USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Andover: symbol of New England; the evolution of a town > Part 10
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Judge Samuel Phillips, Jr., 1752-1802
The Phillips House, in North Andover, built in 1752
The Phillips Mansion on Andover Hill, erected in the 1780's
THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY
authorities. Those appointed to this office could not refuse to serve. They were, in effect, ecclesiastical constables, and were even required to keep "young people" from disturbing the serv- ices. In 1679, for example, the selectmen directed Thomas Os- good and John Bridges "to have inspection of the boys in the galleries on the Sabbath, that they might be contained in order in time of public exercise." On March 14, 1692, just before the outbreak of the witchcraft mania in Andover, the boys and girls really broke loose, with the consequence that the town fathers passed the following vigorous resolution:
And whereas there is greivous complants of great porphaneness of ye Sabbath, both in ye time of exercise, att noon time, to ye great dishonor of God, abandall of religion, & ye grief of many serious Christians, by young persons, we order & require ye tything men & constables to take care to p'vent such great and shameful miscar- riages, which are so much observed and complained of.
Thus early was juvenile delinquency, or something resem- bling it, a problem in a New England village. The exceptionally strong language used in this instance makes us wonder whether the girls of Andover had heard of what had been going on in Salem Village and were experimenting "on their own." The one fact which does emerge is that the behavior of the younger gen- eration was then, as now, a source of annoyance to their elders. Even in 1695, many months after the witchcraft hysteria, two persons were designated by the selectmen to sit in the galleries and inspect the young on the Sabbath, and also to report disor- derly children to the minister, who in turn was requested for the first offense to admonish them publicly. On the second offense, however, complaint was to be made to a justice of the peace, "that the offender may be published for such crimes, as the law directs."
Although they enacted strict rules regarding conduct and en- forced a rigid moral code, these settlers in Andover, like those in other Puritan communities, had their natural human weak-
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nesses. Drunkenness was not infrequent, and sometimes a full- blooded youth had his way with a susceptible maid. Life was not all self-denial and austerity and penance. Even the influence of stern officialdom could not suppress the longing for entertain- ment and the impulse to play even on solemn occasions. Further- more, the fathers and mothers had their own petty jealousies and their irresistible tendencies to interfere with the affairs of their neighbors. Of all these proclivities the minister had to take cognizance, and his sermons were packed with warnings and threats. The Hell which he depicted for sinners was eternal, with all the torturing reality of Dante's Inferno. To the An- doverians of the seventeenth century religion was not a joyous experience, but profoundly serious, based always on the concep- tion of an often angry and always omnipotent God.
By the close of the seventeenth century Andover was a vigor- ous and self-sustaining community of perhaps seven hundred people, with several scattered mills and blacksmith shops and stores. With an area of perhaps fifty square miles it was the larg- est township geographically in Essex County. Foster's Pond, on the extreme southern boundary, was several long miles from Lake Cochichawicke to the north. The Holts, on their high hill in the south end, were remote from the cluster of houses around Haggett's Pond. Not many buildings dating from before 1700 are still standing as they were at that period, but cellar holes in what are now forests show that much land formerly under culti- vation has since been abandoned.
One of the few contemporary references to Andover is that by Judge Samuel Sewall in his Diary for August 12, 1702:
Rid with Mrs. Woodman and Smith to Andover, which is a good In-Land Town, and of a Good Prospect. Some warned us not to goe to the ordinary, because Mr. Peters was dangerously ill of the Bloody Flux; so went to Mr. Woodman's daughters, and there din'd on Pork and Beans; afterwards had Fowls rosted and dress'd very well. Right conducts me to Wooburn, through the Land of Nod.
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THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY
Problems of real estate ownership had grown more complex, and on March 8, 1702, at a general meeting of the proprietors, a committee was appointed to revise the original agreement of the freeholders and make a correct list of their names. It is sig- nificant that at town meetings in 1714, one hundred and twenty- one new proprietors were added to the list compiled in 1702. New names were found on the lists of town officials, and some of the familiar ones were disappearing.
