FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, November 2025 – Carol Ganz.
We have no records to tell us what the residents of North Groton were doing in November (or December) of 1725, but it seems likely they were talking about how to set up their new society, where to place the meetinghouse and where to meet until it could be built. Volunteers to host Sunday services would need to be able to accommodate a large gathering, one that would stay all day, because there were usually long morning AND afternoon services in those days.
In the meantime, cold weather was setting in and food for the winter needed to be stored. Fortunately for us, Joshua Hempstead of New London was keeping a detailed daily diary, which can give us a flavor of what must have been going on. While he was involved in more facets of town life than most, he was getting in wood, slaughtering livestock, gathering animals in from their summer pastures, and travelling to numerous locations in the process. He went by foot, by horseback and sometimes by boat across the river or along the coast to Stonington.
Hempstead’s writing was often abbreviated, and he noted almost every Sunday “Mr ad. pr. al d.” Mr. Adams was the pastor in New London at the time and, like other preachers, preached all day. Friday, November 5, was stormy, with rain, hail and snow, so Joshua stayed at home mending a wheel. On the eighth, he went to Norwich alone in his whaleboat, transporting some goods for people and doing some business, then stayed overnight. He came back the next day, staying overnight at Ralph Stoddard’s on the way.
During the services on Sunday November 14, a collection was taken for a Canterbury woman “tht had 3 Children at a Birth & all Living.” Babies were baptized, young couples “published,” making public their plan to marry, and deaths were noted. During the month of November Joshua unloaded salt hay, fenced hay stacks and the cow yard, slaughtered a calf, two sows and two hogs, brought in three loads of walnut, and worked on the highway. He purchased from a Mr. Hartshorn ten pairs of [blank] gravestones of various sizes, some of which he carved in early December for specific clients. He agreed to pay in wool (100 pounds). Families in North Groton were probably engaged in similar activities. Many would spend a lot of time farming, and individuals often had some kind of special skill they could use to barter for goods like Joshua did with his gravestones.
Much of that month was apparently fair weather, with just a few days of rain or mist, but Friday the 26th was cloudy and snowy and the next day he estimated three inches of snow. Winter was coming.