GROTON FAMILIES in 1800

Synopsis: Groton pioneers andearly settlers before 1800 werereported in recent newsletters.James Abbott and his wife,Zelpha Smith, came to Groton in1782 and they were called the‘first settlers’ in town by Grotonhistorian, Waldo Glover.Zelpha died on August 31, 1784six days after giving birth toSarah the first ‘recorded’ birthand death in town. Jamesmarried Mehitable Hidden in1785 and the family moved toOhio in 1807 where James diedabout 1814. Jesse Heath

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GROTON HISTORICAL SOCIETYNewsletter

Volume 21 Issue 1 Winter 2008Groton, Vermont 05046

EARLY SETTLERSIN GROTON

2008 OFFICERSPresident Richard BrooksVice President Deane PageSecretary Diane KreisTreasurer Joan HaskellWeb Site Editor VacantNewsletter Editor J. Willard Benzie

MEETING SCHEDULE(second Tuesday)

April through October10 AM at the Peter Paul House,

1203 Scott Hwy.

CONTENTSPage

Early Settlers…………….1

Web page access ………..3

Aberdeen Scotland GraniteIndustry……………….4

GHS Update…………….14

Timothy Emery grandson andnamesake of an early settler.

Page 2

brought his bride, Phebe Straw, toGroton in 1781, built his first logdwelling and their first 3 childrenwere born here. They moved toNewbury later and then Ryegatewhere they were living when the1790 census was taken, but wereback in Groton for the 1800 & 1810censuses. Aaron Hosmer anadventurer living in Newbury in1760, when he married CarolineChamberlain, was trapping,hunting and fishing in Groton andthe surrounding area for manyyears but apparently only builttemporary shelters until shortlybefore the 1790 Groton census inwhich he was enumerated with twoof his sons. Edmund Morse‘settled’ in Groton in 1786 with hiswife, Sarah Wesson, and Grotonhistorian General Albert HarleighHill, their grandson, claimed theywere the first ‘permanent settlers’in town. Edmund built the firstsawmill in 1790 and probably builtthe ‘first’ plank house in town. Onlyfour other plank homes were on theGrand List in 1803 owned by JamesAbbott, Dominicus Gray, WilliamFrost and Moses Plummer (came toGroton in 1801 and returned toMaine in 1804); log cabins werenot permanent dwellings for taxpurposes. Other families in Groton

(Continued from page 1)

for the 1790 census were IsraelBailey, John Darling and his sonRobards, Jonathan James, andTimothy Townshend son-in-lawof John Darling. At least threeother families living in townearlier either left or died beforethe 1790 census - Jacob Jenness,Archibald McLachlin, and PeterWesson. Several other familieswho came after the 1790 censusand left before the 1800 census,included: Samuel Bacon, SamuelFellows, Joshua Merrill, MosesNoyes and Benjamin Smith.

Timothy Townshend’sfamily was the only one of theeight families living in Groton in1790 that was not listed in the1800 census. In addition 30 morefamilies, including Jesse Heath,were enumerated in 1800 for atotal population of 248 people.There were 117 free white malesand 124 free white females plus 7“other free persons”. The otherfree persons were all in the JohnPhelps family, whom Grotonhistorian General A. H. Hillreported was of African descent,although his wife was listed aswhite. There were 9 men and 6women 45 years of age or older;25 men and 27 women ages 26-

Winter 2008 GHS Newsletter

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45; 10 men and 15 women ages16-26; 18 boys and 16 girls ages10-16; and 55 boys and 60 girlsunder 10 years of age. The newfamily heads were AbrahamAlexander, Benjamin Baileyfourth cousin of Israel’s father,Jeremiah Batchelder, SamuelDarling son of John, CharlesEmery and sons John andTimothy , William Frost ,Ephraim Gary, DominicusGray, Jacob Hatch, John Hillson-in-law of Edmund Morse,James Hooper, NathanielKnight, Silas Lund, JonathanMacomber, Enoch Manchester,Truman Martin, BradburyMorrison, Daniel Munro,Susannah Noyes wife or widowof Moses, John Phelps, EdwardPollard, John Remick, Kuke[Ezekiel?] Thurston, WilliamTaisey and son Robert, andEdmund Welch and his brotherJonathan. At least a dozenveterans of the AmericanRevolutionary War were living inGroton in 1800 – James Abbott,Abraham Alexander, Benjamin

Bailey, Jeremiah Batchelder,Charles Emery, DominicusGray, Jacob Hatch, Jesse Heath,Aaron Hosmer, JonathanMacomber, Edward Pollard, andEdmund Welch. Other veteransalso came to Groton later.

