of the town, it was voted that the selectmen should see that a new schoolhouse be built for him in the place of the old one; this to be done with the advice of Mr. Cheever. The particulars of this work are given in as much detail, and are interesting to show the style of schoolhouse at that day. They are as follows, in the "Selectmen's Minutes, under July 24, 1704":— ceived all this painstaking attention and therefore I told him there was a plain grammar rule for it. He angrily replied, there was no such rule. I took the grammar and showed the rule to him. Then he smilingly said, 'Thou art a brave boy; I had forgot it.' And no wonder: for he was then above eighty years old." President Stiles of Yale College, in his Diary, says that he had seen a man who said that he "well knew a famous grammar-school master, Mr. E. Cheever, of Boston, author of The Accidence; that he wore a long white beard, terminating in a point; that when he stroked his beard to the point, it was a sign for the boys to stand clear." 64 Agreed wth Mr John Barnerd as followeth, he to build a new School House of forty foot Long Twenty five foot wide and Eleven foot Stud, with eight windows below and five in the Roofe, with wooden Casements to the eight Windows, to Lay the lower floor with Sleepers & double boards So far as needful, and the Chamber floor with Single boards, to board below the plate inside & inside and out, to Clapboard the Outside and Shingle the Roof, to make a place to hang the Bell in, to make a paire of Staires up to the Chamber, and from thence a Ladder to the bell, to make one door next the Street, and a petition Cross the house below, and to make three rows of benches for the boyes on each Side of the room, to find all Timber, boards, Clapboards shingles nayles hinges. In consideration whereof the sd Mr John Barnerd is to be paid One hundred pounds, and to have the Timber, Boards, and Iron worke of the Old School House." Some interesting reminiscences are given, by some of his pupils, of these school-days in Boston. The Reverend John Barnard, of Marblehead, who was born in Boston in 1681, speaks of his early days at the Latin School, in his Autobiography, which is now in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Among other things he says: "I remember once, in making a piece of Latin, my master found fault with the syntax of one word, which was not used by me heedlessly, but designedly, Judge Sewall, in his Diary, often refers to him. He speaks of a visit from him, at one time, when Mr. Cheever told him that he had entered his eightyeighth year, and was the oldest man in town; and another time, when he says: "Master Chiever, his coming to me last Saturday January 31, on purpose to tell me he blessed God that I had stood up for the Truth, is more comfort to me than Mr. Borland's unhandsomeness is discomfort." He also speaks of him as being a bearer several times at funerals, where, at one, with others, he received a scarf and ring which were "given at the House after coming from the Grave." A peculiarity of the venerable schoolmaster is seen where Judge Sewall says: "Mr. Wadsworth appears at Lecture in his Perriwigg. Mr. Chiever is grieved at it." In 1708, the judge gives in this Diary some touching particulars as to the sickness and death of Mr. Cheever. They are valuable not only for themselves, but as preserving in a literary form the close friendship which existed between these two strong men of that day. Hence they are given here: "Aug. 12, 1708. - Mr. Chiever is abroad and hears Mr. Cotton Mather preach. This is the last of his going abroad. Was taken very sick, like to die with a Flux. Aug. 13. I go to see him, went in with his son Thomas and Mr. Lewis. His Son spake to him and he knew him not; I spake to him and he bid me speak again; then he said, Now I know you, and speaking cheerily mentioned my name. I ask'd his Blessing for me and my family; He said I was Bless'd, and it could not be Reversed. Yet at my going away He pray'd for a Blessing for me. "Aug. 19.