What still held this complicated social organism together was largely the community church. The scattered settlements in the township had their peculiar local problems, which they solved to suit themselves. But the meeting house belonged to all, and everybody gathered there on the Sabbath to exchange greetings and gossip. Soon a step was to be taken of far-reaching significance to the citizens and also to the future historian of Andover. By the formation of a new and quickly prosperous church in the south end, the town was divided into two parishes, each of which came to have more and more interests exclusively its own. At this point the story of the South Parish as an entity in itself really begins.
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CHAPTER X
The Great Andover Schism
T HE emergence of the south end of Andover as a community with distinct personality, rooted loyalties, and a strong sense of unity was brought about by man's desire for lebensraum. The soil was not more fertile than that of the region around Lake Cochichawicke, and building sites were no more readily accessible. But the passion for more land than that provided by the four- or eight-acre lots assigned to the early proprietors led some of the more adventurous to seek space for agriculture at a distance from the church on Academy Road. As we have noted, Nicholas Holt, progenitor of a numerous clan, was in residence at least by 1675 on the slope of his hill; and George Abbot and his family were doubtless located on the Shawsheen even before that date. In fact, new residents were also appearing in other quarters of the township. In 1679, Moses Haggit (or Haggett), of Ipswich, bought of Stephen Johnson fourteen acres of upland and seven acres of meadow on the southwest side of what was then Blanchard's Pond (now Haggett's Pond), near the Lowell Road, promising to pay 12 shillings a year as his tax charge to town and church. Around the two hundred and twenty-acre pond, with its pleasant prospect, there soon developed a consid- erable colony. Such transactions were to be more and more fre- quent as the years went by; for Andover, in spite of its witchcraft notoriety, was regarded as goodly territory not too hard to reach.
Typical of this gradual migration and occupation is the case of Francis Dane, son of the second minister of Andover, who after his marriage moved from his father's parsonage to the south end. Nobody knows where he lived, but he died in 1738,
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THE GREAT ANDOVER SCHISM
at the age of eighty-two. His grandson, John Dane, was deacon of the South Church for almost forty years. Now in all the town- ship he has not a single descendant.
These men and others, Lovejoys and Chandlers and Ballards, pre-empted the better sites and enjoyed prosperity. Then, as now, the south end was pleasing to the eye. The "dark Shaw- sheen" wound its way through marshes and meadows to the Mer- rimack, offering to children a place for swimming and boating; and there were many little brooks like the Skug and Mosquito. The two ponds, Foster's and Pomp's, then teemed with fish. The hill where Phillips Academy stands today rose southward from the river with only a few farmhouses and an alder swamp where now are noble buildings. The countryside was varied, including Prospect Hill and Rattlesnake Hill, Indian Ridge and Sunset Rock, called then by other names. The village itself was to un- dergo many transformations before it became what it is today.
Before the close of the seventeenth century the population of the south end outnumbered that of the parent community. The problem of administration had become perplexing, and already each section had its own constable, pound-keeper, and fence- viewer. But the selectmen and overseers of the poor still re- mained the same for both sections, and the town meetings legis- lated for all the citizens. Some inevitable rivalries and jealous- ies were always smoldering. What the south enders grumbled at particularly, however, was the long journey which they had to make to church and town hall. For a time the disputes were adjusted amicably, mainly through concessions to the south enders. What is now Andover had its own tavern and general store. Its farms were profitable. It was obvious that its citizens, whenever they wished to organize, could control town meetings. With each successive year the relative power of the south end in numbers and resources became more evident and its local pride was less hidden.
In 1697, the Reverend Thomas Barnard became the sole min- ister of the congregation which met on what is now Academy
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ANDOVER: SYMBOL OF NEW ENGLAND
Road, and a few years later a vital issue brought matters to a head. The old church, built in 1669, was now too small for the expanding population, and in 1705 it was formally voted "to build a new meeting house as sufficient and convenient for the whole town as may be." The inevitable discussions regarding cost and size were prolonged for many months until, in May, 1707, it was decided to erect "a meeting-house for ye inhabitants of Andover of the following dimensions, viz: of sixty-foot long, and forty-foot wide and twenty-foot studd and with a flatt roof." The question of location had next to be considered; and at a stormy gathering on September 9 of that year, the south enders, in an aggressive mood, carried a motion "to set the meeting house on the spot of ground near the wood called Holt's Wood, where the cross-paths meet at the south-west corner of George Abbot's grounds." This startling vote meant a transfer of the church cen- ter of the township from the existing site in the north end to a new one nearly three miles away in the south end. Forty-five in- dignant freeholders from the north end immediately petitioned the General Court-the ultimate authority in such matters -- alleging that the proposed location was not central, that the con- sent of the proprietors had not been obtained, and that the trans- fer would greatly incommode the Reverend Mr. Barnard, who had long lived in the parsonage near the old meeting house.
