TIMELINE of North Andover’s History

1600

  • 1630:  Europeans begin to arrive in the area, expanding in from the coast.

  • 1634:  Cochichewick Plantation set out by the General Court.

  • 1643: Cochichewick Plantation founded around the Great Pond, a favorite seasonal fishing and hunting area of the native population. First documented settler is Richard Barker.

  • 1644:  Simon Bradstreet sets up 1st mill on Cochichewick River near Merrimack.

  • 1645:  Church for Cochichewick is established with John Woodbridge as minister, located near the First Burying Ground on Academy Road.

  • 1646:  The town of Andover is incorporated with 23 men and their families and named for the market town in Hampshire, England, near where John Osgood lived.

  • 1646: General Court confirms that John Woodbridge & Edmond Faulkner purchased tract of land from Cutshamache for the sum of 6 British pounds & a coat.   

  • 1647:  Francis Dane named 2nd minister when Woodbridge returns to England, taking with him the poems of his sister-in-law, Anne Bradstreet, to publish in London.

  • 1660:  Order prohibits dwellings on distant farmlands with heavy fines imposed—20 shilling per month.

  • 1661:  Joseph Parker owns mill rights on the site of Mill Pond condos.

  • 1664:  Population - 24 taxpayers on town rolls. Town offers incentives to anyone who builds a corn or a saw mill.

  • 1669:  Larger 2nd meeting house built near the First Burying Ground on Academy Road.

  • 1675:  12 men from Andover join the Massachusetts Regiment to fight against the Narragansett in King Philip’s War at the Great Swamp Fight. 12 garrison houses are built.

  • 1676:  April 19—Andover attacked around Bodwell’s Ferry. Native americans burn Edmond Faulkner’s house which contains the town records.

  • 1682:  Thomas Barnard hired as assistant minister to assist Rev. Dane because he is thought too old to fulfill his duties.

  • 1692/3: Salem Witch Trials: The witchcraft hysteria begins in Salem Village and stretches across Essex County. 158 people were accused, 50 of them from Andover.

  • 1698: Last Native American attack on Andover: The Abenaki people, led by Assacumbuit, launched the most severe of all the attacks on Andover, burning buildings, scattering livestock and goods, destroying the town records, and killing several people including Penelope Johnson and Pascoe Chubb. “Voted that a committee be chosen to receive anew the records of the town lands, according to what papers may be found that have been upon record before; our town records being taken away by the enemy Indians”.

1700

  • 1700:  50 taxpayers recorded on town rolls, from 24 recorded in 1664.

  • 1705:  Congregation votes to build 3rd church. Controversy over location begins.

  • 1708:  General Court orders Andover divided into 2 parishes: North Parish and South Parish. Both congregations ask Rev. Barnard to be their minister. 

  • 1710: Parson Barnard chooses to stay in North Parish. South Parish calls Samuel Phillips. Third Meeting House building begins in current location in old center.

  • 1714: Rev Thomas Barnard purchases land from Dudley Bradstreet, son of Simon and Anne Bradstreet, to build new house, now known as the Parson Barnard House. This property is owned by the North Andover Historical Society.

  • 1718: Rev. Thomas Barnard dies & is buried in First Burying Ground.  His son John Barnard inherits his house, subject to the right of his widow to live there.  

  • 1744-57:  French & Indian Wars. 

  •  1765:  Population: 2,442.

  • 1770:  Town Meeting minutes notes opposition to Parliament’s imposition of “… duties on tea, paper, glass &c made and passed for the express purpose of raising a revenue in the American Colonies without their consent, which act we apprehend is oppressive…”

  • 1773: Colonists dump Tea in Boston Harbor in protest of taxes.

  • 1775:  Private James Stevens of Andover wrote in his diary on April 19th that he “awoke at around 7am to the alarm that soldiers were marching to Concord MA.” So he gathered with his company at the meeting house to begin his journey on foot to Lexington, passing through Tewksbury and Billerica.

