In 1669, Joseph Houlton testified, that, when he was about twenty years of age, in 1641, he was “a servant to Richard Ingersoll,” and worked on his land at Ingersoll’s Point.  About the year 1652, he married Sarah, daughter of Richard Ingersoll, and widow of William Haynes.  By her he had five sons and two daughters, who lived to maturity.  He gave to each of them a farm; and their houses were in his near neighborhood.  The sons were respectable and substantial citizens, and persons of just views and amiable sentiments.  The father was one of the honored heads of the village, and lived to a good old age.  He died May 30, 1705.  From him, it is probable, all of the name in this country have sprung.  It will be for ever preserved in the public annals and on the geographical face of the country.  Samuel Houlton, great-grandson of the original Joseph, was a representative of Massachusetts for ten years in the old Congress of the Confederation, for a time presiding over its deliberations.  He was also a member of the first Congress under the Constitution, and subsequently, for a very long period, Judge of Probate for the county of Essex.  He was a true patriot and wise legislator; enjoyed to an extraordinary degree the confidence and love of the people; had a commanding person and a noble and venerable aspect; and was always conspicuous by the dignity and courtesy of his manners.  He was a physician by profession; but his whole life was spent in the public service.  He was in both branches of the Legislature of the State, also in the Executive Council.  He was major of the Essex regiment at the opening of the Revolution; was a member of the Committee of Safety, and of every convention for the framing of the Government; and, for more than thirty years, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas.  He died, where he was born and had his home for the greater part of his life, in Salem Village, Jan. 2, 1816, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

In 1724 a petition was presented to the Legislature, commencing as follows:  “Whereas Salem is a most ancient town of Massachusetts Province, and very much straitened for land,” the petitioners pray for a grant in the western part of the province.  The petition was allowed on condition that one lot be reserved for the first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for a school.  Each grantee was required to give a bond of twenty-five pounds to be on the spot; have a house of seven feet stud and eighteen square at least, seven acres of English hay ready to be mowed, and help to build a meeting-house and settle a minister, within five years.  A grandson of Joseph Houlton, of the same name, led the company that emigrated to the assigned location.  The first result was the town of New Salem, in Franklin County, incorporated in 1753; named in honor of the old town from which their leading founder had come.  But the people were not satisfied with having merely a school.  They must have an academy.  They