Benjamin Franklin Newhall (April 29, 1802 – September 17, 1863) was an American businessman, abolitionist, politician, and writer.
His Rising Sun Tavern was visited by Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington.
He had a very close relationship with his mother, who would often kneel at his bedside and pray that God protect her son from the temptations that surrounded him.
[1] On April 25, 1825, Newhall married Sarah Jewett of Stanstead, Lower Canada (now Quebec).
[4] His support for moral reforms put him at odds with the conservative Methodist clergy and he left for the Universalist church.
[7] His home at 17-19 Ballard Street was a station on the Underground Railroad, where runaway slaves stopped on the journey from Boston to a safe house in South Danvers, where they received medical attention from Dr. Andrew Nichols.
[1] In 1846, Newhall was the Free Soil candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Massachusetts's 2nd congressional district.
He finished second behind Whig Daniel P. King, but ahead of Democrat Robert Rantoul Jr.[10] Newhall also served as a selectman, overseer of the poor, member of the school committee, and justice of the peace.
[1][11] Although he had never received any formal training in grammar beyond common school and his six months at the New Market Academy, Newhall was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry.
His most famous work was his "Historical Sketches of Saugus" which first appeared in the Lynn Weekly Reporter in December 1858 and continued for two or three years.