Moses Gerrish Farmer was an Eliot native, an electrical genius and pioneer inventor. He was the inventor of over 130 inventions including the fire alarm pull box and the first electric railway car. Also the dial telegraph, the thermo-electric generator, the galvanometer, the voltmeter, the duplex printing telegraph and a double transmitter with reversed currents.

With his wife, Hannah Tobey Shapleigh Farmer and young daughter, Sarah, he moved back to Eliot, Maine from Rhode Island to enjoy the benefits of country living.