00:01:41,367	S1:
We'd like to welcome you all today to Brooksby Farm in Peabody, Massachusetts. It was first known as the North Fields, the Farms and Brooksby. The area was settled about 1626 within Salem, which had itself been founded in 1626 and incorporated in 1629.

00:02:06,901	S1:
In 1752, the area was set off from Salem and incorporated as part of Danvers. It was usually referred to as the South Parish, associated with the church, located in what is now the center of Peabody Square. In 1855, the community broke away from Danvers to become the town of South Danvers, incorporated that May. The name was changed on April 30th, 1868 to Peabody after George Peabody, a noted philanthropist. One of the things that's fascinating about coming to Brooksby is the farm feel. When you first get here, you feel like you're on a large farm, and you are.

00:02:54,868	S1:
The beautiful buildings on the property reflect what life was like here many, many years ago. The beautiful trees, many of which are different species, including pine and oak. Apple and pear.

00:03:14,868	S1:
Just are all over the place. Wonderful wooden fences line the driveways and one can walk here in peace and quietude, enjoying nature.

00:03:29,567	S1:
Here we've got a pear tree and a lot of the fruit are on the ground, falling from largely dangling limbs, trying to support the weight of this wonderful fruit.

00:03:47,300	S1:
An area like this makes you feel like you want to go in there and just grab yourself either a pear or an apple and start chewing on it and looking around and enjoying nature. For what it brings out. Brooksby is a very special place. Today the sun is shining. The air is very, very dry. It's just wonderful being out here. The fragrances reflect all the fruit that are found here on the property.

00:04:24,701	S1:
Amongst the trees, we look at the tall Scotch pine here as it glistens against the sky.

00:04:34,901	S1:
We walk in front of the Smith Barn, built, of course, in 1904, and it belongs to the Peabody Historical Society. Today it was used as a museum.

00:04:48,868	S1:
At one time there were many barns like this in Essex County that used to house the animals and the equipment used to cultivate crops on the local farms. Remnants of some of the equipment used on the farms is right in front of the old barn.

00:05:14,501	S1:
These were used for gathering up the hay in the fields to make bales, and provide food for the animals in the barns. This is the Nathaniel Felton House, which had been moved over the last couple of hundred years to this higher location and down through the centuries. Many additions were made to this house.

00:05:42,267	S1:
There is a group that meets here once a year, all belonging to or are members of the Felton family and the descendants.

00:05:53,567	S1:
Some people say that the house is haunted. It's a very interesting site. The house definitely has a character about it.

00:06:10,000	S1:
Along the property you see stone walls built many, many years ago. These stone walls are very fascinating to look at. Back in the mid 1800s, these stone walls were used to demarcate property.

00:06:34,167	S1:
The Nathaniel Felten house and all its additions really had its beginnings in the mid 1600s. And to this day provides a wonderful location where the Peabody Historical Society sponsors weddings and special functions.

00:07:05,300	S1:
Not far from the Nathaniel Felton house. As we go down the road again, we see very tall, large trees. Changing color. This late September, Apple picking is at its peak, and people come here to enjoy looking at picking these large apples off the trees in this wonderful orchard, which is vast.

00:07:37,868	S1:
Brooksby farm, the original parcel of land that is, was granted to John Thorndyke from the English monarch in 1600, at that time Brooksby was known as Hog Hill and passed throughout the years to several private landowners, one of whom was Austin Smith.

00:08:02,968	S1:
The farm was purchased by the City of Peabody in 1976.

00:08:09,801	S1:
Brooksby itself is over 110 acres in size, consisting of the orchard and vegetable gardens and 100 acres of hard woodland evergreen forest. There's over 3.7 miles of scenic trails which wind throughout the farm and woodland, allowing visitors a unique natural vista amidst the north shore.

00:08:37,767	S1:
There's also a small barnyard where animals call Brooksby Farm their home. The farms also contains three Ponds, which provides irrigation to wildlife habitat and recreational areas. Picnic areas are also conveniently located near the farm store.

00:09:02,767	S1:
To ensure that Brooksby Farm will always provide the residents of Peabody and local communities with valued conservation, agriculture, recreation and educational opportunities. The management at Brooksby calls on the support from all who visit here, and welcome those who seek the farm's many natural offerings.

00:09:46,567	S1:
I.

00:10:00,100	S2:
Love you that we are the decent folks in the real world.

00:10:07,767	S2:
Where what you do only depends on what you want to be. The one who has just the king and the smiling son of the lady.

00:10:30,467	S2:
Thank you lady. So you do, me and my lady. Just a memory. And you may be so good to me. Memory? That's my home.

00:10:45,767	S1:
Here at Brooksby. As we walk among the pear and the apple trees, we notice these rows in between the tree rows, which allow people to go up and down the rows and select fruit off the tree fairly easily.

00:11:02,767	S1:
These are kept well managed by the crew at Brooksby.

00:11:08,667	S1:
It allows families to come and go fairly freely and enjoy the day, picking either apples or pears from many of these fruit bearing trees.

00:11:23,667	S1:
Here we found a large row and a large crop of sunflowers.

00:11:33,367	S1:
These are very formidable flowers. They seek growth in the sun. Behind the sunflowers is a large row of pine trees.

