Miscellany Mondays: Pomp's Pond
"Not to be resisted by either grave or gay"
Off Abbot Street is one of Andover’s favorite recreation grounds, equipped with ball fields, tennis courts, a beach, hiking trails, and other facilities. At its center is the main subject of this story, Pomp’s Pond, a large kettle hole surrounded by tall stands of pine and oak.
A kettle hole pond is of glacial origin. A large chunk of residual ice sunk into the ground and melted, leaving a water-filled depression. Dunes of sand were commonplace until the climate warmed and trees and shrubbery could survive. South of our pond is a patch of glacial sand exposed from recent human activity.
A few hundred yards to the west of Pomp’s is the Shawsheen River, a waterway for the Penacook, suggesting that the pond may have had importance prior to European settlement. Charles Peabody and Warren Moorehead of the Peabody Institute in Andover found stone tools nearby. They conclude however that most Penacooks settled along the Merrimack and may have only used tributaries like the Shawsheen as a route of retreat from their European enemies.1
After this period the pond found itself within the domain of William Ballard and the Ballard family. They owned land along the Shawsheen including the subject pond, which they naturally named Ballard’s Pond. Their house was along the river south of the pond.
Early town records document the creation of a communal sheep pasture “between ye land of William Ballard senior and ye pond called Ballard’s pond” in 1686. Town officers like the herdsman or reeve were responsible for keeping track of livestock, which had a tendency to wander off.2
The story of the pond’s next resident begins in 1724. He wasn’t born a free man but instead a slave of Captain William Lovejoy, who gave him the name Pomp Lovejoy. William was a prominent public figure and served in the military.3
Just before his death in 1762, he freed Pomp and gave him 30 acres. He had married Rose Foster in 1751, a former slave of John Foster, and they moved into a cabin together near the pond. It is from this cabin that Pomp and Rose were known for their election cakes and root beer for town voters.4 At age 52 he served for one and a half days in the Revolutionary War.5
Early Phillips Academy students regularly walked to the pond to exercise and relax. Some recall meeting Pomp who told them he was one hundred years old.6 He died in 1826 at 102 and Rose the same year at age 99. His gravestone in the South Church cemetery summarizes his reputation: “Much respected as a sensible, amiable and upright man.”7
Their cabin was for a short time used by other members of the Lovejoy family before falling into disrepair. Only a cellar hole at 131 Abbot Street remains.8
Recreation was king at Pomp’s Pond even as Andover changed during the Industrial Revolution. Generations of residents informally played and swam at Pomp’s Pond throughout the 19th century. Even some Phillips Academy secret society initiations took place here. In 1915 the Andover Canoe Club dug a canal from the Shawsheen River solely for recreational access.9
One exception can be seen when you enter Rec Park from Abbot Street. The flat, straight road ahead of you was once a railroad grade constructed for the short-lived Andover and Wilmington Railroad. The remnants of another can be seen on the steep slope below the railroad grade. In the early 20th century, ice houses stored the ice collected from Pomp’s Pond until electric refrigerators made them obsolete.
The 20th century also brought more formal recreational facilities to the pond. The pond became a liability to the community because of its risk to those who could not swim. In 1895 Andover passed a bylaw that prohibited “any swimming in any public or exposed place in town.”10
In 1923, Andover residents proposed a better solution: supervised swimming and swimming lessons. They raised $931.06 to clear a beach on Pomp’s Pond, build facilities, and hire lifeguards.11 The land around the pond was in private hands then. Summer camps such as the Andover Camp, Camp Manning, and the current Camp Maude Eaton all operated here.
Much of the land around the pond came under public control in the mid-20th century. Former summer camp land is now Rec Park and Foster’s Island Reservation.12
Today you can enjoy Pomp’s Pond just as generations of Andover residents did before.
Note: the quote in the subtitle describes the allure of the pond to all walks of life. It comes from a handwritten biography of Pomp.
Warren K. Moorehead, Bulletin V: Certain Peculiar Earthworks Near Andover, Massachusetts (Andover, MA: The Andover Press, 1912), 52, https://archive.org/details/certainpeculiar00moor.
Sarah Loring Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover (Comprising the Present Towns of North Andover and Andover), Massachusetts (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1880), 36, https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch00bail.
Clarence Earle Lovejoy, The Lovejoy Genealogy with Biographies and History 1460-1930 (New York: C. E. Lovejoy, 1930), 61, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89061962387.
Bessie Goldsmith, The Townswoman’s Andover (Andover, MA: Andover Historical Society, 1964), 22.
Lovejoy, The Lovejoy Genealogy with Biographies and History 1460-1930, 61.
Claude M. Fuess, An Old New England School: A History of Phillips Academy Andover (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917), 178, https://archive.org/details/anoldnewenglands00fuesrich.
South Church in Andover, “Pomp Lovejoy,” South Church Cemetery Records, South Church in Andover, accessed August 16, 2021, http://southchurch.com/cemetery/recordDetail.php?IDnum=1414.
Goldsmith, The Townswoman’s Andover, 22.
Andover Village Improvement Society and Andover Trails Committee, Andover Trail Guide, 5th edition (Andover, MA: Andover Village Improvement Society and Andover Trails Committee, 2015), 15.
Eleanor Motley Richardson, Andover: A Century of Change 1896-1996 (Andover, MA: The Andover Historical Society, 1996), 209-213.
Goldsmith, The Townswoman’s Andover, 23.
Andover Village Improvement Society and Andover Trails Committee, Andover Trail Guide, 5th edition, 15.
Nice writing! I like your articles so much, Floyd.
What a great history lesson. My daughter has been going to Rec Park Camp for the past 5 summers and takes lessons at the pond. We really enjoyed reading this article together!!