—I visited Mr. Chiever again, just before Lecture; Thank'd him for his kindness to me and mine; desired his prayers for me, my family, Boston, Salem, the Province. He rec'd me with abundance of Affection, taking me by the hand several times. He said, The Afflictions of God's people, God by them did as a Goldsmith, knock, knock, knock; knock, knock, knock, to finish the plate; It was to perfect them not to punish them. I went and told Mr. Pemberton (the Pastor of Old South) who preached. "Aug. 20.. I visited Mr. Chiever who was now grown much weaker, and his speech very low. He call'd Daughter! When his daughter Russel came, He ask'd if the family were composed; They apre hended He was uneasy because there had not been Prayer that morn; and solicited me to Pray; I was loth and advised them to send for Mr. Williams, as most natural, homogeneous; They declin'd it, and I went to Prayer. After, I told him, The last enemy was Death, and God hath made that a friend too; He put his hand out of the Bed, and held it up, to signify his Assent. Observing he suck'd a piece of an Orange, put it orderly into his mouth and chew'd it, and then took out the core. After dinner I carried a few of the best Figs I could get and a dish Marmalet. I spake not to him now. "So that he has Laboured in that calling (teaching) skilfully, diligently, constantly, Religiously, Seventy years. A rare Instance of Piety, Health, Strength, Serviceableness. The Wellfare of the Province was much upon his spirit. He abominated Perriwiggs." "Aug. 23, 1708. Mr. Chiever was buried from the Schoolhouse. The Gov'r, Councillors, Ministers, Justices, Gentlemen there. Mr. Williams made a handsome Latin Oration in his Honour. Elder Bridgham, Copp, Jackson, Dyer, Griggs, Hubbard, &c., Bearers. After the Funeral, Elder Bridgham, Mr. Jackson, Hubbard, Dyer, Tim. Wadsworth, Edw. Procter, Griggs, and two more came to me and earnestly solicited me to speak to a place of Scripture, at the private Quarter Meeting in the room of Mr. Chiever." Cotton Mather, who had been a pupil of his, preached a funeral sermon in honor of his loved teacher. It was printed in Boston in 1708, and later in 1774. A copy of it in the Athenæum is well worth a perusal. Some of Mr. Cheever's Latin poems are attached to it. Cotton Mather precedes his sermon by An Historical Introduction, in which, after referring to his great privilege, he gives the main facts in the long life of the schoolmaster of nearly ninety-four years. In closing it, he says: "After he had been a Skilful, Painful, Faithful Schoolmaster for Seventy years; and had the Singular Favours of Heaven that tho' he had Usefully spent his Life among children, yet he was not become Twice a child but held his Abilities, with his usefulness, in an unusual Degree to the very last." Then follows the sermon, remarkable in its way as a eulogy. But the Essay in Rhyme in Memory of his "Venerable Master," "Aug. 21.- Mr. Edward Oakes tells me which follows the sermon, is even more Mr. Chiever died this last night." characteristic and remarkable. In it are some couplets which are unique and interesting. Then in a note he tells the chief facts in his life, which he closes with, — "Do but name Cheever, and the Echo straight Upon that name, Good Latin will Repeat. "And in our School, a Miracle is wrought: For the Dead Languages to Life are brought. Ezekiel may need & what godly books my wife may desire," to his son Thomas; 10 to Mary Phillips; £20 to his "Who serv'd the School, the Church did not forget, grandchild, Ezekiel Russel; and £5 But Thought and Prayed & often wept for it. "How oft we saw him tread the Milky Way Which to the Glorious Throne of Mercy lay! "Come from the Mount he shone with ancient Grace, Awful the Splendor of his Aged Face. "He Liv'd and to vast age no Illness knew, Till Times Scythe waiting for him Rusty grew. “He Liv'd and Wrought; His Labours were Immense, But ne'r Declined to Praeter-perfect Tense." to the poor. The remainder of the estate he leaves to his wife and six children, Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth, Ezekiel, Thomas, and Susanna. One handles still more reverently a little brown, stiff-covered book, kept in the safe in the Athenæum, of about one hundred and twenty pages, yellow He closes this eulogy with an epitaph with age, on the first of which is the in Latin. Mr. Cheever's will, found in the Suffolk probate office, was offered by his son Thomas and his daughter Susanna, August 26, 1708, a few days after his death. He wrote it two years previous, when he was ninety-one years old, a short time before his "dear wife," whom he mentions, died. In it his estate is appraised at £837:19:6. One handles reverently this old piece of yellow paper, perhaps ten by twelve inches in size, with red lines, on which is written in a clear handwriting the last will of this dear old man. He characteristically begins it thus: "In nomine Domini Amen, I Ezekiel Cheever of the Towne of Boston in the County of Suffolk in New England, Schoolmaster, living through great mercy in good health and understanding wonderfull in my age, do make and ordain this as my last Will & Testament as Followeth: I give up my soule to God my Father in Jesus Christ, my body to the earth to be buried