An embittered controversy followed. The General Court dutifully appointed a committee which, after some preliminary investigation, called a public meeting at which interested citi- zens were invited to express their views, but the vote as original- ly made was not altered. Various suggestions for compromise were made, including one to build a new meeting house on the old location but to permit the south enders after ten years to have their own house of worship. Once again, on October 12, the persevering committee from the General Court made an at- tempt to reconcile conflicting views, but the south enders ob- stinately maintained their majority over their north end rivals,
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THE GREAT ANDOVER SCHISM
the actual vote being a decisive 88 to 24. Finally the court, on November 2, 1708, ordered that Andover "be forthwith divided into two distinct precincts, and that Col. Wainwright, Maj. Sewall, Major Somersby, and Nehemiah Jewett, Esq. be a com- mittee to perform that division and make it equal for north and south precincts, within the space of two months, next coming, unless in the interim the town agree thereon and make it them- selves, and that thereupon the north division take the present meeting-house and repair and add to it as they please." Here, then, is the official origin of the present town of Andover!
In its order the General Court gave other more specific in- structions intended to confirm and implement its decision:
That there be forthwith laid out for the minister of the south pre- cinct fourteen acres of land for a house lot, and forty acres at a fur- ther distance, part of it lowland, to make meadow, of the common land in said precinct, which will make them equal to the other divi- sion, to be for the use of the ministry, forever.
That the inhabitants and proprietors of the south division build a convenient meeting-house for their own use, and a ministry house.
Upon all which Mr. Barnard, the present minister, shall declare his choice of which congregation he will officiate in, and that pre- cinct, north or south, shall fully and wholly perform the past con- tract of the town with him, and the other precinct or division of the town shall call and settle another minister for themselves.
Throughout these specifications is apparent the respect paid to the minister as God's active agent in the community. No set- tlement was to be approved which did not recognize his rights and privileges.
The committee of the General Court, after some necessary survey work, established the boundary line, on April 12, 1709, as follows:
Beginning at a great pitch pine tree, near Merrimack River, marked with stones about it, and the west corner of Richard Barker's land, and is said to be the bounds between his land and John Gutter-
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ANDOVER: SYMBOL OF NEW ENGLAND
son's land, so-called, from said pine tree on a straight line to a stake and heap of stones about it at the corner bounds between Walter Wright and Hooker Osgood, and from thence on a straight line to a white oak tree marked A and R, being a bound tree between said town of Andover and Reading, with stones about it, standing on a hill known as Osgood's Hill.
The pitch pine and the white oak have long since fallen, and Walter Wright and Hooker Osgood are dead. But the Merri- mack River and Osgood's Hill are still there, and these bound- aries, confirmed on October 7, 1754, by "a mutual committee of the parishes," constitute today the traditional geographical definition of the town of Andover.
With legal permission to proceed, the following leaders "warned" the first regular meeting of the newly constituted South Parish:
John Abbot Joseph Ballard George Abbot Francis Dane John Russ William Lovejoy
With the exception of Dane these were all descendants of the original proprietors, and they may be regarded as the founders of the present Andover. They and their friends wasted no time in taking action. At their meeting on June 20, 1709, with Henry Holt as moderator and George Abbot as clerk, they decided to build a meeting house "at ye Rock on the West Side of Roger's Brook," on what is now the Andover playstead. Unfortunately the Rock, which might in these reminiscent days have been marked as a treasured relic of the past, was removed in 1844.