A dozen families in the1800 census of Groton were notin the 1810 census. JohnRemick. died in 1805 and hiswidow, Dolly (Hibbard) Remickis listed as head of the family.Bradbury Morrison died onApril 30, 1810 before the censuswas taken and his widow, Betsey(Emery) Morrison is listed ashead of the family. Sevenfamilies moved away. JonathanMacomber apparently moved toOgdensburg, NY before 1803where his youngest child wasborn; Nathaniel Knight movedto Ryegate in 1804; Susannah(Lunt) Noyes, widow of Moses,apparently moved back to NHwith her young children after shesold the sawmill and lands toSilas Lund (possibly her brother)

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GROTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY WEB PAGE

Easy access from http://www.grotonvt.com

Winter 2008

Page 4 GHS Newsletter

around, granite is everywhere:in handsome public buildings,in elegant mansions, in streetsof tenement flats and in sculp-tures. Some may be 200 yearsold – yet, so hard is the granite,they look as though they hadbeen constructed yesterday, es-pecially when the mica glints inthe sun, and grey stone is turnedto silver.

In the countryside, fromearliest days, granite boulderswere gathered from the fieldsand hillsides for buildings, heldtogether with mortar. St.Machar’s Cathedral is one ofAberdeen city’s oldest granitebuildings. Although there issome freestone in it, Graemeassured us that it can be de-scribed as the oldest granite ca-thedral in the world, and is quiteobviously erected of surface notquarried, stone. The first posi-tive record of quarrying is in1603, when a certain John Ma-son, “John the Mason”, ob-tained permission from theTown Council to open a quarryon the Freedom Lands of Aber-deen to supply window sills andlintels and other large stones forthe builders. But for years to

(Continued on page 6)

Graeme Robertson, managingdirector of a granite memorialbusiness in Aberdeen, Scotlandthat his great-grandfather estab-lished in 1876, presented a shorthistory of the Aberdeen GraniteIndustry to the members of theAberdeen and North-East Scot-land Family History Society(ANESFHS). Lorna Simpsonsummarized his report in the Au-gust 2007 issue of the ANESFHSJournal. Lorna lives in Aber-deen where she volunteers at theANESFHS shop regularly.When she was a graduate stu-dent at Bryn Mawr College inthe 1950’s she visited her rela-tives in Barre, VT and had anopportunity to see the Rock ofAges granite quarry and manu-facturing plant. The article isprinted here with the permissionof the ANESFHS and Mrs. Simp-son.

Aberdeen is known asthe Granite City. The hard rock,formed millions of years ago,lies deep beneath our feet, and inparts of town we can still walkon the “causeys”, the pavingsets, which the masons of oldshaped by hand. And, if we look

Winter 2008

ABERDEEN SCOTLAND GRANITE INDUSTRYBy Lorna Simpson

in 1804 at Noyes’ Pond whichthen became known as Lund’sPond and is now called Rickers.James Abbott moved to Ohio in1807; Edward Pollard probablymoved to Newbury where hisgrandchildren later lived; andKuke Thurston, believed to beEzekiel, probably moved toOrange, VT before 1808 when hischildren were born there.Whatever happened to AbrahamAlexander is unknown, but hisdaughter Lydia married JamesTaylor of Ryegate in 1804 andperhaps he went to live with them.Three families are not listed in theGroton Historical Society familyrecords: Truman Martin, DanielMunro, and John Phelps.

The settlers who stayedwere soon joined by others andGroton became a thriving townearly in the nineteenth century.Many people in the area today cantrace their ancestors to one ormore of these early Grotonfamilies.

Jeremiah Batchelderwas born in 1772 at Kensington,Rockingham Co., NH and diedMay 21, 1850. He settled inGroton before 1797 and waselected at the first Town Meetingto serve with Samuel Darling ashog reifs. His wife’s name was

(Continued from page 3)

Sally and the family was listedin the 1800 census with 2 girlsless than 10 years of age. In the1810 census the family had 2boys and 3 girls less than 10 and2 girls 10-16 years of age.Jeremiah’s father, Jeremiah wasa Revolutionary War soldier; hedied February 1, 1818 and isburied in the Batchelder familyburial grounds in Groton on Lot178, Second Division about ahalf-mile south of Ricker Mills .

