Old Postcard Greeting from Groton NH. Property of J.W. Brown.
Groton is a small, bucolic town in Grafton County New Hampshire that includes the village of North Groton. Groton had about 250+ permanent residents during the WWI era (ranging from 319 people in 1910 to 199 by 1920). Of these less than 2% percentage of their population was sent to service (this was not unusual among the smallest towns, and really the majority of NH towns provided the same amount). Not all the young men who left for military service would return–Napoleon Houle and Fred Arthur Marshall being two.
My personal thanks to Elizabeth Jesperson of the Groton Cemetery Committee, and Kathy Sobetzer of the Groton Historical Society for going above and beyond to help me to write this article. In addition Elizabeth graciously provided some of the photographs you see here. Continue reading
