Farrar Cemetery

Farrar Cemetery

"...excepting a lot twenty-five feet square including the family burying ground thereon, the lines to be equidistant on all sides from the granite posts surrounding said burying ground, and a right of way over a strip of land over the town road to said lot of sufficient width for teams to pass to and from said lot.” So reads the deed when the Farrar Farm was sold and the burying ground was reserved. Ironically, today this cemetery is hidden in the woods off Greenacre Road with a small path that is nearly impossible to find even when you know where it is.

In 1833, Sands Farrar bought 63 acres from Amon Daley going all the way to the Belmont line. He farmed the land until he died in 1852 at age 68. He built a large house with a beautiful stone foundation; the foundation is mostly intact today although some stones were removed with permission to be used elsewhere. In one deed the house is referred to as a stone house so perhaps the stonework went above the foundation. There is a large well nearby.

It is difficult to know exactly from which road the team of horses was to have access as the road that goes by the house is the Dickey Road, a discontinued road that started at the house and went to the Dickey Mill in Belmont. It is now a trail developed by Coastal Mountain Land Trust and is a nice walk. One can see the stone walls that the Farrar’s built, and imagine logs being carried to the mill. From the house to the back of the cemetery one can make out what might have been an access road up to the burying ground. The Dickey Road split off from the Greenacre Road which continued on a slightly different path from today. You can find it on the 1859 map at the house marked Knowlton. Cutting through the property at a right angle is the road that led to the Samuel Gardner Farm whose cellar hole can still be seen.

Sands and Elizabeth Farrar raised 6 children in the home, three boys and three girls. Son John died on May 19, 1845 at age 25 and is the first burial in the cemetery. His epitaph reads:

Most cheerfully I do resign

This body to the dust

No earthly charm I claim as mine

My God to all my trust.

There are the initials of the Belfast stone carver, F&A.

Elizabeth died on December 17, 1850 and Sands on September 21, 1852. They share a stone that designates Sands as an Elder of the Church. Their epitaph reads:

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”

After their deaths, the children, all adults by then, tried to keep the farm. In 1854 they mortgaged it to their brother William. Kezia, who never married, and possibly William, were probably the only ones living there at the time. In 1855, the newly married William sold the farm, reserving the burial ground, to John Knowlton for $525 and, on the same day, Knowlton sold a piece of the land to Kezia Farrow and her sister, Mary Wyman . This piece may have been ten acres including the burying ground since the sisters sold land that included it to C. M. Brewster and A. A. Moody in 1890. Kezia is the last person buried there and she died in 1914 at age 87.

The Farrar ancestors came from England where the name was spelled Farrow as it still is by some family members. This probably explains the pronunciation of “Farrah” today.

Written by Corelyn Senn

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