Homegrown

         Foods from home were plentiful in 1845 as the people prepared for Thanksgiving, which was only two weeks before Mary Ferrin and Jesse Upton were married in the Kingdom.

 

        Local farmers produced all kinds of vegetables, including a good deal of corn and an enormous crop of onions, nearly 120,000 bushels a year!   Many farmers kept oxen and raised some fine flocks of turkeys.  

        "Up to 1870, one could find Danvers farmers at Thanksgiving time around the Market House in Salem with their turkeys for sale.  On Saturdays the farmers came from the surrounding towns with all kinds of produce.  In order to show what they had to sell, they would have a forked stick on the side of the wagon with a sample of the vegetables stuck on the end of  it," reported William L. Hyde in "Reminiscences of Danvers in the Forties and Fifties".

The Derby Square market, as seen from Front Street, circa late 1800s.
Courtesy Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum

        The Kings were largely farmers.  We know some of their culture from Hannah Goodale King, wife of Samuel King.  In a December 20, 1849 letter to her son, Eben, she reports:

Dear Son, my time has been so much taken up of late that I have not had an                        opportunity of writing to you and now it is almost 9 o’clock.   James has a bad                    cold and cough but I think he will soon be better.  Mr. Ferren has had another                    attack of disenterry and sore mouth but he seems to be getting better.  The                        new house [being built in the Kingdom for Henry and Asenath Ferrin King] is                almost done. They are painting the inside. The wood work is graining and the                wall is light green. I mean in the kitchen. I think they will not paper much this                   winter.  I believe James has a hundred barrels of onions now in the cellar.  They            said it seems quite homeish.   I think they will move next month.  Michael has                    got him a place up in Middletown at the depot at $9 per month to saw wood                        and keep the water from freezing...."

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4b/73/d0/4b73d0696fa7004cc287561be4ee4451.jpg

        The principal crop raised in Danvers for the market at that time was onions; they were grown  from Maple street west to Hog Hill , and then to the Gardner farm  in Salem, as well as the area between the Waters River and Andover Street.  "Nearly every family from Hutchinson's corner to Wilson's corner was engaged in the cultivation of this vegetable," wrote Hyde.

        "It was a great deal of work to get the very large crop of onions ready for the market.  The large part of this crop was sold at wholesale in the Boston market and had to be hauled over the road, very few going by railroad.  The usual custom was to dry them thoroughly in the field and then haul them under cover, making three assortments of them.  The large ones were topped close to the onion.  The tops on the medium sizes were left on and were braided on rye straw, shoe thread being used for this purpose.  This work was largely done by female help, five or six hundred bunches being a good day's work, and they were paid so much per hundred and earned good wages.  The small ones were use for pickles.  The custom of bunching is now nearly if not quite obsolete.  

        "The large onions were loaded in bulk into wagons that were set on axles,  The one horse loads contained forty to fifty bushels, or about eight hundred bunches.  The drivers started at midnight, getting into Boston at daylight, paying toll on the turnpike.  Sometimes fifteen or twenty loads would be in line.  It was not an unusual sight to see thirty or forty loads standing at the lower end of Quincy Market house and way down on both sides of Commercial street.  At that time Massachusetts and Connecticut supplied all New England and the provinces.

        "The hired help on the farm came from States of Maine and New Hampshire and the Provinces, and was exceedingly good.  The usual custom was to hire the men rom March 1st to November 1st, eight months.  Wages would be seven or eight dollar a month for the first season, the men often times working for the same parties a number of seasons."

Making the Past Present: All in the family.

Eleanor and John Upton spent their lives in the area of Wood Hill in western Danvers along the Ipswich River in Reading.  Their children remained in the area for generations, marrying into nearby families:  Goodell, Phelps, Flint,  Gardner,  Putnam are but a few.

