Andover, Massachusetts

“ French, of Andover, is interesting, as an illustration of the olden times.
"Mrs. Dowse, my maternal aunt, has often related to me her pride and delight at visiting at the Rev. Mr. Phillips', her paternal grandfather's house, when a child; which was interesting as a statement of the manners of those early times in Massachusetts, before the sceptre of worldly power, which the first settlers of the Colony had placed in the hands of the clergy, had been broken. The period was about between 1760 and the Revolution. ”

“ The present population of Andover is 5,711. The growth of the town is not rapid, but has been more so of late than formerly. The student and business elements steadily increase, and the farm-houses in the remote parts of the town are favorite summer resorts of such persons as business connections keep close to Boston, but who wish to escape the heat and noise of the city. ”

“ Many other worthy men, and valuable members of society, have lived and died in Andover, to whose injury should we attempt to pay a just tribute, it would swell this little sketch beyond its intended limits. ”

“ All sects have a right to assemble at the meeting house, and at seasons of public worship it is generally occupied by one or the other. It is believed that in few places has greater harmony prevailed among the different denominations, than in Andover; and it is to be hoped this christian liberality, so creditable to the people, will always characterize them.
There are in Andover fourteen school districts, in twelve of which are well-finished school-houses. A public school has for several years been kept near the centre of the town ”

“ His son, John, was the first male child born in Andover.
The first settlement of the town progressed very slowly, the inhabitants being subjected to many and great privations. They were unable to procure bread-stuff without travelling ten or fifteen miles, and were then obliged to convey it home on their backs. The woods supplied them with animal food, which they took in abundance with their guns and traps. There were no inhabitants north from whom they could receive assistance, and the difficulties of a communication with those situated below them, rendered their situation less pleasing. ”

“ The body of inhabitants are industrious farmers, raising ordinarily a surplus with which to furnish their families the "little necessaries," which common custom or inclination invites them to procure.
Andover was granted by the proprietors [4] of lands purchased of John Tufton Mason in 1746, to the following persons, viz:
Edmund Brown, William Swain, Archelaus Lakeman, John Hoyt, John Brown, Daniel Cram, Nathan Row, Amos Dwinell, Daniel Sanborn, John Sanborn, Joseph Gove, Benjamin Leavitt, Nathan Longfellow, David Norton, Walter Williams, Benjamin Swett, jun. ”

“ Travellers passing over the stage-road through Andover, have but an imperfect view of its soil. They can indeed see little but the bleak and confused pile of the Ragged Mountains on the north, and the darkly wooded sides of the Kearsarge on the west, There are several convenient dwellings, and good farms situated on the turnpike ”

“ Hardly a town in New England holds stronger reminders of the past, or has a more intensely New England atmosphere than Andover, wherein the same decorous and long-winded discussions of fate, fore-knowledge and all things past and to come, still goes on, as steadily as if the Puritan debaters had merely transmigrated, not passed over, to a land which even the most resigned and submissive soul would never have wished to think of as a "Silent Land." ”

“ In few places can the local features of the great Revolutionary struggle be as well studied as in the ample and well-preserved records of Andover. It would take many pages to tell what the town did in council and on the field, in business, and at the fireside, to encourage the patriots. So loyal was the town that its citizens were greatly trusted, and a portion of Harvard College library was sent there for its greater safety. ”

“ The educational and business interests are nobly conducted and carried to great success, and the current life is representative of good old customs and earnest strivings for the best things.
A careful study of Andover life, such as Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D., had evidently made before writing his address for the dedication of the Memorial Hall, leads one to feel, what he has so well stated:—
“The more we look into the history of Andover the more we feel how thoroughly it is a characteristic New England town. ”

“ For healthfulness the town stands near, if not quite at the head of the list, in the vital statistics of the State. When the writer was about to make Andover his place of residence he was heartily congratulated by a friend: “People never die in Andover,” said he, “from disease. They live on, and on, and on, until their friends weary of them, and shoot them.” No one has been shot recently in Andover, and some have died; but the town is remarkable for its healthfulness. In 1885 there were 81 deaths, and the average age was 48+ years ”

“ In this rapid and general view of the town, [A] all that will be attempted is to connect the past with the present, and to give a picture of Andover as it is to-day. [B]
The natural attractions of the town are great and permanent in their character. There are neither gold mines nor alarming precipices, but there are graceful rivers, a quiet rolling landscape, and extensive views, shaded walks, and charming drives, because there are “more roads than in any other town in New England;” ”

“ Andover abounds with hills and dales, being in some places rocky and barren. On the north is a range of mountains, which divides the town from New-Chester. It commences near the Pemigewasset river, and extends westwardly about ten miles to the intersection of the Grafton and fourth N. H. turnpikes. These mountains are called Ragged, from their appearance, being in all parts broken, and in many places bleak and precipitous. About two-thirds of the southern side are cleared, and afford good pasture lands. In some parts, settlements have been made, and snug farms formed some way up their sides. ”

“ The government was destined to last far longer than either the governor or his government. But, while it lasted, Andros's government was bitterly hated, and with good reason. The reasons are more peculiarly appropriate to the history of Massachusetts, where they were felt more keenly than in Connecticut ”

“ Its character for good citizenship has never been lost by Andover. There is a sensitiveness to evil and a vigilant eye for immoralities, which form the best possible safeguards for a town’s good name.
The policy of the town is at once conservative and progressive. The majority sentiment is easily that of an intelligent class of people, who earnestly seek true progress in all directions, but prefer that all foolish experiments should be made by other communities. ”

