The Cochichewick River, also known as Cochichewick Brook, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed October 3, 2011 stream in

North Andover, Massachusetts North Andover is an affluent town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 30,915. History Native Americans inhabited what is now northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European c ...

, that drains water from

Lake Cochichewick Lake Cochichewick is a lake in North Andover, Massachusetts that collects water from Weir Hill and other local uplands. Its overflow drains into the Cochichewick River, which joins the Merrimack. Brooks School, a private co-educational prep sc ...

into the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into M ...

Early history

The river's first

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an record dates from March 4, 1634-5, when "It is ordered that the land aboute Cochichowicke, shall be reserved for an inland plantacon, & that whosoever will goe to inhabite there, shall have three yeares immunity from all

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

es, levyes, publique charges & services whatsoever, (military dissipline onely excepted), etc." The Massachusetts Colony Records later note the sale of land thereabouts to the English:

At a general Court at Boston 6th of 3d month, 1646, Cutshamache, Sagamore of Massachusetts, came into the court and acknowledged that, for the sum of L6 and a coat which he had already received, he had sold to Mr. John Woodbridge, in behalf of the inhabitants of Cochichewick, now called Andover, all the right, interest and privilege in the land six miles southward from the town, two miles eastward to Rowley bounds, be the same more or less; northward to Merrimack river, provided that the Indian called Roger, and his company, may have liberty to take
alewives The alewife (''Alosa pseudoharengus'') is an anadromous species of herring found in North America. It is one of the "typical" North American shads, attributed to the subgenus ''Pomolobus'' of the genus ''Alosa''. As an adult it is a marine spe ...
in Cochichewick river for their own eating; but if they either spoil or steal any corn or other
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
to any considerable value of the inhabitants, the liberty of taking
fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
shall forever cease, and the said Roger is still to enjoy four acres of ground where now he plants.

Settlement and early industry

Andover's (now called North Andover) first settlements were made about Cochichewick Brook, a "fair springe of sweet water." By 1835, North Andover had two

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

districts (Sutton Mills and Stevens Mills) on the river. In the 18th and 19th centuries,

milldam A mill dam (International English) or milldam (US) is a dam constructed on a waterway to create a mill pond. Water passing through a dam's spillway is used to turn a water wheel and provide energy to the many varieties of watermill. By raising t ...

s were built along the brook to power

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

- and

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

s, creating Stevens Pond. The Weir Hill reservation, now owned by The Trustees of Reservations, was originally the Stevens country estate above Lake Cochichewick and Stevens Pond.

References

History of Andover, Massachusetts

Helen Campbell, "Anne Bradstreet and Her Time"
{{authority control Rivers of Essex County, Massachusetts Tributaries of the Merrimack River North Andover, Massachusetts Rivers of Massachusetts