David Furman’s Field, Salem, CT

This is the site of David Ferman’s (Apess spells his name “Furman”) farm where Apess served as an indentured servant as a child from roughly 1804-1811. It is on The Old Colchester Rd. (today State Highway 354) very close to Gardner Lake. Based on textual and anecdotal evidence, I believe that Apess’s maternal grandmother lived somewhere near the lake shore, within a mile of the Ferman house, as this was known as an “Indian” neighborhood at the time.