About the year 1826, General Thomas A. Staples built and kept a store on Main Street, directly north of the Union Church. He was followed successively by Benjamin Franklin Lawrence, Henry Hill, and Walter Shattuck. The building was burned down about ten years ago, and its site is now occupied by Dr. David R. Steere's house. In the year 1847 a large building was moved from Hollis Street to the corner of Main and Court Streets. It was put up originally as a meeting-house for the Second Adventists, or Millerites as they were called in this neighborhood, after William Miller, one of the founders of the sect; but after it was taken to the new site, it was fitted up in a commodious manner, with shops in the basement and a spacious hall in the second story. The building was known as Liberty Hall, and formed a conspicuous structure in the village. The post-office was kept in it, while Mr. Lothrop and Mr. Andruss were the postmasters. It was used as a shoe shop, a grocery, and a bakery, when, on Sunday, March 31, 1878, it was burned to the ground. The brick store, owned by the Dix family, was built and kept by Aaron Brown, near the beginning of the century. He was followed by Moses Parker, and after him came ---- and Merriam, and then Benjamin P. Dix. It is situated at the corner of Main Street and Broad-Meadow Road, and now used as a dwelling-house. A very good engraving of this building is given in The Groton Herald, May 8, 1830, which is called by persons who remember it at that time a faithful representation, though it has since undergone some changes. Near the end of the last century, Major William Swan traded in the house now occupied by Charles Woolley, Jr., north of the Common near the old burying-ground. It was Major Swan who set out the elm-trees in front of this house, which was the Reverend Dr. Chaplin's dwelling for many years. Two daughters of Isaac Bowers, a son of Landlord Bowers, had a dry-goods shop in the house owned and occupied by the late Samuel W. Rowe, Esq. About the year 1825, Walter Shattuck opened a store in the building originally intended for the Presbyterian Church, opposite to the present entrance of the Groton Cemetery. There was formerly a store kept by one Mr. Lewis, near the site of Captain Asa Stillman Lawrence's house, north of the Town Hall. There was a trader in town, Thomas Sackville Tufton by name, who died in the year 1778, though I do not know the site of his shop. Captain Samuel Ward, a native of Worcester, and an officer in the French and Indian War, was engaged in business at Groton some time before the Revolution. He removed to Lancaster, where at one time he was town-clerk, and died there on August 14, 1826.