“ The fourth New-Hampshire Turnpike passes through the north western part of Andover and intersects with the Grafton turnpike near the western line. In 1763, there was but one path cut through the town near the centre, winding round the pond, and leading back to the Pemigewasset. The lines between Salisbury [3] and Andover were perambulated and marked this year by the selection of both towns; and soon after the boundaries between Andover and New-Chester were established in like manner. The roads through this town are now good, and the inhabitants are constantly improving them. ”

“ The venerable Tree, at Hartford, Connecticut, known by the name of the "Charter-Oak," has, for more than a century and a half, enjoyed the honor of having protected the endangered instrument of liberty and of law. When the despotic principles of James 2d revealed themselves in the mother country and extended to her colonies, Sir Edmund Andross, the governor of Massachusetts, determined to comprehend within his own jurisdiction the whole of New England and New York. ”

“ Jonathan Weare was the first Justice of the Peace in Andover; and it appears from the town records that at a meeting in 1779 he was selected by the inhabitants to be commissioned by the government as a civil magistrate. This was indeed a high proof of the confidence reposed in his integrity and justice.
Mr. William Blake was a native of Kensington–moved with his father, when a youth, to Exeter–thence came to Andover. He died on the 18th of March, 1812, aged 62 years. Mr. Blake was a man of acute understanding, and in all the transactions of life was exceedingly upright and honorable. ”

“ When James II fled from England at the end of the year 1688 and was succeeded by William and Mary, the affairs of the American provinces were thrown into a state of chaos. The change of government was not known in Massachusetts until March, 1689. The immediate result of the news was to fan the popular wrath against Sir Edmund Andros, then in Boston, into such a flame that the Governor was seized and thrown into prison before he was able to make his escape to New York. His imprisonment left Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson, Andros's deputy at New York, in a difficult position. ”

“ Andover is the centre of a large agricultural district; its weekly markets and its fairs, held three times a year, are well attended, while at Weyhill, a village about 3 miles to the west, a fair is held every October, which was formerly one of the most celebrated in England. Malting is largely carried on, and there is an extensive iron foundry near the town; but the silk manufactures, once so prosperous, are now almost extinct. The Romans had a station at Andover, and the remains of their encampment are still to be seen in the neighbourhood. ”

“ Many of those whom Andros associated with himself were New Yorkers who had served with considerable success in their former positions, but who had all the characteristics of typical royal officials. To [Pg 187] the average English officeholder of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, office was considered not merely an opportunity for service but also an opportunity for profit. Hitherto Massachusetts had been free from men of this class, common enough elsewhere and destined to become more common as the royal colonies increased in number. ”

“ In 1683, James II. abrogated the Massachusetts charter; three years later, Sir Edmund Andros arrived, armed with the king’s commission to take upon himself the absolute government of New England. Andros at once commenced to play the despot. He shackled the press; he imprisoned men for their religious opinions; he endeavored to get possession of the charter of Connecticut—which, however, was hidden in the “charter-oak” at Hartford, a circumstance which has made the tree immortal; he denied the colonists the most common civil rights, and asserted the highest doctrines of arbitrary taxation. ”

“ There are several aged people now residing in Andover, and who were among the earliest settlers.
↑ By Mr. Benjamin M. Tyler, of Andover. ↑ The timbers for the Concord Bridge, when it was first built, were procured near Chance pond. ↑ Originally called Stevens-Town, from the name of one of the grantees. ↑ The names of the original proprietors or grantors of Andover, were, Theodore Atkinson, Mark H, Wentworth, Richard Wibird, John Wentworth, George Jaffrey, Samuel Moore, Nathaniel Messerve, Thomas Packer, Thomas Wallingford, Jotham Odiorne, Joshua Pierce and John Moffat. ”

“ The people of Boston rose against Andros and his government and seized him and fifty of his associates and confined them in the "Castle" until February, 1690, when they were sent to England for trial; but having committed no offence, they were discharged. Andros was received so favorably at home that under the new administration he was appointed governor of Virginia and Maryland. He took over with him the charter of William and Mary college, and later laid the foundation stone of that great institution of learning. ”

“ What has Andover given to the world? There is the East. There is India. There is our Western coast, where rolls the Oregon. There are our colleges and churches at home and over seas. In these she has given the world immortal names that were not born to die. It is said that no man now living can read even the alphabets of all the languages through which her sons have sought to interpret the Word of God to the world. Think the graduates of Andover out of it at that time, and sacred literature and religious results would drop immeasurably below their actual attainments. ”

“ Towards the end of the summer of 1676, the Indian troubles broke out in the settlements in Maine, and though Massachusetts had taken possession of the Duke of York's territory of Pemaquid, Andros exerted himself to protect the settlers there, and sent an armed sloop thither. ”

“ The moral question as to waste lands is more difficult of decision, since the argument is not without force, that it was better for Andros to grant them to persons who would improve them, than for the towns to hold them, unimproved, as commons.
Among the earliest acts of Andros, was his extending his authority over New Hampshire, Plymouth and Rhode Island, as well as Maine and Massachusetts. In October, 1687, he visited Hartford, and took the government of Connecticut also into his hands, and he afterwards traveled through that Colony. ”

“ Will any man pretend that the name of Andros, and that of Winthrop, are heard with the same sensations in any village of New England? Is not gratitude the sentiment that attends the latter, and disgust the feeling excited by the former? In the Massachusetts, then, there are persons descended from some of their ancient governors, counsellors, judges, whose fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, are remembered with esteem by many living, and who are mentioned in history with applause, as benefactors to the country, while there are others who have no such advantage. ”