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.