Thomas Walter Ward II died heavily in debt, and the Worcester County Institution for Savings foreclosed on the Ward farm. Henry Galbraith Ward, a relative who had summered at the house as a child, bought the 135 acre farm and its buildings for $4500. He neither lived at the house nor planned to farm the land, but his purchase kept the property in the family.
After receiving his degree at Harvard College, Artemas taught school for a time in Groton MA. He married Sarah Trowbridge and returned to Shrewsbury. The newlyweds started a family, ran a General Store in the center of town and became respected members of the community.
Thomas Ward paid Moses Cloughlin to build a New England style barn, but it was probably not on the Ward farm; instead, it may have been on the Henshaw farm, an adjacent tenant farm he owned.