The Worcester and Nashua Railroad was opened through the township of Groton in the month of December, 1848.  It ran at that time a distance of eight miles through its territory, keeping on the east side of the Nashua river, which for a considerable part of the way was the dividing line between Groton and Pepperell.  The railroad station for the people of Pepperell was on the Groton side of the river, and in the course of a few years a small village sprang up in the neighborhood.  All the interests and sympathies of this little settlement were with Pepperell; and under these circumstances the Legislature, on May 18, 1857, passed an act of annexation, by which it became in reality what it was in sentiment,—­a part and parcel of that town.  The first section of the act is as follows:—­

     An act to set off a part of the Town of Groton, and annex the same
     to the Town of Pepperell.

     Be it enacted, &c., as follows: 

All that part of the town of Groton, in the county of Middlesex, with the inhabitants thereon, lying north of the following described line is hereby set off from the town of Groton, and annexed to the town of Pepperell, to wit:  Beginning at the boundary between said town of Groton and the town of Dunstable, at a stone monument in the wall on land of Elbridge Chapman and land of Joseph Sanderson, and running south, eighty-six degrees west, about six hundred and sixty rods, to a stone monument at the corner of land called the “Job Shattuck Farm,” and land of James Hobart, near the Nashua River and Worcester and Nashua Railroad; thence in same line to the centre of Nashua River and the boundary of said town of Pepperell:  provided, however, that for the purpose of electing a representative to the general court, the said territory shall continue to be a part of the town of Groton, until a new apportionment for representatives is made; and the inhabitants resident therein shall be entitled to vote in the choice of such representatives, and shall be eligible to the office of representative in the town of Groton, in the same manner as if this act had not been passed.

[Illustration:  Map of Groton Plantation in 1884]

The latest legislation connected with the dismemberment of the original grant—­and perhaps the last for many years to come—­is the Act of February 14, 1871, by which the town of Ayer was incorporated.  This enactment took from Groton a large section of territory lying near its southern borders, and from Shirley all that part of the town on the easterly side of the Nashua River which was annexed to it from Groton on February 6, 1798.

Thus has the old Groton Plantation, during a period of more than two centuries, been hewed and hacked down to less than one-half of its original dimensions.  It has furnished, substantially, the entire territory of Pepperell, Shirley, and Ayer, and has contributed more or less largely to form five other towns.  An examination of the accompanying map will show these changes more clearly than any verbal or written description.