Miscellany Mondays: Along Hidden Road (pt2) 17 Hidden Road
A Miscellany Mondays story by Barbara Bunn
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Let’s take a ride down Hidden Road.
What we know as Hidden Road today was once known as South Street, a very old road according to author and Andover resident Bessie Goldsmith. It was the road travelers took as they journeyed from Ipswich to Billerica.
The house on 17 Hidden Street was built on land near where William Chandler’s Horseshoe Inn had been located. This homestead of many acres was owned by at least 6 generations of Chandlers with the last being Isaac Chandler.
It was built by David Hidden who came from Newburyport in 1809 to help build the Andover Theological School. David Hidden built the house around 1812. He married Isaac’s daughter Mary Chandler in in 1816. They had 2 children Mary Elizabeth Chandler Hidden (1818-1893) and David Isaac Chandler Hidden (1823-1897). David Hidden was deeded ½ the house and ¾ of an acre in 1828. When David died his 2 children inherited the homestead.
They kept a farm there of more than 20 acres, most of which is now parts of Forbes and Karlton Circle.
Mary Chandler and her brother also rented rooms to boarders in half of their home.
One of the Chandlers boarders was Joseph Neesima, a Phillips Academy student from Japan. After graduation in 1867, he went to Amherst College. After he graduated from Amherst College, Joseph Neesima returned to Andover to attend the Theological Seminary with the Class of 1874. He became the first Japanese student to graduate from a US College, and the first to be ordained a Christian minister.
There’s more of Neesima’s story to come in the next few weeks. In an upcoming post, writer Barbara Bunn will share the story of his life in Japan, his journey to the United States and Andover, his education and work, and his legacy in his home country.
A connection with the Blanchard House (home of the Andover Center for History & Culture)
Mary Chandler never married, but had an admirer Deacon Edward Taylor, the owner of the Amos Blanchard House. In 1849 Deacon Taylor came to dinner every Thursday evening. Edward Taylor came to Andover in 1839 from Boston to be a bookkeeper for the Marland Manufacturing Company. He was also a Deacon at South Church.
David Chandler was a bachelor, and the last of this Hidden line. After his death, the property went to a cousin, who sold the home in 1897 to Lucy Nesmith of Lowell.
Lucy Nesmith made many improvements in the home and named it “Hiddenfield.” When Lucy died the home became the property of William S. Knox in 1902, who had in the past had been a boarder at the home. The home passed to different owners over the next 100 years.
Before the Hidden Family moved to 17 Hidden Road, the Chandler family had owned a great deal of land on this road. So why not call it Chandler Road? Maybe because there already was a Chandler Road in West Andover.
So was the road named for the Hidden Family, or was it the fact that it is truly a lovely hidden road?
Many thanks to volunteer Barbara Bunn for writing this Miscellany Mondays story!
Barbara, you tell a good story. We live across the road from that house, on the former farmlands! Now we know the history. Thank you.
I have always been curious about that lovely home and piece of property. Thank you for sharing!