Click on the map for access.  Samuel & William Upton, 109, Quadrant 3

"On the map of Salem Village in 1692, prefixed to Upham's "Salem Witchcraft," the point designated as the probable site of the house of William and Samuel Upton is in fact the site of the old colonial cemetery where many Uptons lie buried.  The house, occupied until 1849 by descendants of the emigrant's son Samuel Upton, and which, there is no reason to doubt, nearly marked the site of his own dwelling, was on the south side of Wood Hill, near the top, and about one-third of a mile from the forks in the Gardner Road.  The Wood Hill estate was situated on or embraced at least part of a low hill anciently known on "the Wood Hill," but now called Upton Hill, in the westerly part of the present town of Peabody, near the Lynnfield and Middleton boundaries, the three towns coming together at a point not far from the farm.  It is one mile south of the Ipswich River, about a mile west of Bald Hill, and not far from the paper mill in Middleton.  Twenty acres added to the west half of it in 1741 brought it to the line of the present town of Lynnfield.  It was in the south-west corner of a part of Salem which was long known as "the Village," "the Farms," or "Salem Village," and which was erected into a parish known as Salem Farms or Salem Village in Oct. 1672.  Danvers, incorporated as a district Jan. 1752, and as a town June 1757, included the Middle Precinct or Third Parish of Salem.  The Middle Precinct was established in 1710, called the South Parish after 1757, became the town of South Danvers in 1855, and changed its name to Peabody in 1868.  A large section of the north-west part of Peabody, including Wood Hill, was part of the original parish of Salem Village."

Mary's grandparents, Ezra and Mehitabel Goodell, kept the tavern farm during the time of the Revolution.  When he died in 1787, Ezra appointed Mehitabel as "adminstratrix"  of the estate and gave it jointly to her and his son, Jesse (Mary Upton Ferrin's father.) 

The joint ownership held even after Mehitabel married Daniel Putnam and, when he passed, married his brother, Joseph - who died in 1818, at about the same time Jesse left for Indiana.  

The tavern was conducted as late as 1819, and probably much later.
Dr. William Bentley, in his Journal, mentions dining there occasionally during the thirty-six years that he resided in Salem. June 2, 1810, (two months after the birth of Mary Upton Ferrin) he wrote: "Our first stop was at Upton's tavern in the point of Danvers between Lynnfield & Reading Precinct. We found the son upon the same spot in which I found the mother 30 years ago."

After Jesse's departure, it seems likely the immediate family remained at the tavern farm with Mehitabel and may have continued to live there after it was sold to David Upton, Ezra's brother.

Jesse Upton died in the winter of 1824, having devised the estate to three of his sons, Eben, Ezra and Jesse Upton - sons from his first marriage to Mary Upton. His will ignores his two sons and three daughters with his second wife, Elizabeth Wyman. The tavern farm, as it is called in the inventory of his estate, was then appraised at twenty-seven hundred dollars.

Mary's grandmother Mehitabel died in 1827. When David Upton died in 1836, the tavern farm remained in the family for another year.

David Upton Sr.'s daughters, Lucy, wife of Daniel Nutting of Gardiner, Me., and Phebe, wife of James W. North of Clinton, Me., released their interest in the estate to their brother, David Upton Jr. of Reading, Mass. He conveyed to his sister Martha's husband, Daniel Brown, Jr., yeoman, and to Daniel P. King, Esq., "a certain farm in Danvers, called the Tavern farm," etc., Dec. 7, 1837. It's a mystery where Mary and Elizabeth lived after the sale of the tavern farm. Mary's mother, Elizabeth, was alive in 1837. She was living in Petersham, Mass. in 1855 and died two years later. She is buried in Blackstone, Mass. Where was 27-year-old Mary living after the sale of the tavern farm in 1837 and before marrying Jesse Ferrin in 1845?

Imagining how Mary Upton met Jesse Ferrin.

