The Extraordinary Lives of Two Ordinary 18th Century Grotonians

This photo of Peter Hazzard and his wife Roselle was colorized by the Groton Herald. Peter saved young Amos Lawrence from drowning and was later given a farm in thanks. Peter was “a most respectable man, who was as regularly in a seat in one of the wall-pews” at church. Their son Adrastus, served in the Civil War in the famed Massachusetts 54th and died in the Battery Wagner campaign in 1865. Peter was adept on the violin, to whose music in olden times ‘they shook the light fantastic toe.’ Peter lived to the age of 101. Read it all in Joshua Vollmar’s story below. Photo from Groton History Center archives.