Public is invited to Eliot Historical Society’s History Roundtable: a roundtable discussion centering on Moses Gerrish Farmer, his wife Hannah Shapleigh and daughter Sarah Jane, followed by a tour of the #8 One-Room Schoolhouse Museum.
Moses Gerrish Farmer, who was born in Boscawen, NH met his future wife Hannah Tobey Shapleigh of Eliot, upon taking work as instructor at the Eliot Academy. As a youth he was an inventor but it would be, after his marriage, in 1844, that he would delve more fully into electrical work, inventing, among other things, the first incandescent light bulb and demonstrating it in Salem, Mass. His daughter Sarah Jane, and future electrical entrepreneur Thomas Edison were both 12 years old at the time. Wife Hannah was a philanthropist, a poet and even had a patented inventor herself. She is best remembered as the founder of Rosemary Cottage, in Eliot, Maine. Daughter Sarah Jane, largely educated at home and graduating from Salem High School (MA), was an assistant to her father and, like her mother, was a philanthropist and, in 1890 joined four Eliot businessmen to build the “Eliot Hotel” (now the Sarah Farmer Inn at the Green Acre Baha’i School/Center of Learning in Eliot). Come learn about and share your own knowledge about this fascinating family. Program/tour is free. Donations welcomed. Refreshments served. For more information call Jan @ 207-450-6874.