             

                                    Eagle Corner, Washington & Main, southern Danvers, 1845

           Under the keen gaze of the large carved wooden eagle, high on a pole in the center of the southern village of Danvers, thirty-five year old Mary Upton walked toward her aunts’ confectionary shop.  The eagle - the spirit of the square, of the town, was planted to mark the spot where townsmen gathered before racing to the Battle of Lexington in 1775.  It had an eagle-eyed view of town life as it unfolded until 1835 when it was replaced with the Lexington Monument. 

                     

              Near the corner of Old Boston Road, Mary rushed past David Daniels’ shoe shop and a row of cherry trees to greet her friend, Grasshopper, the old gray horse who powered Oliver Poland’s sawmill.  She passed the Eagle engine house, the apothecary of Captain Sylvester Proctor, and Gunnison's village barber shop. There were boys spending pennies in Mrs. Blaney's candy store on the corner opposite the entrance to the Universalist Church.  They took their treasures home to the tenement houses of Dustin's Court across the street. 

Click here to view Mary's walk from Eagle Corner in 2020

       

                The Square, Collection of the Peabody Institute Library

           Mary deposited her letters at the ladies’ entrance to the Post Office and reviewed the public notices posted there.  She learned the town had provided expenses and a carriage to General Gideon Foster so he could attend the dedication services at Bunker Hill in the Spring.  She passed the public pump in the Square and the brook that used to be Dennison Wallis' mill pond.

As she approached the Misses Kings confectioners shop, she was met with the sweet, sassy smell of gingerbread – a welcoming aroma after the strong street smell of leather and animals.  There was only one customer in the shop, Jesse Ferrin, the grocer at Southwick & Ferrin’s.  She knew of him; his family lived half the year in Danvers and the other in Eaton, New Hampshire.  He was a familiar face at the Kings’ home since his sister, Wealthy, married James Putnam King, and, now a second sister, Asenath, was being courted by Henry King. 

It was an outing to Salem with her cousin, Phebe, and her husband, James North , that eventually brought the couple together .  Visiting from Maine, Phebe was intent on attending a whistling exhibition at the Salem Lyceum.   She invited Eben and Sally Upton  and insisted that Mary tag along.  When they arrived at the performance of “The Northern Whistler,” they discovered their seats were next to Mary’s cousin, James King, his wife, Wealthy, and her brother, Jesse Ferrin.  “There was little time to talk because the crowd soon showed their impatience by drumming their feet on the floor.  The noise overwhelmed the music of the orchestra, which consisted of one fiddle played by a white man.

“Edward Cuffy, the Great Northern Whistler, took the stage to thundering applause. There could be in his case no doubt of his African descent. He was a perfect specimen, except that he had unfortunately lost one eye, which only made his face more interesting.  On this occasion, it shone like a newly blacked boot.

             “Cuffy acknowledged the compliment by a polite bow and prepared to exhibit his introductory whistle.  To do this, he pursed up his ample lips until they presented the appearance of a projecting red tomato with a hole in the center from whence came forth the richest melody.  No wonder that the intelligent audience was electrified.  They shouted with delight, they clapped, they stamped, they threw up their caps, they cried encore and the laughed until they cried - such is the power of music.

        “All this time Cuffy stood bolt uprigh­­t, straight forward and continued his captivating whistle.  He had but one eye and from that part of the audience on his blind side, Jesse called out lustily for the light of his countenance on their side of the hall.  Obedient to his summons, Cuffy  turned half round and whispered at one half of the audience, by which movement he was unfortunately obliged to turn his back to the other half .  These now clamored for their rights and a general shout from all parts of the house of “this way”, “front.” Jesse yelled, “Open the other eye.”  Disconcerted, the whistler stood like a waving politician trying to please all sides, but satisfying none.”

When the applause died down, Mary, Jesse and other members of the crowd attempted to out whistle the great whistler himself.  It seemed as if fifty steam whistles and as many tomcats had opened their throats at once. When she stopped laughing enough to speak, she remarked to Jesse that she guessed the audience had not paid “to dear for their whistle.”   He agreed and called out for Cuffy to reappear, which he did and proceeded to whistle all variety from “Old Hundred” to “Yankee Doodle”. They laughed and hummed and left the Lyceum together before making their way to separate carriages.

