Groton Town Hall is located at 101 Conger Boulevard, Groton NY 13073.
Phone: 607‑898‑5035.
Beginnings [1]
The Town of Groton was created on April 7, 1817 when the Town of Locke was divided in two. The southern (Groton) half was named Town of Division while the northern half retained the Town of Locke designation. The new Town of Division measured ten miles from east to west and five miles from south to north.
Ten days later on April 17, 1817 the newly created town became one of the original six towns that comprised the newly establish Tompkins County.
About a year after its creation residents of the new municipality petitioned to have the name changed to Town of Groton. The original settlers who had arrived in 1797 were from New England, and by 1817 many more settlers had arrived from New England. History is not clear whether the Town was named for Groton, Massachusetts or Groton, Connecticut.
Prior to the arrival of European Americans the area that encompasses the contemporary Town of Groton straddled the boundary between the Cayuga and Onondaga nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. The border ran roughly north and south, through present day Freeville in the town of Dryden, thence north along the Owasco Inlet. Being on the frontier between the two nations, the land was not subject to permanent settlement by either the Cayuga or Onondaga. Rather, it apparently served as hunting grounds. Vestiges of one or more temporary hunting camps have been found in the vicinity of the NYS Rte. 38/Peruville Road intersection.
According to M. M. Baldwin, author of The Beginnings of Groton in 1868, the first European American settlers were probably John and Hephzibah Perrin, Ezra Carpenter and Ebenezer Williams. They settled on Military Lot 75 in the Town of Locke. After wintering over they were joined by John Perrin's father Lemuel and others. More families, with names such as Atwood, Avery, Bennett, Branch, Crittenden, Hathaway, Ingalls, Loomis, Morton and Stuart, migrated into the area from New England and Pennsylvania.