Andover, everywhere and always, first, last, she has been the manly, straight-forward, sober, patriotic New England Town.                                    ~Rev. Phillips Brooks

Andover was first settled in 1642 and incorporated on May 6,1646. The earliest settlers purchased the land from the Sachem Cutshamache for six pounds sterling and a coat, an event still depicted on the official seal of the town.  

Early notable settlers included Simon Bradstreet, co-founder of Cambridge, MA, and Massachusetts Governor from 1679-1686 and again from 1689-1692, and his wife Anne (Dudley) Bradstreet, who authored the first published volume of english-language poetry in the Americas in 1650.

In 1692, Andover was caught up in the mass witchcraft hysteria that lead to the Salem Witchcraft Trials.

In 1775, Andover was home to a mill that manufactured gunpowder for the continental army. The mill was owned by Samuel Phillips, Jr, a friend of George Washington's.   Phillips Andover Academy was founded in 1778 by the same Samuel Phillips, Jr., and is today the nation's oldest incorporated boarding school. The Reverend Phillips Brooks was the great-grandson of the founder of Phillips Andover Academy and grandson of the founder of the Andover Theological Seminary.  He was a Harvard graduate, abolitionist, humanist, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and later Episcopalian Bishop of Massachusetts.  He is perhaps best known as the author of the lyrics to the popular christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and for his eulogy of Abraham Lincoln.  Brooks summered with his aunts at the Phillips Manse, in what is today North Andover.  The town also was home to the Andover Theological Seminary, founded in 1808 by Samuel's son John Phillips.  The school moved to Newton, Mass. in 1908 and is now known as the Andover - Newton Theological School. The song, America, was written in 1831 by Samuel Francis Smith, while he was a student at the Theological Seminary.

Originally comprising a much larger land mass than now, in 1847 a portion of the town was ceded to the planned industrial community of Lawrence, and divided into Andover and North Andover in 1855.

Prior to the civil war, the town was a hotbed of the Anti-slavery movement, and was the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin from 1852-1864, while her husband taught at the Seminary.  Stowe is buried in Andover.

Andover was an early industrial center, harnessing the abundant water power of the Shawsheen River for woolen manufacturing by the year 1800. Smith & Dove Company of Andover was the first mill to successfully produce flannel thread in the Americas.

The definitive book on the early history of Andover, Historical Sketches of Andover, by Sarah Loring Bailey, was first published in 1888 and is still available for sale at AHS.  The full text of this book is available on-line.  Click here to view.

Scholars, authors, students, and the merely curious frequently visit our library and archives to research Andover's fascinating history.  Our Subject Matter Index has been designed to assist researchers by illustrating a sampling of the many resources we have preserved and make available to the public.

Today, the town is a high-tech center, boasting many leading software, internet, and biotechnology firms as major employers, yet it maintains its distinct character and New England charm.