As their relationship blossomed; Mary found herself visiting the Kingdom more often. When her cousin, Daniel, was home from Congress, the Kings and Jesse would come to Brookdale to visit.  Daniel and his wife, Sarah Flint, lived near Mary’s childhood home, the Upton tavern/farm, which was now owned by Mary’s uncle, David Upton. 

---

Masthead of the Danvers Courier

"H", 1849-1879, Thirty Years of Change, Scrapbook of newspaper clippings, Manuscript of the Peabody Historical Society

Vital Records of Danvers, Massachusetts.

Danvers Courier, April 1845

Petitions to the Board of Selectman of Danvers requesting expenses for Gideon Foster, 1843, Manuscript of the Danvers Archives.

Although the performance of The Northern Whistler occurred, I fabricated that it is where they met or that the Norths visited and attended.  And, also fabricated that Jesse made the comment.

Making the Past Present #8

Mary Upton Ferrin was 61 years old in 1871 when Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to address a House committee - delivering a speech about women's suffrage before the House Judiciary Committee. Mary petitioned the Massachusetts Judiciary Committee in the 1850s and would certainly have been interested in Woodhull's campaign.

Meet the first woman to run for president.

Washington, D.C. The Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives receiving a deputation of female suffragists, January 11th - a lady delegate reading her argument in favor of woman's voting, on the basis of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Constitutional Amendments
The image is one I have often seen - now I know the story behind it. 
Suffragette City

Celebrating Ernestine Rose at Rosh Hashanah and speaking out for voting rights and gender justice!

Ernestine Rose was a pioneer of woman's rights in New York at the same time that Mary Upton Ferrin was petitioning for women in Massachusetts. I like to believe that Mary attended the Woman's Rights conventions in Worcester in 1850 and 1851; however, in the "History of Woman Suffrage," Ferrin is credited with working solo and being unaware of the efforts of other woman activists. We know she did attend the Constitutional Convention of 1854 and promoted legal rights for women in Massachusetts.

Women's Suffrage Celebration Coalition of Massachusetts, Inc.

New York State passed the first married women's property law in the United States - all thanks to a fearless and persistent women’s rights activist, Ernestine Rose. This was not this suffragist’s first feminist campaign, nor her last. When Rose was 16, growing up in Poland as the daughter of a Rabbi, she refused to accept an arranged marriage and fought to retain her inheritance from her mother, successfully defending against a claim for damages in a secular court by the spurned suitor. She successfully sued for entry to Berlin despite anti-semitic immigration policies. Ernestine Rose immigrated to New York City in 1836, where 12 years of activism turned into one of the first victories of the women’s rights movement, when the Married Women’s Property Act was passed in 1848. Rose came to prominence at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1850 and 1851 with her terrific oratory skills. Three years later, Rose was elected president of the National Woman's Rights Convention and continued to have a prolific public speaking career across the country. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah we remember and uplift her legacy by speaking out for voting rights and gender justice across the Commonwealth and country!

Lucy Stoners & Bloomers

I attended a most interesting online talk today on "Picturing Political Power: Images in the Women's Suffrage Movement" with Professor Allison Lange.  Thank you Peabody Institute!  Lange's new book traces "ways that women's rights reformers and their opponents used images to define gender and power in the United States."

Several of the images she presented from the early woman's suffrage and anti-suffrage movements were new to me and will help in the effort to make Mary Upton Ferrin's past present.  Upton Ferrin's political activism spanned from 1848 to 1854, although she did later collect signatures for NAWSA after the Civil War.

We know she was a "Lucy Stoner" - perhaps we should envision Mary in bloomers as well?   Would she wear the shocking attire or would it get in the way of her petitioning?  Since she walked 400 miles through the years, bloomers would have been much more comfortable.

