When Groton was first settled in 1655, clashes with Native Americans were frequent and brutal. When most buildings were burned during a March 1676 assault, Groton was abandoned for safer ground. With true determination, settlers returned two years later to rebuild their village. From that day forward, Groton continued to grow in population, industry, and community engagement. In 1869, resident George S. Boutwell served as secretary of the treasury under Pres. Ulysses S. Grant and hosted a reception for the president when he visited Groton. During the town's industrial development in the last half of the 19th century, the Groton Leatherboard Company was established along the banks of the Squannacook River in West Groton. Lawrence Academy and Groton School have educated students since the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively. Continuing Groton's tradition of offering quality education, the Lowthorpe School was founded in 1901 as the first landscape architecture school devoted to training only women. Despite all the changes that invariably altered the landscape and the infrastructure, Groton remains, in a sense, the same as it began: a town striving for self-sufficiency and success but also dedicated to shaping the world around it.