Joseph Barlow Felt

Born: 22 Dec 1789, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts

Married: (1) 18 Sep 1816 to Abigail Adams Shaw; (2) November 16, 1862, to Mrs. Catharine Bartlett Meacham, of Haverhill, Mass.

Died: 8 Sep 1869, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts

It is time to start thinking about restoring the grave marker for Joseph Barlow Felt and Abigail Adams Shaw.  Their lives were exemplary to their kinsmen (that's us) and presumably to all of New England.  I am very proud to descend from JBF's grandfather David Felt who is buried just behind me in the photo to the right.  Wouldn't it be interesting if Salem City Parks Department is storing the missing bronze grave marker plate somewhere in a warehouse.  The design of the grave doesn't look very good for keeping out moisture which will always be a factor.  The question is how should we restore the grave?  Without any descendants, the late couple may need to depend on Nathaniel H. Felt's posterity to do the job.  I am reasonably sure Salem area organizations will help us when the time comes to do the job.  John V. Goff and others have expressed an interest in us.

Feeling for Joseph B. Felt:
Salem’s Early Historian & Antiquarian

It is with grateful appreciation to Mr. John V. Goff of Salem Preservation, Inc that we receive this unequalled biographical sketch of our cousin and worthy forbearer.  It was published in the Nov 21, 2007 edition of the Salem Gazette.  It will be remembered that John V. Goff with the research help of Debra Benvie was a key player in preserving Nathaniel H. Felt's Salem home

Go to http://www.wickedlocal.com/salem/news/opinions/x852315411 for the online article. 

Click here for the cached article

The Rev. Joseph Barlow Felt was a renowned scholar, and he was  Nathaniel H. Felt's 1st cousin.  Since Nathaniel H. Felt is one person credited with researching the ancestors of Joseph Smith Jr. in Essex County Massachusetts he would have been keenly aware of, if not intimately acquainted with, his cousin.  There is printed evidence JBF and NHF's brother were acquainted.

Rev. Felt is quoted many times in various histories and therefore is probably the most well-known Felt in history.  Baxter Perry Smith in writing "The History of Dartmouth College" published in 1878 said, "In History, the names of George Ticknor, Joseph B. Felt, Joseph Tracey, George Punchard, Samuel Hopkins, John Lord and Edwind D. Sanborn, will live as long as our language."  Authors who give him credit refer to him simply as "Mr. Felt;" it's almost as though he were a "Mr. Lincoln" or a "Mr. Nixon."  Nathaniel Hawthorne himself used the works of JBF extensively when he wrote The House of Seven Gables.  I have been fascinated with Rev. Felt's contributions to New England history, but most especially for his work to preserve family histories of Essex County.  As I understand it, he and a few other leading men of Salem started an archive of family histories as early as 1821.  Their archive evolved into what is now the Phillips Library in Salem.  The Phillips Library is part of the famous Peabody Essex Museum (PEM).  See the following:

Visitor's Guide to Salem By Thomas Franklin Hunt, John Robinson, Essex Institute

Joseph B. Felt has at least two boys named in his honor.  1) Joseph B. Felt Dean who was born to John and Fanny Dean of Hamilton, Mass in 1828 and 2) Joseph Barlow Felt Osgood who was JBF's nephew and later became mayor of Salem, Mass. during the Civil War.  It will be interesting to know more about the Dean family in the future.

