HISTORICAL NOTE 

The Shattuck Farm at Merrimack Corner was first settled by David (3) Abbott, 1689-1753, son of Benjamin (2), in 1718.  His third son, Jonathan (4), 1739-1817, inherited most of the farm.  He did not prosper as a farmer and on his death the large property was divided and sold—half to Jonathan’s grandson, Joseph Shattuck Jr., half to Frederick Noyes, unrelated to the Abbotts. 

In the 19^th century, Shattuck, who had much more of an established base in the Andover community, was able to take advantage of the new markets for farm produce formed by the new cities of Lawrence and Lowell.  Noyes did not prosper as much and on his death in 1871, his sons sold out to Shattuck.  The prosperous Shattuck, who moved in important Andover circles, was elected to the State legislature and was able to send his son George to Harvard.  Three of his sons left the farm.  George became a Boston lawyer; Joseph Jr. and Charles became grocers in Lawrence and provided an automatic market for the produce of the farm. 

After their father’s death in 1873, the four sons, (Edward ran the farm,) operated the farm as a modern business, a partial source of their income.  They concentrated on dairying, importing registered Holsteins.  Their accounting methods became sophisticated.  They bought still more land, to a total of 312 acres. 

In about 1910 Edward Shattuck Jr. (1861-1947) who worked for the New England Telephone Co., moved to Andover.  He commuted for twenty-five years, but in 1936 retired.  He and his wife Catherine Donovan Shattuck (d. 1975) ran a restaurant in one of the eighteenth century houses and a general store and ice cream stand in a “colonial” building constructed of old timbers*  This was very popular in the 1940s and 50s.  In 1948, after Shattuck’s death, David Young was hired as foreman.  He ran the farm, which gradually declined, until Mrs. Shattuck’s death in 1975.  At that time, Route 93 split the farm, and the land became ripe for industrial development.  In 1985 the 18^th century houses were moved and what was once the Shattuck Farm is now an “industrial park.” 

The history of the property, which included aboriginal remains, is exhaustively recounted in An Archaeological Survey and Documentary History of the Shattuck Farm, Andover, Massachusetts, published by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, c. 1981. 

*The restaurant and ice cream stand were located in the colonial home. (JCP) 

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE 

The records, which were given to the Historical Society in 1976, consist almost entirely of account books covering the years 1848-1957.  The first volume, 1848-1862, covers only the Shattuck half of the property, “The Home Farm.”  The others include the Noyes Farm.  There is also an order form pad for dairy produce from about 1950 and a large scrapbook of greeting cards received by Alice Louise White between about 1938 and 1954.  She is remembered as the waitress at the restaurant.

Processed by Mary F. Morgan, March 1983.