The letter of the acting first assistant postmaster-general, printed above, supplements the account in Butler’s History of Groton (pages 249-251).  According to Mr. Butler’s statement, the post-office was established on.  September 29, 1800, and the Honorable Samuel Dana was appointed the first postmaster.  No mail, however, was delivered at the office until the last week in November.  For a while it came to Groton by the way of Leominster, certainly a very indirect route.  This fact appears from a letter written to Judge Dana, by the Postmaster-General, under date of December 18, 1800, apparently in answer to a request to have the mail brought directly from Boston.  In this communication the writer says:—­

It appears to me, that the arrangement which has been made for carrying the mail to Groton is sufficient for the accommodation of the inhabitants, as it gives them the opportunity of receiving their letters regularly, and with despatch, once a week.  The route from Boston, by Leominster, to Groton is only twenty miles farther than by the direct route, and the delay of half a day, which is occasioned thereby, is not of much consequence to the inhabitants of Groton.  If it should prove that Groton produces as much postage as Lancaster and Leominster, the new contract for carrying the mail, which is to be in operation on the first of October next, will be made by 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