Visitor's Guide to Salem By Thomas Franklin Hunt, John Robinson, Essex Institute 

Appletons Encyclopedia of Famous Americans

FELT, Joseph Barlow, antiquarian, born in Salem, Massachusetts, 22 December 1789; died there, 8 September 1869. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1813, licensed to preach in 1815, and was pastor of Congregational Churches at Sharon, Mass. in 1821'4, and in Hamilton, Massachusetts, in 1825'34. He was commissioned by Governor Everett, in April 1836, to arrange the ancient state papers, then in almost hopeless confusion, and in 1845 spent six weeks in England searching for duplicates of lost records. As a result of his labors, which were ended in 1846, the state archives are now contained in several scores of carefully classified volumes. After serving as librarian of "the Massachusetts historical society in 1842'58, he retired to Salem, where he engaged in literary work. He was president of the New England "historic genealogical society in 1850'3, recording secretary of the American statistical association in 1839'59, and a member of many other historical societies. Dartmouth gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1857. Dr. Felt was noted for his thorough acquaintance with New England history. He published, "Annals of Salem," called by Bancroft "an accurate and useful work" (Salem. Massachusetts, 1827; 2d ed., 2 vols., 1845'9); "History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton," including numerous biographies (Cambridge, 1833); " Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency" (Boston, 1839); memoirs of Roger Conant (1848), Hugh Peters (1851), and William S. Shaw (1852); "Genealogical Items for Gloucester and Lynn" (1850'1); "The Customs of New England "(1853); "Ecclesiastical History of New England" (2 vols., Boston, 1855'62); and various addresses.

New-England
Historical and Genealogical Register Antiquarian Journal

VOL. XXIV. JANUARY, 1870. No.1.

JOSEPH BARLOW FELT, LL.D.

[Communicated by Hon. J. B. F. OSGOOD, of Salem, Mass.]

JOSEPH BARLOW FELT, son of John and Elizabeth-Curtis Felt, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, December 22, 1789. Of his parents he used to say that he had "stronger faith in their declarations than in those of all the world beside."

He received, however, little training from his father, who was a ship master in European and India trade, and who died on Martha's Vineyard, August 23, 1802, aged 38 years, after a long and trying passage from India; leaving little property to his wife and five children. The energy and influence of the mother moulded the character of the son, who ever spake of her with grateful reverence.

After the death of his father, and at the age of fourteen years, he obtained employment in a store in order to qualify himself for mercantile life. Here he remained several years, improving his few leisure hours chiefly in reading biographical works. Among these was the life of Ledyard, the traveller, and of others who obtained a collegiate education by their own efforts. Stimulated by these examples, he resolved to obtain such an education, and, in ,June, 1808, entered the academy in Atkinson, N. H., then under the charge of Mr. (afterwards the Hon.) John Vose, a distinguished educator of that day. In 1809, he became a member of the freshman class in Dartmouth College, whence he was graduated in 1813. During the winters of his College course he taught school. In May, 1813, he was disabled by a cold which, settled in one of his eyes, baffled medical skill, and was ever afterwards a source of severe suffering and self-denial, with regard to his studies.

In despair of ever being able to pursue his contemplated preparation for the ministry, he became a partner in a mercantile business in Salem, but this was soon after put to an end by the revulsion that accompanied the war then going on between Great Britain and the United States. In  January 1814, although still suffering under defective eye-sight, he began special preparation for the ministry, under the direction of Rev. Samuel Worcester D.D., of Salem. While pursuing his studies he taught a private school, and continued this avocation until December 17, 1819. Meanwhile he received, March 2, 1815, from the Essex Association, a license to preach, and was frequently employed by congregations in Salem and its vicinity.

He was married, September 18, 1816, to Abigail-Adams Shaw, daughter of Rev. John Shaw, who died at Haverhill, Mass., Sept. 29, 1794, and of Elizabeth-Smith Shaw, who was a sister of the wives of Judge Richard Cranch and President John Adams. Mrs. Shaw subsequently became the wife of Rev. Stephen Peabody, of Atkinson, N. H., where she died April 9, 1815.

After declining several calls from other congregations, Mr. Felt was ordained as a minister of the Congregational Society at Sharon, Mass., December 19, 1821, and remained there till April 19, 1824. On the 16th of June, following, he was settled at Hamilton, Mass., as successor of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., and continued to perform his parochial duties with exemplary punctuality and faithfulness until December 4, 1833, when, owing to ill health, he dissolved his pastoral relation with that church. It was a trying dispensation to one, so devoted as he was to the service of his Divine Master, to be compelled to lay aside a profession, "of which," to use his own language, "my experience can verily testify, that however subject to many and peculiar trials, yet, when heartily cherished and properly honored, it is the perennial spring of purer, more abundant and sublimer joys, than those of all other human vocations though rewarded with incalculable riches, blazoned with the most dazzling of earthly honors, and inscribed highest on the scroll of worldly fame."