Charles Emery and histwo sons John and Timothybrought their families to Grotonin 1795. Charles three oldestdaughters also came with theirhusbands and his youngestdaughter married a few yearsafter arriving. Charles was bornAugust 16, 1745 in Kittery, MEand died May 14, 1845 inGroton. He married first AnnHodgdon born in 1745 and diedJuly 14, 1803 in Groton. Theirdaughter Martha “Patty”married Jonathan WelchAugust 3, 1786; Betsey “Sarah”married Bradbury MorrisonJanuary 25, 1789 in Shapleigh,ME; Mary “Polly” marriedJames Hooper in 1792; andMeribah married Noah Morrison(a cousin of Bradbury) in 1798and they both died in 1801

(Continued on page 10)

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Page 6 GHS NewsletterWinter 2008

come, quarrying remained spas-modic. Then, in 1741, a disastrousfire destroyed the wooden buildingsover a large part of the town, andthe magistrates enacted that in fu-ture all buildings would have wallsof stone and roofs of slate or tile.And so the Granite City was born!By the mid-18th century, granitewas in general use, and quarriesopened up all over the area.

Rubislaw Quarry, theNorth-East’s most successful andbest-known quarry, opened about1741 and was worked continuouslyfor 230 years, hundreds of thou-sands of tons of grey granite beingblasted and cut from the ground inthat time. When it closed in 1971,it was 450 feet deep, quite breath-taking to look into; and the quarryworkers used to say, with every jus-tification, that “half of Aberdeenhad come oot o’ that hole”. Andnow, Graeme commented wryly,such is fate that the problem seemsto be what to do with the hole thatused to be Rubislaw Quarry.

The figures for quarryingwere impressive. From 1897 –1904, for example, the output fromall the quarries in Aberdeenshireaveraged over 300,000 tons per an-num and employed approximately2,000 men over 50 – 60 differentquarries: famous names, and famil-iar if you have granite-working an-

(Continued from page 4)cestors, such as Rubislaw, Kem-nay, Persley, Dancing Cairns,Tom’s Forest, Hill of Fare, Cor-rennie and Tilliefourie, all pro-ducing shades of grey or pinkgranite. It was very big busi-ness! But that was 100 yearsago. Today, sadly, all localquarries have gradually ceasedproduction except for crushedgranite for road-building. Atthe end of the Second WorldWar, only Rubislaw and Kem-nay still functioned to any realextent as producers of blockstone. And now virtually allgranite used locally comes fromabroad, notably from India andChina.

The history of quarry-ing, cutting and shaping graniteis only part of the story. Thedevelopment of granite-polishing is also very fascinat-ing. In 1820, Alexander Mac-Donald, a young Perthshirefreestone mason, set up busi-ness in Aberdeen. One day, heread in the paper that the BritishMuseum had been presentedwith a few pieces of polishedgranite from Egypt, some 4,000years old. He traveled to Lon-don to see the pieces and re-turned fired with the ambitionto discover the art of polishing,not by hand, but by mechanical

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means. The commercial potentialwas enormous. With great inge-nuity he succeeded, thereby lay-ing the foundations for the graniteindustry in Aberdeen. The era ofmachinery had begun. Many, ofcourse, followed his lead, and bythe end of the century there wereas many as 83 firms, their yardsdotted all over the town, and aconsiderable export business hadbuilt up worldwide. Aberdeengranite was everywhere.

At the same time, Aber-deen was exporting men. Skilledcraftsmen moved abroad andhelped to establish granite indus-tries wherever the stone was to befound. From our own family his-tories, many of us know of theannual emigration of graniteworkers to North America, manyto “Rock of Ages” in Barre, Ver-mont. Some settled, becomingthe American branches of ourfamilies. Others, having built upa sizeable sum of money, returnedhome, to re-emigrate the nextspring.

By the end of the 19th

century, Aberdeen led the graniteindustry of the world – but it wasall to change. The loss of theAmerican market after the 1929slump (economic depression);increasing foreign competition;the development of new road-

making and building materials;the growing popularity of crema-tion – all these had a negativeimpact. Despite firms introduc-ing new machinery and amalga-mating, it was not enough, andby the 1970’s most of the yardshad closed. The effect of crema-tion on the granite-memorialbusiness had been forecast manyyears earlier and undoubtedly, ithas had an effect. But most peo-ple who choose burial do so de-liberately because they wish toerect a memorial – and demandremains high. The desire tocommemorate would seem to bea very strong human emotion.

