Another Carriage drives from Richardson's tavern in Groton, on Monday in each week, at six o'clock in the morning, and passing by Richardson's tavern in Concord at ten o'clock in the forenoon, arrives at Charlestown at three o'clock in the afternoon. From Charlestown it drives on Tuesday and Thursday in each week, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and returns back as far as Richardson's tavern in Concord—and from that place it starts at 8 o'clock in the mornings, of Wednesday and Friday, and runs again to Charlestown. From there it moves at six o'clock on Saturday morning, and returns to Richardson's tavern in Groton, in the evening of the same day.
It was probably one of these "Carriages" to which allusion is made in Mr. Winthrop's Memoir of the Honorable Nathan Appleton,[Footnote: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, v, 249, 250.] as follows:—
At early dusk on some October or November evening, in the year
1794, a fresh, vigorous, bright-eyed lad, just turned of
fifteen, might have been seen alighting from a stage-coach near
Quaker Lane,[Footnote: Now Congress Street.] as it was then
called, in the old town of Boston. He had been two days on the
road from his home in the town of New Ipswich, in the State of
New Hampshire. On the last of the two days, the stage-coach had
brought him all the way from Groton in Massachusetts; starting
for that purpose early in the morning, stopping at Concord for
the passengers to dine, trundling them through Charlestown
about the time the evening lamps were lighted, and finishing
the whole distance of rather more than thirty miles in season
for supper. For his first day's journey, there had been no such
eligible and expeditious conveyance. The Boston stage-coach, in
those days, went no farther than Groton in that direction. His
father's farm-horse, or perhaps that of one of the neighbors,
had served his turn for the first six or seven miles; his
little brother of ten years old having followed him as far as
Townsend, to ride the horse home again. But from there he had
trudged along to Groton on foot, with a bundle-handkerchief in
his hand, which contained all the wearing apparel he had,
except what was on his back.
It has been said that the first public conveyance between Boston and Groton was a covered wagon, hung on chains for thoroughbraces: perhaps it was the "Charlestown Carriage," mentioned in the advertisement. It was owned and driven by Lemuel Lakin, but after a few years the owner sold out to Dearborn Emerson.
The following advertisement from The Columbian Centinel, June 25, 1800, will give a notion of what an undertaking a trip to Boston was, at the beginning of the century:—
GROTON STAGE.
The subscriber respectfully informs the public that he drives
the Stage from Boston to Groton, running through
Lexington, Concord, and Littleton, to Groton: Starts from
Boston every Wednesday morning, at 5 o'clock, and arrives
at Groton the same day; Starts from Groton every Monday morning, at 7 o'clock, and arrives at Boston the same day at
4 o'clock. Passage through, 2 dols. per mile, 4d.
DANBORN EMERSON.
Seats taken at Mr. SILAS DUTTON'S in Royal Exchange Lane.
Newspapers supplied on the road, and every attention paid to
conveyances.
The given name of Emerson was Dearborn, and not "Danborn," which is a misprint. Two years later he was running a stage-coach from Groton to New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and on the first return trip he brought three passengers,—according to the History of New Ipswich (page 129). Emerson was a noted driver in his day; and he is mentioned, with pleasant recollections, by the Honorable Abbott Lawrence, in an after-dinner speech at the jubilee of Lawrence Academy, on July 12, 1854. Subsequently he was the landlord of one of the local taverns.
It is advertised in The Massachusetts Register, for the year 1802, that the
GROTON Stage sets off from J. and S. Wheelock's [Indian Queen
Inn], No. 37 Marlboro-Street [now a part of Washington Street,
Boston], every Wednesday at 4 o'clock in the morning, and
arrives at Groton at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, same day;
leaves Groton every Monday at 4 o'clock in the morning, and
arrives in Boston at 6 o'clock in the afternoon, same day.
(Pages 19, 20.)
It seems from this notice that it took three hours longer to make the trip down to Boston than up to Groton,—of which the explanation is not clear. In the Register for 1803 a semi-weekly line is advertised, and the same length of time is given for making the trip each way.