I love the history of the Andover, Mass. area. It is a big part of my family history. My mother was a Farnum. Farnum road in Andover is named for my family. My grandfather (10) Ralph Farnum Sr. and wife Alice came to the colonies in 1635 aboard the brig James. The Farnum family settled in Andover, Mass. and lived there until William Farnum moved the family to Windham county Vermont in 1826.
Members of my family had a role in the Salem witch trials. Despite being generally known as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in a variety of towns across the province: Salem Village, Ipswich, Andover and Salem town.
Ralph Farnum Jr., was a grand juryman for the beginning of the hearings in 1692, but died before rendering service. Ralph III and his brother John were summoned on July 30, 1692 to appear as witnesses against Martha Carrier of Andover who was tried for witchcraft and who was hanged August 19, 1692.
My family kept a lot of records and even some artifacts from the Andover days. I have the text of a letter written by one of the Farnum’s who experienced the family trouble during the witch trial period. It was difficult on some of the accusers also. Ralph and his brother were “forced” to testify at two witchcraft trials according to the family letter…….“In 1692, our Farnum’s cup adds Martha Carrier's tragic death, and Eunice Frye late awhile in jail with he, Elizabeth's cousins, Ralph and John Farnum, being dragged forward as accusers. Uncle Ralph dies in all this trouble, and Elizabeth, at thirty-two, takes young James Johnson of twenty, while Mehitabel, only fifteen, unites his brother Peters' strong arms in a long pull together.”
Ralph Farnum V was born on June 20, 1756 in Andover. The Rev. Amos Main baptized him on September 5th. He enlisted May 15, 1775, in Capt. Philip Hubbard's Co. of Col. James Scammon's Reg't. This regiment was stationed on Bunker Hill on the ever memorable June 17, 1775. In 1860 he visited Boston after Senator Charles Sumner, in a speech delivered in Boston, said that the last survivor of the Battle of Bunker Hill was dead. Ralph showed up on his door to prove him wrong. But the statement of Senator Sumner was soon literally true. Ralph Farnum died Dec 9, 1860, aged 104 years. He was the last living survivor of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
This is a family picture of Ralph V. He was quite a man and had a great sense of humor according to passed down family history.
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