During his residence at Hamilton, an address delivered before the Masonic Assembly at Ipswich, in 1825; another, before the Ipswich Academy in 1829; the preparation of many articles in Farmer's New-England Genealogical Register; the publication of his invaluable "Annals of Salem" in 1832, and also his "History of Ipswich, Essex and Hamilton," in 1833, .afford ample testimony to his patient industry, indefatigable research and .antiquarian taste. His love of antiquarian pursuits was acknowledged in a variety of ways: one of which was by his election, September 25, 1830, to membership in the Massachusetts Historical Society, and, subsequently, to membership in ten other similar societies in the United States.

Mr. Felt removed with his family, October 31, 1834, to Boston, where he engaged in the congenial pursuits of an antiquary and historian; contributing, in 1835, "Ecclesiastical Statistics of Essex: County" to the pages of the American Quarterly Register; in 1836, supplying a large portion of the materials of a volume of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections besides the delivery of a lecture in each of four successive courses of that .society.

The state-archives also bear ample evidence of his labors and patient research. In April, 1836, be was commissioned by Governor Everett to arrange the ancient papers in the state-archives, which were found in indescribable confusion, and were steadily diminishing in numbers and value. Two hundred and forty-one bound volumes of these papers, classified and chronologically arranged, attest the usefulness of his task and his diligence.  He was engaged in this work until April, 1839, when he was appointed to visit England to obtain duplicates of provincial records and papers, the originals of which had been lost. His visit to England, however, was prevented at that time, because the British authorities declined to allow to Americans access to their offices, lest, as was supposed, they might find evidence bearing upon the north-eastern boundary question which was then pending.  In 1845, he was again commissioned to visit England for this purpose, and spent six weeks there. He then travelled through France, Scotland and Ireland, and on his return to Boston resumed his work on the state-archives, which he completed in the early part of 1846, having been engaged thereon from the spring of 1835, with the exception of a single year.

On the 29th of December, 1886, Mr. Felt was chosen librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society, but as the situation was desired by Rev. T. M. Harris, D.D., with characteristic courtesy he stepped aside for him, Oct. 26, 1837. When Dr. Harris died Mr. Felt succeeded him, April 28, 1842, and remained in that office until 1854, with pleasure to himself and satisfaction to his associates.

He published, in 1839, his "History of Massachusetts Currency," which was an enlargement of two lectures delivered at the request of the Massachusetts Historical Society.  This was an invaluable work to numismatologists; the edition has long since been exhausted.

For more than nineteen years--viz.: from Dec. 18, 1839, to January 12, 1859 he held the office of recording secretary of the American Statistical Association, of which institution he was one of the founders. In 1841 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, and. the same year furnished an article on the" Fasts and Thanksgivings of New England" for Coleman's Ecclesiastical Antiquities. In April, 1845, he was chosen a corresponding member of the New-England Historic-Genealogical Society. This membership was changed to resident in June, 1847, and to honorary in October, 1855.

In 1846, he was invited to succeed Rev. William Cogswell, D.D., as president of the Gilmanton Theological Seminary, but declined accepting that trust. He had already declined two invitations to take charge of literary seminaries. In 1847; he finished publishing "Collections for the American Statistical Association on Towns, Population, and Taxation." In 1848, he issued a "Memoir of Roger Conant;" in 1849, printed his second edition of the "Annals of Salem," in two volumes; in 1850, "Genealogical Items for Gloucester;" and in 1851, "Genealogical Items for Lynn," and his "Memoir of Hugh Peters."

