Artemas Ward, serving as a circuit judge, faced down the rebels at the Worcester Courthouse. The defeat of Shays' Rebellion was a landmark event for the stability of the young nation.
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...