton was first called Cockermouth, water wheel which transmitted man-made dams and bridge abut­ after Cockermouth in northern Eng­ power to one of the mills can still be ments. For example, photographs of land, until December 7, 1796 when located among the rocks in what was Hall's Brook taken about 60 years ago the town was incorporated. undoubtedly the tailrace, a hundred show lack of serious bank erosion The terrain is very hilly or feet to the north of the Historic near the Historic House and a course mountainous with the highest pro­ House. (Across from the Patterson for the brook considerably farther montory 2182 feet, close to the Dor­ house was the sawmill in which Dr. away from the house foundation than chester town line to the west. To the Patterson, an itinerant dentist, had at present. north is Bailey Hill and to the east invested. )3 The stream, which is now This section of Grafton County was undammed, flows generally north­ undoubtedly heavily wooded in the ward and empties into the Baker eighteenth and early nineteenth cen­ Quarterly News Spring 1980 River in Rumney. The road downhill turies, since lumbering was an im­ © Longyear Foundation 1980 Vol. 17 , No. 1 Subscription, $6.00 Annually beside the brook has been quoted in a portant industry during that time. By (Includes Activities at Longyear) nineteenth century gazeteer as being the 1850's when Mrs. Patterson lived Sent without charge to Members of Longyear "one of the most picturesque drives there, a neighbor later remembered in the county."4 This evaluation is that "the country was one large farm 257 Groton. Today the children are all bused to Bristol and Hebron as there are no schools open in the entire town. The only school building still standing in North Groton is now used as a dwelling and antique shop. It was here that Mrs. Patterson's son, George Glover, attended school in the 1850's. (George at this time was living with the Cheney family rather than with his mother. J3 Except for the schoolhouse, there is only one other public building remaining in North Groton. It is the Groton town hall, referred to as the Groton Town House. Construction of the building was begun in 1796 and was completed in the early 1800's. It is still in use by the town and is located near the North Groton crossroads, which was the original center of the town. In 1779 a Congregational church was established in Groton, and Rev. Union Church and schoolhouse at North Groton crossroads, 1920's Samuel Perley, a graduate of Harvard, divided into many small ones and had grown to 870 people, but after was its first pastor. The Union each farm owned, occupied and cul­ that there was a slow decline until, in Church in North Groton was built in tivated by a thrifty and intelligent 1890, the population was only 464, a 1840 by "Congregational, Baptist, farmer. Where the land is now (1906) 47% reduction from the peak. Rec­ Free Will Baptist and Methodist de­ grown up to brush, three fourths of it ords show that when Mrs. Patterson nominations." It was a "neat wooden was cleared and in a high state of lived in North Groton there were, in structure capable of seating 200 per­ cultivation." 5 We know from photo­ 1856, 776 people in the town. Today sons . valued, including grounds, at graphs taken in the latter part of the the permanent population is about $2,000. " 4 As chronicled in the Spring nineteenth century that by then 200. In the summer there is some in­ 1970 Quarterly News, the church fell much of the North Groton land was flux of vacationers who have built into disuse in 1874, although in­ cleared land. Again the 1886 gazeteer cottages in the town, several along frequent services were held there tells us that the principal crops at that Hall's Brook and elsewhere in North until1955. During the late 1850's Mrs. time were "corn, oats, potatoes and Groton. There are also a few mobile Patterson occasionally led the con­ buckwheat." There has been signifi­ homes used by both all-year and gregation in prayer there. It is for this cant change in the town since then; summer residents. In the immediate reason that the church was main­ most of the tilled land has reverted to area of the Historic House, it is fair to tained by Longyear Historical Soci­ forest and undergrowth. say that now the summer cottages ety beginning in 1966 until the de­ In 1773 there were 107 residents of outnumber the all-year homes. struction of the entire structure in an the town of Groton. By 1840 the town In 1885 there were seven schools in unusually heavy snowstorm in 1969. HI\LL • S BROOK Left, sawmill of which Dr. Patterson was part owner, formerly close to Patterson house. Right, map of North Groton today. 258 Village of North Groton about 1885 (Courtesy of SPNEA) Some items saved from the church, little town at that time is in contrast Mica was used for windows, in including its bell, are on display in to the slumbering but picturesque stove and furnace doors, goggles and the Mary Baker Eddy Museum. A countryside one now sees. lamp chimneys. In the twentieth cen­ granite marker erected by Longyear But the sleepy little town may tury uses for mica have developed for later on the site provides a brief his­ change yet again. Now its natural insulation, measuring instruments, tory of the church. 6 beauty beckons the summer visitor. and electrical and electronic equip­ There is currently no industrial ac­ Who knows what potential resources ment. Ground mica is also used in the tivity in North Groton and little farm­ may be developed by man which will manufacture of paints, wallpaper and ing. This is in contrast to the situa­ stir Groton's past and project it into lubricants. tion in the nineteenth century when the future? The Mary Baker Eddy The two most common forms of lumbering was important, maple Historic House by North Groton's mica are muscovite (light colored), so sugar was produced from "sugar or­ brook continues to be a link to the named because it was used exten­ chards," and mica was mined. North town's past but, more importantly, it sively in Russia for windows, and Groton also had a store, machine is a memorial for posterity, com­ biotite (dark colored). Semi-precious shop, lumber mill, cider mill and memorating the footsteps of that stones are frequently found along blacksmith shop. The lumber mill gallant woman who became the Dis­ with the mica, such as garnet, quartz, produced shingles and clapboards coverer and Founder of Christian beryl and lazulite. Most of the mines and had a capacity for cutting 5000 Science. are named after their owners or dis­ feet of lumber per day. It is interesting coverers. Two large companies even to note that the first mill of any kind Part II show up on the list: General Electric in the town was erected on Hall's The town of Groton was once con­ and Eastman. The former had a pro­ Brook in North Groton in 1771, before sidered the "greatest mica producing cessing plant not far from the ceme­ the Revolutionary War, apparently district in the country." For this rea­ tery on the road to Cheever.