In this article I revisit the Dyers Crossing area of East Andover – an important location which I’ve mentioned briefly in earlier articles.

Before the arrival of the railroad, the general area around today’s Dyers Crossing was referred to as “hog-back.” The name has been written many different ways, including hog-back, hog back, Hog back, Hog Back and Hogback. I will use the latter version.

The writings of Ralph Chaffee explain the origin of this rather strange name. It came about because of the nearby high, rounded hill which looked somewhat like the posterior end of a huge, well-fed hog

Its appearance changed drastically in 1940, when its clay was excavated for the building of the Franklin Falls Dam. From then on, it was referred to as the Clay Bank.

Mill Brook (Sucker Brook today), which made its way around Hogback, offered potential water power for early settlers and may have been instrumental in attracting them to this area. Once the settlers arrived, roads were necessary, and many important early roads passed through, or were in close proximity to, Hogback.

I have previously written about the Center Road (1762), the Philbrick Road (1801), and the Brook Road (1824). According to John Eastman’s History of Andover, two other roads also converged in this area.

The Back Road (1783) began near the intersection of today’s Sam Hill Road and Route 11 and joined the Center Road. Dyers Crossing Road (1801) came down from Marston Hill’s Emery Road and merged with the other roads near Hogback. Since so many people needed to travel on these five roads, Hogback was an important and busy place.

Dyers Crossing

In 1847, the builders of the Northern Railroad were quickly cutting a path and laying tracks through Andover. Many times during its northwesterly journey, these tracks crossed over town roads. If these railroad crossings happened to be near someone’s house, the crossing often took on the name of the family living there.

This was the case with Dyers Crossing. It is not clear to us today exactly where the Dyer family was living in 1847. Was it one of the two houses which still remain near the crossing? Or did they live in a house which has since burned, been torn down, or been moved?

Ralph Chaffee speculated that William and David Dyer lived in the old Keniston house. I question this, however, since Albert Hoyt’s recorded interview relates how his great-grandfather, who was married in 1849, moved their house down from the mountain.

The second house east of the crossing is a possibility and was listed on the 1892 map as belonging to Frank Austin. My uncle, Ray Hersey, who lived most his 90 plus years in this area, believed the Dyer family may have lived a little farther west of the crossing, where the remains of a cellar hole can still be found.

Members of the Dyer family had a rather unusual occupation for their day, or at least one that was a surprise to me. Ralph Chaffee, in his 1974 book East Andover and Its People, relates: “David Dyer was said to be a musician, and he invented and manufactured parts for the seraphine, melodeon, and other musical instruments in his home.”

Frank Joseph Brown, in an article written in 1898 for the Journal Transcript, says, “Sixty years ago or more, John and David Dyer manufactured organs at Dyers Crossing.” To me, it is interesting and exciting to think that in 1838, or even before, a family right here in East Andover, and within walking distance of my house, was producing musical instruments in their home!

Dyers Crossing Road

Even though Dyers Crossing Road was laid out as early as 1801, there are still only a few houses on it. Probably the road was cut through the woods and fields of area farmers, who retained ownership of their land for a long period of time.

Eventually, in the 1900s, a few pieces of land were sold, and gradually over the years houses were built. (Since these houses were built during the twentieth century, and not by early settlers, I have decided not to write about them in this article.)

Probably the building on Dyers Crossing Road which is remembered the most is the Dyers Crossing Schoolhouse. It was built in 1884 and combined the Emery Road school district on Marston Hill with the Back Road school district. Both of these school buildings were reported to have been in deplorable condition

The new school was built on land donated by Carlos Tilton, who was the previous owner of the Guy and Nannie Hersey farm (my grandparents). The building was located at the four-way intersection of today’s Route 11 and Dyers Crossing Road, in the southwestern corner. A few of the rocks upon which it sat can still be seen.

The Dyers Crossing School and my family had a connection which spanned three generations and lasted for 50 years. My grandmother attended this school, as did my mother, her four siblings, and many of their cousins. My brother and my five sisters attended school there until it was closed in 1945. The students were then transported to East Andover Village as the town continued to consolidate its many schools.

Unfortunately, Dyers Crossing School closed a year before I was old enough to begin school. Thus, I was the only member of my family (along with my father) not to have attended. I have always felt a little sad about this – as if I had missed something, or had been left out of an interesting and unique experience – one shared by everyone in my family, except for me!

My sister, Helen LaPlante Duchesne, in her book In Their Time, devoted a chapter to the Dyers Crossing School, which she attended for eight years. Her book is an interesting read and sheds light on what life was like growing up in East Andover in the first half of the 20th century. Helen donated the copyrights to her book to the Andover Historical Society. If interested, it can be obtained there.

In 1945, World War II came to a close. Area servicemen and women were returning home, getting married, and looking for housing. One of these returning veterans was my uncle, Ray Hersey, who was a Purple Heart recipient. Seriously wounded while fighting in the Pacific, he spent several months recuperating in a New York hospital before returning home and marrying in the fall of 1945.

Like all Americans, he dreamed of owning his own home, and plans were begun to make this happen. His parents were now the owners of the empty Dyers Crossing School, and they had plenty of land.

Unfortunately, the schoolhouse was small, and the land around it not suitable for expansion. The family decided their best option was to tear the building down and use all salvageable materials to build a new house on a larger and more desirable piece of Hersey land on the other side of Route 11. Today, we would call this “recycling.” If it had happened a few decades earlier, the family probably would have moved the building across the road with the help of their oxen.

Ray and his wife Dot raised their family in this house and lived there for over 60 years.