Haverhill has a lot more history than you thought! I had the pleasure of visiting the Dustin Garrison House by candlelight this fall and was very intrigued by its history.
The Dustin House or Dustin Garrison House is a historic First Period house at 665 Hilldale Avenue in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Built about 1700, it is one of a very small number of surviving period houses built out of brick in Massachusetts. It is also notable for its association with the Dustin or Duston family; Hannah Duston was famously captured by Native Americans during a 1697 attack on Haverhill, probably while this house was under construction.
An Interesting Historical Read: Part one of a series, “A Town Named Haverhill”
The key date in the founding of Haverhill is 1639, a year before the first 12 settlers arrived at the banks of the Merrimack River near today’s Mill Street. The year 1639 is when John Ward arrived in Ipswich, joining his father, the Rev. Nathaniel Ward.
Town Name Actually Honors Prominent Landowner
In 1643, the General Court disbanded the Pentucket charter and issued a new one under the name Haverhill, essentially the colonial equivalent of a legal name change. In spite of claims the name change was to honor the settlement’s new minister’s birthplace, it was actually named in honor of Nathaniel Ward, also born in Haverhill, England. The proof of this is that at the same time, Nathaniel was granted 600 acres in a town he rarely, if ever, actually visited.
More Information: By David Goudsward: http://www.whav.net/cms/how-haverhill-was-really-founded/
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