Graeme’s firm, Robert-son’s Memorials, is the only sur-viving family business in theAberdeen granite industry – ajustifiably proud claim, but alsosad when one thinks back towhen Aberdeen led the world.The main business continues tolie in providing granite memori-als, manufacturing still but alsoimporting from India, to meetchanging public demands. Ad-aptation, diversification to spe-cialize in granite worktops andother stone products for domes-tic use, and the application of thenewest technologies to old craftskills have proved to be the keyto survival and success.

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Groton Granite

James Benzie working at hisfathers stoneshed in 1910

John Benzie with I. M. Ricker monument

Groton granite from the abandoned cemetery vault

Groton quarry workers in 1910

Stoneshed leased by the M. T. Benzie Co.

Page 9GHS Newsletter Winter 2008

Five granite firms in Groton employed more than 100 men in 1900.

John Benzie, owner, and his crew of workers at the M. T. Benzie Co. in 1910

Page 10 GHS NewsletterWinter 2008

without issue and are buried inthe Darling Cemetery in Groton.Charles married second Jane“Jean”, widow of John Vance,on October 11, 1803 and shedied in Groton on December 5,1832 and is buried in the DarlingCemetery.

John Emery was bornApril 12, 1763 in Kittery, MEand married Sarah “Sally”Parker in Shapleigh, ME onFebruary 4, 1788. They came toGroton with his parents andraised a family of 8 boys and 3girls. Sally died in Groton onDecember 13, 1854 and he diedon December 13, 1857. Theywere both buried in the DarlingCemetery.

Timothy Emery wasborn in 1768 in Kittery, ME andmarried Mary Wilson December6, 1792 in Shapleigh, ME. Theycame to Groton soon after hisparents and siblings and raised afamily of 3 boys and 5 girls.Another boy died at the age offive. Timothy died in Groton onOctober 15, 1844.

William Frost was bornin 1762 in Berwick, York, MEand married first Lydia Hill onApril 3, 1792. The family had 4girls and one boy less than 10years of age in the 1800 Groton

(Continued from page 5) census. They are listed in the1810 and 1820 censuses with 10and 7 members respectively, butthe mother is missing in the 1810census. William married secondSarah “Sally” Lovering on April17, 1811 in Corinth, VT.William was elected to be theconstable and collector and thesealer of weights and measuresat the first town meeting in 1797.He also served the town ascaptain of the militia. William,his two wives, some of hischildren and at least onegrandchild are buried in the Frostfamily burial grounds in Groton.

Ephraim Gary wasborn August 6, 1770 in Sanford,York Co., ME and he marriedSarah Hill at Berwick, ME onFeb. 17, 1798 and they had oneboy less than 10 years old in the1800 census. The family had 7people in the 1810 census and 5in the next two censuses. Thefamily is not in the 1840 censusof Groton; apparently they wentback to Berwick, ME where hedied Oct. 12, 1849.

Dominicus Gray wasborn April 26, 1761 and died inGroton on October 21, 1832. Hemarried Sarah Plummer inSanford, ME Nov. 27, 1785 andthey came to Groton before1797. They raised a family of 5

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children: Patience who marriedReuben Whitcher; Mary “Polly”who married Hosea Welch;Andrew whose widow married IraLowe; Sarah who marriedTimothy Carter; and Ruth whomarried Wil l iam Nelson .Dominicus was elected grandjuror at the first town meeting.Dominicus, his wife and some ofhis children were buried in theGray family burial grounds.

Jacob Hatch was born inWells, ME on August 11, 1765and died in Groton on July 16,1827. He married MarthaMaxwell in Wells on May 15,1788 and the family came toGroton in 1795. They settled onthe western half of lot number 18in the first division and laterbought the western half of lot 17.They raised a family of 9children: Moses who marriedJean Gates first and Jane Cariussecond; Jacob who married SallyMorrison; John who marriedMary Clark first and Sabra Welchsecond; Lucretia who marriedJames Dustin; Maxwell; Sally;Martha; Phoebe who marriedHiram Meader; and Mehitablewho married James Whitehill.

James Hooper was bornMarch 1770 in ME and died inGroton September 16, 1848. Hemarried Mary “Polly” Emery in

1792 and they came to Groton in1796 where they raised 11children: Anna who marriedMoses Frost; Polly nevermarried; Margaret “Peggy” whomarried Daniel Coffrin first andSamuel Hooper second;Susannah who married JonathanLund; Meribah who marriedEnoch Manchester Jr.; Betseywho married Samuel Emery;James who died age 5; John whomarried Betsey Welch first andHarriet McConnell second;Asenath who married EbenezerPaul; Lois who married IsaacMorse; and Elijah who marriedMarcia Darling.

