One popular rural area within Essex County is the beautiful natural town of Andover, Massachusetts. The area was settled by its colonists in the year 1642 and then incorporated as a town very soon after in the year 1646. Andover has a population that is close to the average for its town size within the Massachusetts region at a population of 36,569 individuals. Andover is located north of Boston by 20 miles and is a little closer at around 17 miles from Sound and Visions Media.

Before the area of Andover was colonized by the Europeans, it was inhabited and controlled by Native Americans for thousands of years before. The region was controlled by three different tribes split by the Merrimack River; The Penacook’s north of the Merrimack River, and the Massachusetts and Numkena shared the region south of the Merrimack River. The region was not known as Andover until it was Colonized by the Europeans, and before it was known as Cochichawick, named by the Massachusetts tribe.

Andover had many portions of its region that would now make up North Andover and south Lawrence, and these regions were created in 1643 by the Massachusetts General Court. The state encouraged settlers into this region as the early settlers were offered many benefits such as immunity from levies, taxes and services apart from those of the military. John Woodbridge would be the first of the settlers in this region as he and his group migrated from the great local areas of Newbury and Ipswich in 1642.