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Andover, Massachusetts

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A township of Essex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., pleasantly situated on the S. side of the Merrimac Valley. Pop. (1890) 6142; (1900) 6813; (1905, state census) 6632. The Shawsheen river supplies power for a considerable manufacturing industry (twine, woollens and rubber goods being manufactured) in the villages of Andover, Ballardville and Frye. Andover, the principal village, is about 23 m. N. of Boston and is served by the western division of the Boston & Maine railway and by interurban electric railways. The township is noteworthy for its educational institutions. Abbot Academy, opened in 1829, is said to be the oldest existing academy in the United States incorporated for the education of girls alone; an art gallery, given to the academy by Mrs John Byers, was opened in 1907. Phillips Academy, opened in 1778 (incorporated in 1780), was the first incorporated academy of the state; it was founded through the efforts of Samuel Phillips (1752-1802, president of the Massachusetts senate in 1785-1787 and in 1788-1801, and lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts in 1801-1802), by his father, Samuel Phillips (1715-1790), and his uncle, John Phillips (1719-1795), "for the purpose of instructing youth, not only in English and Latin grammar, writing, arithmetic and those sciences wherein they are commonly taught, but more especially to learn them the great end and real business of living." It is one of the largest secondary schools in New England and enjoys a wide and high reputation. An archaeological department, with an important collection in American archaeology, was founded by Robert S. Peabody and his wife in 1901. The Academy grounds include those occupied in 1808-1909 by the Andover Theological Seminary before its removal to Cambridge. Andover was settled about 1643 and was incorporated in 1646, being named from the English town of Andover, Hampshire, whence some of the chief settlers had migrated; the first settlement was made in what is now the township of North Andover (pop. 4614 in 1905), which was separated from Andover in 1855. Simon Bradstreet (1603-1697), important among the early men of Massachusetts, was one of the founders; and his wife, Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612-1672), was the first woman versifier of America; the Bradstreet house in North Andover, said to have been built about 1667, is still standing. Andover was a prominent centre in the witchcraft trials of 1692. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward was born and lived for many years. in Andover, and Harriet Beecher Stowe lived here from 1852 to 1864 and is buried here.

See S. L. Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover (Boston, 1880); John L. Taylor, Memoir of Samuel Phillips (Boston, 1856); and Philena and Phebe F. M`Keen, History of Abbot Academy (Andover, 1880).