Silas Lund was bornSeptember 12, 1762 inDunstable NH. He married firstComfort Batchelder in Warren,NH on October 23. 1788 andthey came to Groton in 1791where they raised four children:Jeremiah who was married andhad 7 children in the 1830census; Moses who marriedBetsy Page; Elizabeth whomarried Joel Welch; andJonathan who married SusannahHooper first and Lois Hartsecond. Silas acquired thesawmill and lands fromSusannah (Lunt) Noyes, widowof Moses Noyes (and possiblyhis sister) located at Noyes Pond

(Continued on page 12)

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which then became Lund Pondand is now Rickers. Silas marriedsecond Charity Darling.

Enoch Manchester wasborn about 1767 in Ryegate,married Lucy Wilmot about 1795and settled in Groton where theyraised a family of 7 children:Nathan, Enoch Jr. who marriedMaribah Hooper, Joel, Osee,Isaac, Hannah, and Lucy. In theirlater years, about 1838, theymoved to St. Lawrence Co., NYwhere they both died. Enoch diedDecember 10, 1851.

Bradbury Morrison wasborn in 1766 at Wells, ME anddied April 30, 1810 in Groton. Hemarried Betsey “Sarah” Emery atShapleigh, ME on January 25,1789 and they came to Groton in1796 and settled on lot number 12,first division. They raised 10children: Charles who marriedthree times – Sally Rhodes,Elizabeth Crown and SallyBaldwin; Betsey who marriedIsaiah Frost; Abraham whomarried Martha Townshend; Sallywho married Jacob Hatch Jr.;Nancy who married SamuelPlummer; Joseph who marriedSally Darling; Bradley whomarried Avis Jones; Timothy whomarried Olive Paul first and then

(Continued from page 11) Sarah Rhodes; Meribah whomarried Joseph Ricker; andMartha who married JonathanWelch Jr.

William Taisey and hisson, Robert brought their familiesfrom Scotland to Groton in 1797.Originally part of the ‘ScotchCompany of Farmers’ that settledRyegate they arrived in Bostonjust before the battle of BunkerHill and were given the choice ofjoining the British Army, going toNova Scotia, or returning toScotland which they did and thenreturned in 1795. Not findingsuitable land left in Ryegate theysettled in Groton – Williampurchased lot number 40 onOctober 10, 1797 located on theriver, which was later part of theOrson Ricker and I. N. Hall farms;and Robert purchased lot number39, which he later sold to hisbrother William Jr. and purchasedlot number 25 on July 10, 1801,where he spent the rest of his life.About 1810 he built the stonehouse patterned after the peasanthouses in Scotland. William Jr.married Judith Darling on August2, 1808 in Groton and they raisedtwo children; Elizabeth whomarried Isaac N. Hall; and Lydiawho married Orson Ricker.

Robert Taisey and his

Winter 2008GHS Newsletter Page 13

wife Agnes Gault raised a familyof 8 children: William whomarried Mary Rhodes; John whomarried Phebe Heath; Agnes whomarried James Heath; James whomarried Ruth Darling; Elizabeth;Mary “Lizzie” who marriedDaniel Darling; Robert Jr. whomarried Rhoda Darling; andThomas who was married and hadtwo children.

Edmund Welch and hisbrother Jonathan came to Grotonfrom Wells, ME and settled on lotnumber 13 which they purchasedfrom Aaron Hosmer Jr. on April3, 1792.

Edmund Welch was bornin 1753 and married HannahAnnis on February 6, 1777 atWells, ME. They raised a familyof 10 children: Catherine whomarried Samuel Darling; Stevenwho married Sarah Young; James;Forrest who married Hulda Paul;Iza who married NathanielCunningham; Levi who marriedNancy Cunningham; Edmund“Neddy” who married BelindaHeath; Rebe who married LydiaParker; Sabra who married JohnHatch; and Nehemiah whomarried Dorothy “Dolly” Page.

Jonathan Welch wasborn in 1761 and married Martha“Patty” Emery on August 3, 1786.

They raised a family of 10children: Hosea who marriedfirst Mary “Polly” Gray andsecond Ms. Graham; Betseywho married Enoch Page Jr.;Anna who married JohnWhitehill; Medad who marriedAbigail “Nabby” Hosmer;Patty who died age four; Joelwho died age three; Ruth whomarried William Vance; Joelwho married Elizabeth Lund;Jonathan Jr. who marriedMartha Morrison; and Davidwho married Dolly Titus.