The new South Meeting House was raised with remarkable speed during the summer and accepted on October 18, 1709. We know nothing of its dimensions or appearance, but its cost was apparently 108 pounds. It was available for worship in January,
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THE GREAT ANDOVER SCHISM
1710, although no permanent clergyman had as yet been secured.
Meanwhile the town fathers had delayed in laying out the land and lot prescribed by the General Court for the South Parish, and the committee, in order to expedite progress, acted arbitrarily. Mr. Barnard, furthermore, procrastinated in making his choice of parishes until the General Court directed him to reach a decision before December 11, 1710, "or that then the south parish provide for themselves." The perplexed clergyman finally decided to remain where he was, to the relief of the south enders, who had already engaged a young preacher qualified to meet their spiritual needs.
Without realizing it, they had decided the destiny of their community. The man of their choice was Samuel Phillips, who was graduated from Harvard in 1708, had been a year a school- master at Chebacco (now Essex), and had then spent several months preaching-"very acceptably"-at Norton. His great- grandfather, George Phillips, who had degrees from Cambridge, had arrived in Massachusetts Bay on the Arbella and had be- come the first minister of Watertown. His son, Samuel, was the minister of Rowley from 1651 to 1696; and the latter's oldest surviving son, also Samuel, had become a goldsmith in Salem and founded the family fortune. It was the goldsmith's son who came to the South Parish as its first pastor and remained there almost sixty years.
The Phillips family was to become one of the most distin- guished in the township. Its successive generations can best be indicated through a simple genealogical chart:
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ANDOVER: SYMBOL OF NEW ENGLAND
Reverend George Phillips (1593-1644), of Watertown
Reverend Samuel Phillips (1625-1696), of Rowley 1 Samuel Phillips (1657-1722), of Salem
Reverend Samuel Phillips (1689-1771), of Andover (South) 1 Samuel Phillips, Esq. (1715-1790), of North Andover Parish Judge Samuel Phillips, Jr. (1752-1802), of Andover (South)
Young Mr. Phillips began to preach in the South Parish Church as a "stated supply" as early as April 30, 1710. On De- cember 10 of that year, one day before Mr. Barnard had to make his choice of parishes, the South Parish voted "that Samuel Phillips shall be our pastor." He was to receive a salary of sixty pounds in money, with the understanding that this would be raised ten pounds "when he shall see reason to marry." Because of his youth his ordination was delayed for some months, finally taking place on October 17, 1711. Soon afterwards he married Hannah White, of Haverhill, and moved into the new parsonage on the southeast corner of what are now School and Central Streets.
The north enders could hardly be happy over the trend which events had taken. Because of the division they had lost thirty-five members of the church-rather more than half their number. Mr. Barnard addressed the governor in a long letter of complaint, in which he said, "The north part of the town that was the first settlement are dissatisfied that they are made the less part." To add to his disgruntlement the minister's house had recently been destroyed by fire, and while the factional dispute was unadjusted, neither group would pay his salary. He had some reason for feeling despondent.
The General Court had advised the North Precinct to be con-
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THE GREAT ANDOVER SCHISM
tent with repairing the existing church building and erecting only a modest addition. But this was not agreeable to the mem- bers, who proceeded to put up a wholly new meeting house, fifty feet long and forty-five feet wide, facing the common a few rods south of the present Unitarian Church. After much debate over plans, accompanied by the spirited disagreements so congenial to the Puritan temperament, the structure was completed and opened. The Reverend Mr. Barnard carried on until 1718, when he died of a "stroke."
Throughout these dissensions the town remained homoge- neous in its basic religious preference. The two parishes were devoutly Congregationalist in their professed creeds. Both wor- shiped God in the same way, and heretics were never numerous in the township. Furthermore, every resident was supposed to be a regular church attendant, and even those who preferred to remain at home had to make a financial contribution, or offer- ing, to what was really a state church. The Reverend Mr. Phil- lips said in 1727, "I do not remember one native of the parish that is unbaptized."