  • July 4th,1776: Declaration of American Independence.

  • 1776: Population: 2,953.

  • 1788: George Washington elected 1st President.

  • 1790:  Population: 2,863.

1800

  • 1800:  Population: 2,941.

  • 1801:  North Parish Free School, later called Franklin Academy incorporated. Erected in 1799 after Jonathan Stevens donated the land to the town, it was the first incorporated academy in the Commonwealth to admit both sexes.

  • 1802:  Schofield Mill opened, which still stands today on Sutton Street, the first textile related mill in town. It was water powered.

  • 1810:  Population: 2,941.

  • War of 1812-1815

  • 1813:  Nathaniel Stevens builds his first textile mill, launching a company that would become international. In 1988, it was acquired by a private equity consortium.

  • 1820:  Population: 3,884.

  • 1832: Law requiring all households to support the established church is repealed. 

  • 1834:  Evangelical Church of North Andover (now Trinitarian Congregational) formed by members of North Parish, the first of many founded after the repeal.

  • 1834: Gilbert & Richardson, predecessor of Davis & Furber, moves to North Andover

  • 1835:  Bailey Family buys Parson Barnard House. Daughter Sarah Loring Bailey writes a history of Andover that is still consulted today.

  • 1836:  Gilbert & Richardson (later, Davis & Furber Machine Company) move to the banks of Cochickiwick Brook because the water flow is more reliable. After international success, the company closed in 1982, and the mill complex was converted to a commercial area now known as East and West Mill.

  • 1840: Population: 5,207.

  • 1847:  Lawrence incorporated as Town, taking 3 ½ sq. miles from Methuen and 2 ½ sq. miles from Andover.

  • 1850:  Population: 6,945.

  • 1855:  The town of Andover splits along parish lines into present day North Andover (North Parish) and Andover (South & West Parishes). Act of Separation meeting held at North Parish Church.

  • 1861-1865: Civil War: Davis & Furber employs over 350 people during Civil War.

  • 1864:  George Rea writes his last letter home from the South telling his family he reckoned “…there will be some hard fighting soon.” He was captured by the Confederate Army and he died in Andersonville prison later that year.

  • 1867:  Johnson High School and Stevens Hall erected on site of current school administration building. Funding provided by Colonel Theron Johnson with a $10,000 donation to the town. General Eben Sutton donated the clock tower.

  • 1868:  Horse Railroad Trolley Service from Lawrence began in 1868.

  • 1880s:  North Andover becomes a summer resort for Bostonians.

  • 1884:  North Andover Improvement Society is founded.    

  • 1896:  North water pump station built on road behind Butcher Boy Plaza to provide water, rather than households relying on wells, resolving issues of the proximity of wells and outhouses on small downtown lots.

1900

  • 1900:  Town population: 4,243.

  • 1910:  Town population: 5,529.

  • 1912:  2nd Bradstreet School opens.

  • 1913:   North Andover Historical Society founded.

  • 1920:  Town population: 6,265.

  • 1921:  The North Andover Fire Department becomes fully mechanized and the last team of horses is retired.

  • 1930:  Town population: 6,961.

  • 1931:  City of Lawrence acquires 312 acres of land for municipal airport.

  • 1940:  Town population: 7,524.

  • I 943:  First zoning by-law adopted: Resi­dential zoning: village, country, ru­ral; Business zoning: neighborhood, village; Industrial zoning: large, small.

  • 1941-1945:  World War 2.

  • 1945:  Marion Batchelder, Librarian of the Stevens Memorial Library, submits a plea to the Town to aid returning veterans of war with vocational training and other material to aid their transition back into civilian life.

  • 1946:  M. T. Stevens merged into J. P. Stevens, headquartered in New York City, after the death of Nathaniel Stevens, who was a major shareholder.

  • 1947:  Merrimack College founded with the mission of providing a college education for World War II servicemen.