Anti-suffrage cartoons from 1851 used bloomer-clad, pipe-smoking, bulldog-owning women activists to mock the movement.  The cartoons depict what would happen if women gained power.

 

Woman's Emancipation, engraving, published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, August 1851. p 424.

Adama Weingartner, Bloomerism in Practice, Humbug's American Museum Series (1851) , plate 17.

If Mary was a supporter of dress reform, she may have  also been interested in the work of Mary Gove Nichols (1810-1884) in nearby Lynn.  In March 1838, she lectured on Anatomy at the Lynn Society of Friends.  She was the same age as Mary Ferrin.  Read Gove's Lectures to Ladies on Anatomy and Physiology.

In 1847, a year before Mary Ferrin left her marriage, Mary Gove Nichols was operating a successful hydropathic practice in New York City and had recently left her abusive husband, Hiram.  

Because she admitted to having left her husband, the state granted a "Legal Separation for Voluntary Abandonment," but this designation did not allow either Mary Gove or Hiram to remarry.  As a victim of abandonment, only the husband had the clear right to sue for divorce.  

Mary Gove's experience previews the road map Mary Upton Ferrin would follow out of her marriage.

What if your ancestors were not Puritans with ties to the Scottish throne and were radical Quaker lawbreakers instead?

This blog was started to share newly found details about the life of Mary Upton Ferrin, 1810-1881, Peabody's pioneering suffragist.  What motivated her politics to rebel at a time when women were powerless?  Who were the women, who by example, inspired her?  Surely, there would be evidence of other social movements: Abolitionism, Phrenology, Universalism?

I did not expect to find  an alternate ancestry that is patently not-Scottish,  began with a radical Gortonist/Quaker and ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Ferrin's  great-great-grandmother, Dame Eleanor Upton (1620-1655) 

The Upton Memorial published by James Adams Vinton in 1874 had been my definitive go-to for Upton genealogy, until recently.  Vinton placed  John Upton, the earliest Upton ancestor to come to America,  as a Scott exiled to work in Hammersmith (the Saugus Iron Works) following the victory of Oliver Cromwell.    Tradition reveals Eleanor, John's wife, to be related to the Stuart royal dynasty. 

And then, through the miracle of digitization,  the 1893 publication Upton Family Records: Being Genealogical Collections for an Upton Family History became available.  It is by William Henry Upton, a member of the Royal Society of Antiquarians of Ireland and of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.   He writes:

"John Upton was in New England before the Civil War (Cromwell) began, and his youth indicated that he was probably bound an apprentice during his minority...

"It seems superfluous for me to say I am convinced the emigrant was an Englishman, wrote William Upton.  "I have, after no small search, failed to learn that any Upton family ever lived in Scotland in any age."

Being identified as a "Scotchman" was  derogatory "owing to the many hundred Scotch prisoners sent to this country during and shortly after the civil war, and sold into bondage, our New England ancestors gradually came to use the word "Scotchman" colloquially, as equivalent to 'redemptioner,' or to designate any white man, whether Scotch, Irish or English, who began his colonial life bound to service; just as in our southern states, within our day (1893), the word 'nigger' was practically synonymous with 'slave,' notwithstanding the presence of many free blacks."

"A tradition, never very plausible, has been printed to the effect that John Upton was sold, about 1640, to pay for his passage, and purchased by an English woman who afterwards married him.  

"Another part of the tradition - that his wife was a landed proprietor before their marriage - will not seem incredible if it be ascertained that her name was Eleanor Tresler or Eleanor Phelps.  A tract of land, east of what afterwards became John Upton's Woodhill Estate, and apparently adjoining it - if, indeed, a part of it was not included in that estate as it was in later years - was sold in 1654 by Rev. Edward Norris  to Eleanor Tresler or Trusler, the aged widow of both Henry Phelps and Thomas Trusler, and the mother of another two of three daughters whose names are unknown. "

Eleanor's historical footprint is large in the area of West Peabody at Crystal Lake.  She was an outspoken Gortonist  and her family was later persecuted for hosting the earliest Quaker meetings - both here and when the family settled in Albemarle, North Carolina.

