Concord and Groton to Walpole, and a branch from Concord to Marlborough.
I am, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, JOS. HABERSHAM.The amount of postage received from the office, after deducting the necessary expenses, including the postmaster's salary, was, for the first year after its establishment, about twelve dollars, or three dollars for three months. In the year 1802 it was thirty-six dollars, or nine dollars for three months, a large proportional increase. At this time the mail came once a week only, and was brought by the stage-coach.
Samuel Dana, the first postmaster, was a prominent lawyer at the time of his appointment. He was the son of the Reverend Samuel Dana, of Groton, and born in this town, June 26, 1767. He occupied a high position in the community, and exerted a wide influence in the neighborhood. At a later period he was president of the Massachusetts Senate, a member of Congress, and finally chief-justice of the circuit court of common pleas. He died at Charlestown, on November 20, 1835.
Judge Dana kept the post-office in his own office, which was in the same building as that of the Honorable Timothy Bigelow, another noted lawyer. These eminent men were on opposite sides of the same entry; and they were generally on opposite sides of all important cases in the northern part of Middlesex County. The building stood on the site of Governor Boutwell's house, and is still remembered as the medical office of the venerable Dr. Amos Bancroft. It was afterward moved away, and now stands near the railway-station, where it is occupied as a dwelling-house. Judge Dana held the office during four years, and he was succeeded by William M. Richardson, Esq., afterward the chief-justice of the superior court of New Hampshire. Mr. Richardson was a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1797, and at the time of his appointment as postmaster had recently finished his professional studies in Groton, under the guidance of Judge Dana. After his admission to the bar, Mr. Richardson entered into partnership with his former instructor, succeeding him as postmaster in July, 1804; and the office was still kept in the same building. During Judge Richardson's term, the net revenue to the department rose from nine dollars to about twenty-eight dollars for three months. He held the position nearly eight years, and was followed by Abraham Moore, who was commissioned on January 31, 1812.
Mr. Moore was a native of Bolton, Massachusetts, where he was born on January 5, 1785. He graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1806, and studied law at Groton with the Honorable Timothy Bigelow, and after his admission to the bar settled here as a lawyer. His office was on the site of the north end of Gerrish's block, and it was here that the post-office was kept. During his administration the average income from the office was about thirty-three dollars, for the quarter. In the summer of 1815, Mr. Moore resigned the position and removed to Boston.
Eliphalet Wheeler, who kept the store now occupied by Mr. Gerrish, was appointed in Mr. Moore's stead, and the post-office was transferred to his place of business. He, however, was not commissioned, owing, it is thought, to his political views; and Major James Lewis, who was sound in his politics, received the appointment in his stead.