  • 1950:  Town population: 8,485.

  • 1950:  Manufacturing sector represents 90% of all employment in North Andover.

  • 1955:  North Andover celebrates its Centennial with a parade and town wide events.

  • 1956:  Manufacturing begins at the Western Electric Merrimack Valley Plant on Osgood Street, eventually employing over 12,000 people—the largest town employer and taxpayer for decades.

  • 1955:  North Andover Historical Society purchased Parson Barnard House understanding it was the Bradstreet House.

  • 1956: New Pump Station built South end of Lake Cochichewick.

  • 1957:  North Andover employment: Manufacturing (93%); Wholesale & Retail Trade (4%); Service Industry (2%); Construction (I%)

  • 1960:  Town population: 10,908.

  • 1960:  Interstate 93 opens.

  • 1962: Construction of Route 495: Commonwealth cites Imminent Domain to absorb property on Beverly Street and raze several neighboring houses to make way for Route 495. Jimmy Terret, who worked Brightwood Mills and Stevens Mill, took photos of the demolition of his house and others and subsequent erection of the double-decker bridge.

  • 1964: Sam Rockwell retires from Davis & Furber, ending 150 years of Davis Family management.

  • 1967:  Interstate 495 opens, increasing demand for residential housing in North Andover.

  • 1969:  Construction begins on a Sentinel ABM defense site at Sharpner’s Pond Road.

  • 1970:  Town population: 16,284.

  • 1972: J. P. Stevens closes Stevens Mills & Osgood Mill: The mill is torn down to build Mill Pond Town Houses, transitioning the town from manufacturing to a suburban commuting town.

  • 1977:  Greater Lawrence Sanitary District plant opens.

  • 1980:  Town population: 20,129.

  • 1980:  Open Space Plan updated: Town becomes proactive about preserving open space as farms continue to be transformed into housing developments.

  • 1981: Davis & Furber stops manufacturing and closes. Davis & Furber machinery continues to be used all over the country.

  • 1982:  Davis & Furber buildings placed on National Historic register.  

  • 1982:  Tracy Castiglione hired as North Andover’s first female police officer. At her retirement in 2014, she held Badge Number 1. 

  • 1982:  AT&T Consent Decree providing that company would divest itself of the Bell Operating Companies which provided local telephone service in the United States and Canada. Western Electric loses its monopoly as the only provider of equipment to the Bell Operating Companies. Market forces and globalization would lead to decline in demand for its products and decline in its workforce. 

  • 1988:  Mazurenko Farm purchased under Chapter 61A (right of first refusal)

  • 1990:  Town population: 22,792.

  • 1994:  Town purchases Osgood Hill from Boston University to preserve open space and protect the watershed of Lake Cochickawick.

  • 1996:  Spin off of Western Electric becomes Lucent Technologies.

  • 1996:  North Andover celebrates its 350th anniversary. Edgewood Farm, a dairy farm, owned by the descendants of Captain Nathaniel Stevens is transformed into Edgewood Life Care Center. Several members of the Stevens family move in.

2000

  • 2000:  Town Population 27,202.

  • 2001:  Employment at Lucent is 5,600.

  • 2003 Lucent Technologies sells Merrimack Valley plant, over 2,000,000 square feet of space, to Ozzy Properties.

  • 2006:  Lucent merges with Alcatel SA, based in Paris.

  • 2007:  Alcatel Lucent closes Merrimack Valley works, laying off the last 450 employees.

  • 2008:  Messina Market, the last grocery store in downtown closes and the property is transformed into small shopping complex.

  • 2018:  Town Population 36,500

  • 2018: Merrimack Valley gas explosions: excessive pressure in natural gas lines causes a series of explosions and fires to occur in 40 homes in North Andover, Andover, and Lawrence. 30,000 people evacuate their homes and 1 person is killed.

  • 2019: COVID-19 hits North Andover. Students do not return from April Break. Schooling remains online throughout the following school year.