00:11:49,868	S1:
The beautiful country roads that lined the areas of farmland are really. Very interesting to walk on and enjoy.

00:12:02,467	S1:
This was an absolutely perfect day for doing this.

00:16:36,667	S3:
He.

00:18:35,868	S1:
Today we've come to Brooksby Farm in Peabody, Massachusetts, where on the property exists the Nathaniel Felton Junior House, now owned by the Peabody Historical Society. People say that the house is haunted and spirited, either by a little girl or by some form of presence associated with a petition Nathaniel Felton filed against the witchcraft trials back in 1692, or possibly by something else. Today we'll try to get some facts from Betty Cassidy, a member of the Peabody Historical Society, about this very fascinating house, the Nathaniel Felton House in Peabody, Massachusetts.

00:19:32,300	S4:
Almost 100 acres was an Indian compound. When Nathaniel came here in about 1635. He disappeared from the town of Salem. Came to this area, took ten years, chopping down trees and building his house. His house was originally down and back down over the hill in 1683. His son, Nathaniel Junior, added on to the west side of his father's house in 1744.

00:20:08,100	S4:
The estate was divided, sold two cousins to Felton Cousins. They saw the house and half moved both sections up the hill.

00:20:22,501	S1:
Here we asked Betty about what the lifestyle was like for the Felton family living here. Back in the 16 and 1700s.

00:20:31,501	S4:
Hundreds. They all had side jobs that they did. They may be a cobbler. They may, um, be a weaver. The son, John, who lived down the street, was a weaver. So in the wintertime, they all had these extra occupations. The fountains were farmers and very involved in the town, uh, politics at the time of the witch trials. Uh, in 1692. Nathaniel was very opposed to the whole concept. He wrote up a petition, um, in favor of John and, um, Elizabeth Proctor, which was a very serious thing to do. The people who signed this petition were going against, uh, against the courts. It's, uh, impossible for us to appreciate.

00:21:36,100	S4:
The position they put, the people who oppose this put themselves in. This is a petition written by Nathaniel Felton, uh, pleading for the release of John Parker and Elizabeth Parker, and it is signed by mostly Felton's. Most of the names on here are members of the Felton family. One man, I think it is John Walker. I have that at home, too. Uh, was the man who, um. I'm not going to say that because I'm not.

00:22:14,901	S5:
Sure, but he just wanted to he wanted to know the people that were involved, which.

00:22:18,767	S4:
He was. Um, I think it was John Walker who, uh, arrested Elizabeth Proctor. He was a constable. And right after that he resigned and signed this petition.

00:22:32,000	S5:
Why did he arrest Elizabeth?

00:22:33,667	S4:
He was told, though he was a constable.

00:22:37,300	S5:
And what did that have to do with her? What was the nature of the arrest? Oh.

00:22:43,767	S4:
They were arresting her because she was accused of witchcraft.

00:22:48,267	S1:
Betty was talking to us about the fact that each year, relatives of the Felton family come back here to visit and socialize and talk about the past.

00:23:00,367	S4:
Here's Betty Felton's come back to this house every year for a Felton reunion. Which is most interesting because a lot of people don't they don't even know these houses exist. And they they land and they come from the West or Mexico or wherever and find their family homestead is still here. The house next door, particularly if they came back to the house next door. It's very much as it was, um, in the 1700s.

00:23:34,801	S1:
One woman relative finds it very difficult to go into one particular room in the fountain house.

00:23:40,901	S4:
If she didn't want to go in because the hairs stood up on her arms and she said, the presence in this house wasn't friendly. The house next door. She said the presence in the house next door is very friendly.

00:23:55,367	S5:
What do you think? How do you think she felt when she said that? I mean.

00:23:59,467	S4:
She was she wasn't. She was frightened.

00:24:05,801	S1:
The exterior of the Felton home is very quaint and charming and New England. He felt, though, that he had to go inside and feel what it was like in the room where the petition was. As we went through the building, we could see the quiet colonial charm which was surrounding us. There's a little bit of a kind of a dampness in here today. It's a hot, humid day outside, but inside has a characteristic all its own, a feeling all its own. There are photographs on the walls in various rooms of some of the Felton family.

00:24:53,667	S1:
Paintings and drawings of days of the past when the family lived here. An old bed and some stairways leading up to a very interesting room where we find old artifacts and tools hanging on the wall.

00:25:20,167	S1:
A very charming house. The Nathaniel Felton house.

00:25:36,200	S1:
Just recently we went back to Brooksby Farm, where the house still stands today, and took some more pictures around the property.

00:26:21,367	S4:
She said the presence in this house wasn't friendly. The house next door. She said the presence in the house next door is very friendly.

00:26:32,667	S4:
I don't know how to put this. It sounds kind of crazy.

00:26:35,400	S5:
That's all.

00:26:35,801	S4:
Right. Um, to me, if there is any presence, there is. Moses Preston. Moses was the, uh, revolutionary. He was in the revolution, um, in when he was 65 years old. He was thrown from a wagon and died three days later. No. Maybe that's why I feel the presence of Moses. I just feel as if he's looking out for the house.

00:27:21,767	S2:
Many.

00:27:52,200	S2:
Of you will be so focused in the real world,

00:28:00,067	S2:
where what you do wholly depends on what you are in there to help you there. I was just a kid and thus my life is the other of many.