Features

This photo of Peter Hazzard and his wife Roselle was colorized by the Groton Herald. Peter saved young Amos Lawrence from drowning and was later given a farm in thanks. Peter was “a most respectable man, who was as regularly in a seat in one of the wall-pews” at church. Their son Adrastus, served in the Civil War in the famed Massachusetts 54th and died in the Battery Wagner campaign in 1865. Peter was adept on the violin, to whose music in olden times ‘they shook the light fantastic toe.’ Peter lived to the age of 101. Read it all in Joshua Vollmar’s story below. Photo from Groton History Center archives.

A spell of very cold weather without snowfall opened Groton’s lakes and portions of its rivers for ice fishing, skating, and socializing outside. All across town open expanses of solid ice and Covid-induced cabin fever lured many out to enjoy the bracing winter air, appreciating the freedom to explore areas that are usually only accessible by boat, having a good reason to be out of the house and socialize. This photo, a traditional Groton winter scene of many years, was taken from the park in the Square in West Groton looking on to the pond created by the West Groton Dam. The Carver’s Guild buildings are in the background.