It has been said that there is nothing contrived by man which has
produced so much happiness as a good tavern. Without granting or denying
the statement, all will agree that many good times have been passed
around the cheerful hearth of the old-fashioned inn.

The earliest tavern in Groton, of which there is any record or
tradition, was kept by Samuel Bowers, Jr., in the house lately and for a
long time occupied by the Champney family. Mr. Bowers was born in Groton
on December 21, 1711, and, according to his tombstone, died on "the
Sixteenth Day of December Anno Domini 1768. Half a hour after Three of
the Clock in ye Afternoon, and in the Fifty Eight year of his age." He
kept the house during many years, and was known in the neighborhood as
"land'urd Bowers,"--the innkeeper of that period being generally
addressed by the title of landlord. I do not know who succeeded him in
his useful and important functions.

The next tavern of which I have any knowledge was the one kept by
Captain Jonathan Keep, during the latter part of the Revolution. In The
Independent Chronicle (Boston), February 15, 1781, the Committee of the
General Court for the sale of confiscated property in Middlesex County,
advertise the estate of Dr. Joseph Adams, of Townsend, to be sold "at
Mr. Keep's, innholder in Groton." This tavern has now been kept as an
inn during more than a century. It was originally built for a
dwelling-house, and, before the Revolution, occupied by the Reverend
Samuel Dana; though since that time it has been lengthened in front and
otherwise considerably enlarged. Captain Keep was followed by the
brothers Isaiah and Joseph Hall, who were the landlords as early as the
year 1798. They were succeeded in 1825 by Joseph Hoar, who had just sold