:Mr. Felt was chosen president of the New-England Historic-Genealogical Society, January 2, 1850, and sustained that relation three years. He edited the January and April numbers of the NEW-ENGLAND HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER for 1852; and his " Kidd Papers," obtained in London, "Memoirs of Francis Higginson," "Sketch of Abigail Brown," and" Memorials of William S. Shaw," were printed in that year. In the succeeding year, 1858, his discussion of the question, "Who was the First Governor of Massachusetts," and his "Customs of New-England," were issued from the press.

He was chosen' secretary of the Congregational Library Association in October, 1852; their librarian the next year; and, in 1854, under their auspices, published his first volume of "Ecclesiastical History of New England." Of this work a committee appointed by the association- say:" We take pleasure in certifying that, in our judgment, it everywhere discloses a thoroughness of research and an accuracy of statement in regard to matters of fact, which the early history of New-England has never before had, and will never again need. No other writer on the subject, among the living or the dead, has devoted the time, or enjoyed the facilities which has been afforded to the author of this work. Twenty years of investigation among the best libraries of this country and a visit to those of England, together with the overhauling of an incredible mass of old manuscripts in the archives of Massachusetts and elsewhere-undertaken con amore, and pursued with ever-freshening zeal-leaves small hope of original acquisition to those who may glean after him." The second volume of this work-the crowning labor of the author's life-was published in 1861.

In 1857, Dartmouth College conferred upon :Mr. Felt the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Mr. Felt's first estimable and talented wife, who had been an encouraging helpmeet and a much valued assistant in all his literary labors for nearly forty-three years, died in Boston, July 5, 1859. In June, 1861, he removed to Salem, and there resided till his decease. He was a second time  married, viz., November 16, 1862, to Mrs. Catharine Bartlett Meacham, of Haverhill, Mass., who survives him. He left no issue.

We have thus given but a crude outline of the life of Dr. Felt, who was by many of his associates and friends esteemed one of the most diligent, learned and eminent antiquaries and annalists which America has produced, and whose researches have accomplished much for future historians, and preserved from oblivion many interesting incident." relating to New-England matters. Reserved and retiring in his private life-never showing any desire for notoriety-he was highly exemplary in the various relations of son, husband, brother, pastor, friend and citizen; and constantly illustrated the benevolence of his heart by endeavors to increase the happiness of others.  By his willingness to aid any seeker after information, he proved his fitness to be a guide in antiquarian and historical research.

He was a liberal contributor to many public institutions of science and literature. A notable instance of this may be recalled from Quincy's History of the Boston Athenaeum, when, as the legal representative of his brother-in-law, William S. Shaw, who died leaving claims against the Athenaeum amounting to ten thousand dollars, Mr. Felt "voluntarily and most liberally executed a release of the whole claim and thereby constituted Mr.. Shaw a benefactor to the institution to that amount." His high appreciation of the literary institutions at Atkinson and Hanover, is manifested by liberal legacies, to each, in his last will and testament.

Perhaps some have thought that Dr. :Felt was too prone to press his religious views upon the notice of his readers; but it may well be said that his life illustrated his moral teachings. There was such amiableness, living conscientiousness, and saintly sincerity in his conversation and daily life, that one who has known him long and intimately may well be pardoned for applying to him the words: "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile."

On Sunday, September 3, 1865, Dr. Felt, upon returning home from religious service, sat down, as was his daily custom, to write in his diary. He had written the text of the afternoon sermon: James, 4th chap. 14th verse -- whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.  For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." with the last word of the text his pen wandered over the page in random scrawls, and he fell back in his chair paralyzed and apparently lifeless. The shadows of coming death had already gathered upon his brow and extinguished his usefulness forever. For, although he partially recovered from that state of insensibility, it was only to live lingeringly for four long years, wholly incapacitated for literary labor, but ever cherishing "the hope," as he once expressed himself, that "his Saviour would soon take him home." Thus, in unshaken confidence of a better portion hereafter, his body gradually yielded to disease, and on September 8, 1869, at the age of 80 years, he gently departed this life, full of years and honors; having lived the life of an earnest Christian, an amiable gentleman, a diligent scholar, and a useful citizen.

Archive Documents for Joseph Barlow Felt