Benjamin Bailey ,Samuel Darling and John Hillwere included with the Bailey,Darling and Morse families inearlier issues of the newsletter.Benjamin is a 4th cousin ofIsrael Bailey’s father, Samuelis the son of John Darling andJohn Hill is a son-in-law ofEdmund Morse.

The Groton HistoricalSocie t y welcomes an ycorrections and additions tothese brief sketches of theGroton families in 1800.Please send information to thesociety at P. O. Box 89,Groton, VT 05046-0089, or e-mail to jwbenzie@uslink.net

Membership for 2008 is$10 for individuals and $15 forfamilies. Delinquent members aredropped from the mailing list ifdues are not paid before theirgrace period expires. Mailing la-bels show the last year of duespaid and the year is highlighted inyellow during the grace periodand in red for the last mailing.Present membership includes 17individuals and 6 families paid for2008; 29 individuals and 4 fami-lies for 2007; and 4 individualsand 4 families are in their graceperiod.

The University of VermontBailey/Howe Library has re-quested back issues of the news-letter for their Wilbur Collectionof local Vermont historical socie-ties. Issues number 1 & 2 in 1988and issue number 11 in the Springof 1991 could not be located. Ifanyone has a copy of these miss-ing issues please make a copy andsend them to the GHS at P. O.Box 89, Groton, VT 05046. Afterissue number 14 in the Spring of1992 the newsletters were notnumbered until the Fall of 1999when a new numbering systemwas initiated starting with Volume12, issue 1. Six un-numbered is-sues were found between issues

number 14 and volume 12 issue1. They are:

1992 Fall1993 Spring & Fall1994 Summer1995 February1997 June

No issues were found for 1996 or1998. If anyone has other issuesbetween the Spring of 1992 andFall of 1999 please make copiesfor the GHS records and copieswill be forwarded to the Univer-sity of Vermont.

The Vermont HistoricalSociety is also requesting backissues of all the local historicalsociety newsletters for their li-brary at the Vermont HistoryCenter in Barre.

The Groton HistoricalSociety meets at 10 A.M. in thePeter Paul House at 1203 ScottHighway in Groton on the sec-ond Tuesday of April throughOctober. Meetings are open tothe public and the house is openfor tours on Fall Foliage Day, thefirst Saturday in October, and byappointment the rest of the year.

On Fall Foliage Day2007 well over one hundred visi-tors toured the building andreminisced about Groton’s his-tory and the people who made it.

Page 14 Winter 2008 GHS Newsletter

GROTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY UPDATE

Page 15Winter 2008GHS Newsletter

A lot of family history informa-tion was provided by the visitorsand now the family history re-cords have more than 40,000names. Special thanks to all thosewho supplied family informationfor the GHS records.

The Bethel Historical So-ciety is collecting informationabout George H. Guernsey, a 19thcentury architect and builder, whomade plans for the 1888 alterationof the Methodist Church inGroton through the efforts ofJudge Isaac N. Hall a member ofthe original 1836 building com-mittee. The Bethel Historical So-ciety is especially interested infinding other buildings designedor built by George Guernsey.Other Groton buildings that hadcharacteristics similar to thosedesigned by Guernsey were theBenjamin F. Clark and the IsaacM. Ricker homes which haveboth been destroyed by fire. TheJohn R. Darling home was builtabout the same time and mayhave been designed, or influ-enced, by Guernsey, but the soci-ety is not aware of any records todocument these guesses.

Archival, or document,collections can be found in everyhistorical society, but many ofthem do not have an archivist andare not aware of the special needs

of an archival collection. The ini-tial processing of an archival col-lection, as well as how to store,handle, and care for the materialsin these collections – includingpaper, photographs, and multime-dia is very important for preserv-ing history.

At the October meeting thesociety voted to investigate thesystem being used by the Char-lotte Historical Society to make anew and complete inventory oftheir collections. With the aid of alap top computer and Chenhall'sNomenclature for Museum Cata-loguing each piece of the collec-tion will be located, described,and photographed. When com-pleted, the museum will have atotally new exhibit, organized toimprove the use of the availablespace, and show their unique localcollections.

The article on page 4 aboutAberdeen Scotland’s granite in-dustry brings to mind Groton’sshort-lived granite business late inthe 19th century and early 20thcentury. Many of our graniteworkers then had to travel toBarre, South Ryegate or othergranite centers for employment.Some pictures of Groton’s granitequarry and stonesheds are onpages 8 & 9.

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