She was taken to court in April 1644, for saying, "our teacher Mr. Norris taught the people lies." At her trial in the Boston Court, Cassandra Southwick testified that Eleanor 'did question the government ever since she came.'  Eleanor was also quoted as declaring that 'there was no love in the church and that they were biters and devourers and that Mr. Norris said that men would change their judgment for a dish of meat."

Trusler died in 1655, and her sons Henry and Nicholas Phelps inherited her farm.  Nicholas was a "weak man, and one whose back was crooked."  He was fined forty shillings for entertaining Quakers and having the meeting at his house.  He was also fined for being a Quaker and for absenting himself from public worship.  Nicholas lost his half of the family farm due to his activism.  His half ownership was taken over by his brother Henry.

Here the story takes on a soap-opera aspect.  Read more about Hannah Baskel and the Phelps brothers here, page 34.  

"There may be within our Government about 100 or 120 negro slaves, and it may be as many Scots brought hither and sold for servants in the time of the war with Scotland, and most now married, and living here, and about half so many Irish brought hither at several times as servants."
- Gov. Simon Bradstreet, May 1680

In the next generation of Uptons, Eleanor's daughter and namesake followed her mother's example:

"I gladly preserve a tradition,  alike creditable to her and consistent with her husband's known opposition to religious persecutions, that during the Witchcraft delusion of 1692, 'Dame Eleanor Upton' denounced one of the Judges to his face."

Era of Expansion

Old Boston Road (Washington Street)

When the Upton tavern farm was sold in 1819, it was a time of deep economic recession - bank failures, unemployment, soup kitchens, and overcrowded debtors' prisons.  It was also a time of geographic expansion and many divisions among religious parties.  Were these the issues that prompted Jesse Upton's solo migration to the Ohio River in Indiana?  

Jesse's church, the First Baptist Church of Danvers was formed in 1781 and was marked with the true independence of the sect.  Founders early recognized "the evils of slavery and the bane of intemperance" and in 1793 its population increased from 37 to 50 members - continuing a majority of women members, including Elizabeth Upton.  

The church built a new meeting house in the 1820s. Dissensions arose from differences in theological opinions that resulted in the formation of the Universalist Society in Danvers. It included several abolitionists and liberal minded citizens, such as Mary Ferrin's King relatives. (More to follow in a future post.)

Throughout the country, religious exploration was growing along with the numbers of people moving west. The westward-moving population ultimately could be explained by the quest for cheap land and natural resources, economic opportunities, and more amenable living conditions. In Indiana, there was considerable Baptist presence. A letter in the 1827 edition of the "Watchman" in Aurora, Indiana states: "There are a number of separate Baptists in the State, who in doctrine are nearly Arminian, and who practice open communion.  I have heard of some churches of Tunker Baptists, and some Sabbatarians...the Socinians under the name of New Lights, or Christians, are numerous and increasing, and generally baptize by immersion."

"The settlement of this section of the country has many peculiarities.  It has been peopled with unexampled rapidity, in less than six years.  But what is more peculiar, these people present you with nothing of the rusticity of the backwoods men, which has generally been characteristic of new settlements.  The rude cabin, and the half-cultivated farm of huntsman, are almost unknown.  It is true, you but seldom see a superb dwelling, or an extensive farm, but almost every where you see an air of neatness and industry, and no small portion of genuine taste.  The moral character of the inhabitants is also peculiar.  I have witnessed the program of population in the Western Country, but have never known such extensive bounds filled up at first with a people so decidedly moral! - But that peculiarity which I chiefly designed to mention, is that there are more professors of religion among them, than have commonly emigrated to any new country in the west...There is a larger proportion of the inhabitants, of the Baptist denomination than is found in any section of the Western Country, except in the central and northern parts of Kentucky."

