Tucker Mountain Road Once Connected Andover and Hill

Families from the two towns were drawn together

January 20, 2015 • Saved under History
By Rita Norander, Andover Historical Society
Rita Norander’s mother, Dorothy Hersey LaPlante, was a descendant of both the Tuckers and the Herseys. She was photographed standing in front of the Tucker Mountain schoolhouse by Rita’s father around 1927.
Rita Norander’s mother, Dorothy Hersey LaPlante, was a descendant of both the Tuckers and the Herseys. She was photographed standing in front of the Tucker Mountain schoolhouse by Rita’s father around 1927.

William Tucker, my fourth great grandfather, was born in Salisbury, Massachusetts in 1760, and settled in East Andover in 1794. The area of town where he lived was referred to as Tucker’s Mountain, but today it is simply called Tucker Mountain.

William married his cousin Mary Tucker, and together they had seven children. In 1837, their son William donated land for a schoolhouse, and son Benjamin built the schoolhouse, receiving $100 for his labor.

In 1891, since there were only three children of school age, the school was closed, and the schoolhouse reverted back to the Tucker family on whose land it was built. The schoolhouse remained in the Tucker family until 1972, when sisters Alta Hersey and Freda Hersey Elliott, whose mother was Grace Tucker Hersey, sold it to Madelyn and Frank Baker.

Tucker Mountain Road

Tucker Mountain Road did not always end in East Andover, but rather continued over the mountain into Hill – past Poverty Pond to Currier Road, and on to Hill Center. The areas on both sides of Tucker Mountain were rather isolated, each being a considerable distance from its more populated town center.

Because of this, families who lived on these two sides of the mountain were drawn together, even though they lived in different towns. The families knew one another, and often a son or daughter from the Andover side of the mountain would marry a daughter or son from the Hill side.

That is what happened with my great-great grandmother, Edna Jane Hersey from Hill, who in 1854 married Samuel Tucker (Benjamin’s son). Several years later, Edna Jane’s youngest brother Frank G. Hersey married Ellen Rowe, who lived just below the schoolhouse.

I know of at least one other Hersey/Tucker marriage which took place in 1904, and I’m sure there were many other families who were similarly drawn together from these two sides of Tucker Mountain.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, my boyfriend (who later became my husband) and I spent a lot of our free time “jeeping” on the back roads of Andover and the surrounding towns. Tucker Mountain Road was one of my favorites!

This was probably true because of the personal history connecting me to this road, but also it was such a pretty road, and in fairly good condition, except for a few washout areas. It was scenic, quiet, lined with stone walls, and there were a few cellar holes. It was easy for me to visualize my own ancestors traveling back and forth on this same road as they, too, went about their daily life 150 years ago.

I haven’t traveled over Tucker Mountain in a long, long time, but I don’t think it has changed that much in all these years. I have often thought it is too bad Tucker Mountain Road isn’t still a through road!