The Press., 1894-12-27
AN INTERESTING DOCUMENT.

AN INTERESTING DOCUMENT.
 The deed on record in the town clerks office in Stafford, copy of which is print ed below, has many features to interest, not alone the antiquarian, but every one who reads it. Dr. (afterwards General) Warren, whose name is given as the pur- chaser, was one of the patriots of the rev olution. He was prominent in the coun- cils of the patriots, and an active pro- moter of success at the battle of Lexing- ton. He was offered the command at Bunker Hill, but declined as he had op- posed the plan of fortifying and occupying the ground, but he fought in the ranks, nevertheless, as volunteer and was kill ed as he was, among the last, leaving the field. He was a physician of note, who had tested the springs, and believed in the health-giving properties. It was no doubt by his advice that President Adams came here to seek and find restoration of health. It is not unlikely that he first learned of Stafford through acquaintance
 
 the Stafford pastor, or with his brother, President Joseph Willard, of Harvard college.
 The price named in the deed, 910O, is i, large sum to have been paid in those days for some six acres of nearly unproductive land, as it then was, a steep, rocky side. hill, with small section of marsh, the latter few years since, at great expense, converted into fine moving land. Hence, we must infer that the greater part O. this money represented what was then considered by the eminent physician the intrinsic value of the spring, located, as it then was, far from any village.
 Dr. Warren probably never carried out any part of his plan for the development of the springs as health resort. The shadows of the coming revolution were already over the land, and the young pa triot Gin 1766 he was % years of age) be. came engrossed in the struggle for liber- ty. It was left for Dr. Willard (son of Rev. John) in 1901 to renew the idea of building a hotel at the Springs.
 | The circumstances have been given ir Rev. MT. Hammond's letter of the burn. ing of Dr. Willard's store on Stafford Street (present site of the Clark H. Gran, store building) in 1901, the doctor and 8 clerk (Miner Grant, barely escaping alive and another clerk, Augustus Miller, per. ishing in the flames, which event led tc Dr. Willard's disposing of his business tc Miner Grant, and building the Stafford Springs House, which was ready for busi ness in the summer of 1905.
 How great an enterprise the building O such house at that day was, we can not now fully appreciate. The Springs House as then built was far in advance o hotels in country towns, and few provincial cities boasted better ones, even before it enlargement, some ten years later.
 The following is the deed given to Dr
 Warren:
 To all People to whom these present. shall come-Greeting Know ye, that
 William Orcutt, J'n'r, of Stafford, in tn County of Hartford and Colony of Con necticut, in New England, Wheel-wright Do for and in consideration of One Hun dred Pounds money to me in hand pait by Doctor Joseph Warren, of Boston, il the County of Suffolk and Province o the Massachusetts Bay, in New England
 Physician, the receipt whereof do here
 by acknowledge, and myself therewitl
 fully satisfied and contented, and thereo and every point thereof, Do Exonerate acquit, and discharge the said Josep | Hair md Accirrn fnr x,n by these presents, Have given, granted bargained, sold, conveyed and confirmed
 and by these Presents Do fully and absC lutely Give, grant, bargain, sell, conve and confirm unto him, the said Josep ) Warren, his heirs, executors, administra
 tors, and assigns forever Two certain pal
 cells of land lying in said Stafford, in tn
 Southernmost part of said Town, BounC ing on the Highway which leads from sai Stafford to Holland, and nigh to or abou n twenty-five rods from the Noted Miners
 Spring, now owned by the said Williar ] Orcutt. The First Piece of said Ian = lieth on the East side of the Highwa g aforesaid, Butted and bounded as follows f Beginning at stake and heap of stone
 by the Highway, then the line runs eas 29 deg's; South, eight rods to a stalk 5 and heap of stones in said Orcutt's Eas
 line, about 26 rods South from a whit f oak tree, it being said Orcutt's Mort
 corner. Then the line runs south 28 deg's west, forty rods to d stake and heap r stones; thence west 29 deg's; Nortl | twenty rods to stake and heap of stone
 standing by the Highway; thence by u , Highway, as it runs about forty two roc u to the first mentioned bound, containir D by estimation about three acres, be tl u same more or less.
 The Other Piece of said land lieth ( T. the Northwest of said Highway, almo i opposite to the first piece, Bounded follows: Beginning at a stake and he; " of stones nigh to a Poplar tree, abo IL four rods from the upland and about t, 'i rods from the banks of the River; them y the line runs south g deg's; west, s J. rods to a stake and heap of stones; then
 the line runs east g deg's; south, to u 10 aforesaid Highway; thence by the hig N way six rods to a stake aud heap
 stones; then West 22 deg's; North, l. the first mentioned bound. All said Ian {. together with Spring of water with , f said bounds, be the same more or less Likewise, do by these presents, giv 'e grant, bargain, sell, convey and confir Q unto him, the said Joseph Warren, his C ,r der, his heirs, Executors, Administrator ol or Asslgns forever, the full, free and a '' solute privilege, without let or molest le tion from me, or any under me, from II r. heirs, executors, administrators, or A le signs, of passing to and from the aforesa Noted Mineral Spring in my land that Us nigh to the said Highway, ard of drin le ing, carrying away, using said water a
 improving said water at the said Sprir AT-A1s @e