The series of decisions just related is known to us almost en- tirely through the official town and church Records, and there may have been other more personal motives for the schism. Mr. Barnard had his critics both as a preacher and as a spiritual leader, and dissatisfaction with him doubtless affected some of the south enders. Moreover the supporters of Mr. Dane may not have cared very much about his successor. Family feuds and in- trigues unquestionably colored the talk around Andover fire- sides and helped to determine the course of events. Only wise guidance brought about a peaceful outcome.
Nevertheless the separation of the two parishes involved at the time only the church, and the town continued to function as a political unit, like Boxford or Topsfield, until 1855. The principal town officers, for example, represented both areas. A check of the selectmen for the half century from 1696 to 1746, compiled by Miss Bailey, shows that George Abbot (from the
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south end) was nine times in that office and John Frie (from the north end), eight times. For purely strategic reasons, if for no other, the south enders were always represented. Among the better-known representatives to the General Court from An- dover were Christopher Osgood, of the South Parish, who served from 1705 through 1709, and Benjamin Stevens, of the North Parish, who was in the legislature for several terms, from 1712 to 1716, in 1721, and from 1728 to 1730. Each one of these men, like other representatives from the township-Colonel Dudley Bradstreet, Captain Timothy Johnson, and James Bridges-felt that his constituency was all Andover, whether North or South.
The regional conflicts which resulted in the creation of the South Parish were inevitable, and as time moved on the two sec- tions became more differentiated. For many years after the par- ish separation, however, they were composed of the same kind of people, who moved back and forth in friendly fashion. Es- quire Samuel Phillips, son of the Reverend Samuel Phillips, married the well-to-do granddaughter of the Reverend Thomas Barnard and moved to the North Parish, where he built in 1752 a beautiful country house, still standing and occupied by his de- scendants. When the Reverend John Barnard, ordained in April, 1719, succeeded his father as minister of the North Parish, he and the Reverend Samuel Phillips, of the South Parish, through their warm personal friendship, set a fine example to their con- gregations. Esquire Samuel Phillips' son, Samuel Phillips, Jr., in due course moved back to the South Parish, where his grand- father had been minister, and in 1786 built there on Andover Hill the most magnificent residence in the township, surpassing even that of his father. This interchange was good for both sec- tions, giving Andoverians a feeling of cooperation and unity.
How did the residents of the newly marked out South Parish make a living? In the pioneer period agriculture provided them with most of what they required, but we also have early records of craftsmen-carpenters and bricklayers and coopers and weav- ers, and even a distiller, Andrew Peters. By the turn of the cen-
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THE GREAT ANDOVER SCHISM
tury Isaac Abbot had opened a store which served as a kind of community center. Much of the trading had at first to be con- ducted by barter, but by 1700 currency was everywhere in use.
Whatever it may have been in the beginning, Andover was not long a classless society. The prudent were soon differenti- ated from the wasteful. Some of the settlers had brought proper- ty with them. Others soon began to accumulate possessions, and, as usual, the more enterprising and farsighted reaped their re- ward. The more prosperous families were forming alliances and starting dynasties. A caste system based on achievement and ac- cumulation soon developed, with Stevenses, Phillipses, Osgoods, Abbots, and others at the top.
No census was taken in those days, but we have evidence that by 1725 at least a thousand persons were dwelling within the limits of the town. The growth had not been rapid, but was suf- ficient to make Andover a place of some consequence in Massa- chusetts affairs. Miss Bailey rightly stresses the point that the population was largely middle class, neither very rich nor very learned, but self-respecting and completely independent. In these respects the town was like neighboring settlements, no worse and not much better. For the well-to-do, however, the out- look was broadening. The roads were steadily improving, and it was getting easier to travel, not only to church but also to Salem, the county seat, and even to Boston. Some of the families could now buy silver and pewter, and even imported chairs and tables. Here and there books were appearing. A New England culture had been born and, even in the villages, was growing.
Some constricted adventurers were actually finding condi- tions in Andover too crowded. A few of these in 1723 petitioned for a grant of land in Pennacook, the present site of Concord, New Hampshire; and three years later the picturesque and re- doubtable Ensign John Chandler led an exploring party into New Hampshire. There they were confronted by the governor, who warned them that they were trespassing upon that colony. Somehow they managed to establish themselves, in spite of oppo-
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