Jesse Upton settled in the lowlands along Anderson's Creek in Troy, Perry County, Indiana. In December 1822, the Indiana House of Representatives approved "the petition of John Upton and others, praying an act, authorizing said Upton, to erect a mill dam across Anderson's river."  The river (or Anderson Creek) flows into the Ohio River.  He died two years later.

In addition to the Baptists in southern Indiana, there was also the Harmonists and their Utopian community, Harmonie Society.  Jesse Upton's skills could be applied at numerous nearby building sites.

Jesse left his wife Elisa, 46;  Eliza, 19; George, 14;  Andrew, 13 and Mary, 9.  How did their lives change?  

Upton Tavern Farm

        Interactive Map of 1692 Salem Village by Charles Upham                             

        The Upton tavern farm was home to generations who descended from John Upton and Eleanor Stuart of Scotland.  He was sent by Oliver Cromwell after the Battle of Dunbar to Hammersmith (Saugus IronWorks.) 

Following his indenture, he purchased land on “Wood Hill” near the Ipswich River.  It was his son Ezra and his wife, Mehitabel Goodell, who added the tavern to the farm.  It operated through the Revolution and continued until 1819.

     Eventually, the tavern farm was operated by Jesse Upton (1765-1824), and his first wife, Molly Upton, the daughter of Ebenezer Upton of Reading, Massachusetts.  They had three sons: Ebenezer (1794), Ezra (1795) and Jesse, who died young.  Mary’s two older half-brothers were musicians in Salem.  Their children, Mary’s nephews and nieces, are included in her will, although they later challenged that will in Probate Court.

After Molly died, Jesse married Eliza Wyman Wood in 1798; they had six children,  four survived to adulthood: including: Eliza (1802), George (1805),  Mary (1810) and Andrew (1812.)  Mary was called Polly after a sibling who died.

                https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/162378261/family/familyview

         Jesse and both his wives were members of the First Baptist Church of Danvers.  All of the Upton children were baptized in this church.  Founded in 1781, the church preached a strong Calvinistic creed.  

        The spirit of independence and the conviction that the support of public worship should be voluntary were a distinguishing trait of Baptists.  The thirty-seven constituent members of 1793 were eleven males and twenty-six females, including Elizabeth Upton.  Four years later, the church's membership was fifty:  twenty males and thirty females.    

First Baptist Church of Danvers Celebrates its 225th Anniversary

When Mary was twelve years old, the question of woman suffrage agitated their church, the rule - a compromise - was adopted that “the sisters be allowed to vote on admission and exclusion of members, but only the brethren voted on other business, after prudent and reasonable consultation with the sisters and showing due respect to their opinions and feelings.”

The Upton family experienced two significant events about that time.  The tavern closed in 1819 and Jesse moved, by himself, to Troy, Indiana. He died there in 1824. Why did he move?  Where did Molly and her children, including twelve-year-old Mary, go following the closure of the tavern and Jesse's departure?

A hundred years after women gained the right to vote, what do we know about Peabody's pioneering suffragist?

 

Peabody Access Telecommunications 

After a year of researching life in Essex County, Massachusetts in the nineteenth century, I have started to decipher more details of Mary U. Ferrin’s remarkable life.

The daughter of a tavern keeper and farmer, she was thirty-five-years old when she married Jesse Ferrin in 1845 and then “deserted” him after three years.  What is Jesse's story? Why was she committed to an asylum, by whom? How did she get out? 

Her life was remarkable not only due to her role as “an early silent worker” - the first woman in Massachusetts to petition for the property rights of married women and an advocate of universal suffrage - but also because, in her later life, she owned property and made a will that withstood legal challenges from her family. Her legal rights were not challenged after she and six hundred other women were scammed in the Ladies Deposit scandal in 1880. Who were the women who supported her and to whom she bequeathed her wealth? 

Was she part of the local anti-slavery movement and the newly formed Universalist congregation? How was she educated?   Why did she step up and away from the safety of her wealthy, landed family to become an activist?  How did she get so remarkable and fearless?