Robert Austin Avery

"Early in life, he became deeply interested in religious matters and was baptized into the church by the Rev. Roswell Burrows (No. 699) . By reason of his exemplary, godly life, he was chosen deacon of the Fort Hill Baptist Church at the age of twenty-eight. He was the real founder of the Groton Bank (now Groton Heights) Baptist Church, organized in 1843. He was its senior deacon until he passed over from the church militant to the church triumphant. He spent the greater part of his life as a farmer, occupying the historic home that had descended to him from James^ Avery. A lover of his country and as uncompromising in his politics as in his religion, he was universally esteemed as a citizen and deeply loved by those who knew him best."

THE GROTON AVERY CLAN, Vol. I, by Elroy McKendree Avery and Catherine Hitchcock (Tilden) Avery, Cleveland, 1912. p. 382, 393, 632