in a decent manner according to my desires in hope of a Blessed part in ye first resurrection & glorious kingdom of Christ on earth a thousand years." He then gives all his household goods " & of my plate ye two-ear'd Cup, my least tankard porringer a spoon,' to his wife; "all my books saving what year "1631," and on the second, "Ezekiel Cheever, his booke," both ir his own handwriting. Then come nearly fifty pages of finely-written Latin poems, composed and written by himself, probably in London; then, there are scattered over some of the remaining pages a few short-hand notes which have been deciphered as texts of Scripture. On the last page of this quaint little treasure-only three by four inches large-are written in English some verses, one of which can be clearly read as, "Oh, first seek the kingdom of God and his Righteousness, and all things else shall be added unto you." Another Ms. of Mr. Cheever's is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It is a book six by eight inches in size, of about four hundred pages, all well filled with Latin dissertations, with occasionally a mathematical figure drawn. One turns over the old leaves with affectionate interest, even if the matter written upon them is beyond his comprehension. It certainly is a pleasure to read on one of them the date May 18, 1664. Verily, New England should treasure the memory of Ezekiel Cheever, the man who called himself "Schoolmaster." for she owes much to him. A LOCK OF HAIR. [From "The Transcript."] IT lies before me. A bright tress of hair That once, lang syne, thy young, proud head didst bear Of relic fond or token, e'er to lead My memory back to thee. Thou wast and art Our souls' sure bond, whose viewless, mystic gyve Oh, precious souvenir! With tenderest care I treasure this soft, shining lock of hair. D. A. KELLOGG. 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. Mr. The earliest tavern in Groton, of which there is any record or tradition, was kept by Samuel Bowers, jun., in the house lately and for a long time occupied by the Champney family. 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 Bow ers," - 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. Cap- Timothy Bigelow, the rising young tain Keep was followed by the brothers lawyer, lived, when he first came to Isaiah and Joseph Hall, who were the Groton. Within a few years this buildlandlords as early as the year 1798. ing has been moved away. Soon after They were succeeded in 1825 by the death of Captain Jephthah RichardJoseph Hoar, who had just sold the son, the tavern was sold to Timothy Emerson tavern, at the other end of Spaulding, who carried on the business the village street. He kept it for nearly until his death, which occurred on twenty years, excepting the year February 19, 1808. Spaulding's widow 1836, when Moses Gill and his brother- subsequently married John Spalter, who in-law, Henry Lewis Lawrence, were was the landlord for a short time. the landlords, and sold out about About 1812 the house was rented to 1842 to Thomas Treadwell Farnsworth. Dearborn Emerson, who had been It was then conducted as a temperance a driver of a stage-coach, as well as the house, at that time considered owner of a line. He remained in great innovation on former customs. possession of it for a few years. 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. a In the list of innholders, near the end of Isaiah Thomas's Almanack, for 1785, appears the name of Kichardson, 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 During the War of 1812 it was an inn of local renown; and a Lieutenant Chase had his headquarters here for a while, when recruiting for the army. He raised a company in the neighborhood, which was ordered to Sackett's Harbor, near the foot of Lake Ontario. The men were put into uniforms as they enlisted, and drilled daily. They were in the habit of marching through the village streets to the music of the spirit-stirring drum and the ear-piercing fife; and occasionally they were invited into the yard of some hospitable citizen, who would treat them to "the cups that cheer but not inebriate," when taken in moderation. William Kemp was the drummer, and Wilder Shepley the fifer, both noted musicians in their day. Sometimes his brother, Moses Kemp, would act as fifer. William is still alive, at the advanced agè of nearly ninety-five years, and gives many reminiscences of that period. He was born at Groton on May 8, 1789, and [began to drum in early boyhood. His first appearance in the public ser vice was during the year 1805, as drummer of the South Company of Groton, commanded by Luther Lawrence, after |