Ayer, Massachusetts

Ayer ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Originally part of Groton, it was incorporated February 14, 1871, and became a major commercial railroad junction. The town was home to Camp Stevens, a training camp for Massachusetts volunteers during the American Civil War. Later, Fort Devens was established by the federal government to train New England soldiers for World War I. Fort Devens is a major influence on the area, although it is considerably smaller than when it was first closed in the mid-1990s. The town's population was 8,479 at the 2020 census.

History

Native American history

Ayer was originally inhabited by the Nashaway, a Nipmuc people that inhabited the lands along the Nashua River and its tributaries. A small settlement was located along the banks of the Nonacoicus Brook, located in the western part of the town. The name of the Nashaway village, its people and the brook, pronounced by locals as , was also recorded in early English sources as 'Nonajcoyjicus,' 'Nonocoyecos,' 'Nonacoiacus' and 'Nonaicoics.'Nourse, H. A. (1894). ''History of the Town of Harvard, Massachusetts. 1732-1893.'' (pp. 66-68). Clinton, MA: W. J. Coulter, Printer. According to the personal manuscripts of Justice Samuel Sewall, best known for his controversial role in the Salem witch trials, he was told sometime in 1698 by Hanah, wife of ''Sachem'' Ahaton of the Ponkapoag Massachusett tribe, that the name was actually ''Nunnacoquis'' (modern Wôpanâak Massachusett dialect ''Nunahkuqees'' ) and signified 'an Indian earthen pot' although literally refers to a 'small dry earthen pot.' The name was likely a reference to a series of small mounds along the banks of the Nonacoicus Brook.

Very little archaeological evidence has been found of settlement in the region, most likely lost to centuries of cultivation and development, although a handful of stone tools or evidence of habitation have been found along the shores of the Nashua River, Nonacoicus Brook, Sandy Pond and Long Pond as well as a rock shelter on Snake Hill. Although some have been dated to the Early Woodland Period (3000-2000 BP), the majority of findings are from the Late Woodland and Early Contact Period (1000-450 BP). In addition, portions of Main Street and Sandy Pond Road are believed to follow the vast network of trails used by Native peoples for trade, travel and communication. The Nashaway likely cultivated corn, beans and squash, but depended on foraging for fruits, nuts, tubers and seeds to supplement their diets. Seasonally, camps were set up in hunting areas, but the most important gatherings were likely the annual spawning migrations of Atlantic salmon, alewife, American shad, blueback herring and sea lamprey that once swam up the Nashua River from the sea via the Merrimack River.

The arrival of English settlers in the seventeenth century was a great disruption. Virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, leptospirosis, influenza, scarlet fever and measles ravaged Native communities due to their lack of immunity to Old World diseases. The influx of English settlers also led to competition for land and resources and efforts to subjugate and assimilate the Native peoples. The Nashaway were visited by the missionary John Eliot, who had translated the Bible into the Massachusett language, understood throughout New England as a second language. He began teaching Indians to read and write, and to train as missionaries and teachers. Land was set aside for the Indians for the Praying town of Nashoba in what is now neighboring Littleton, Massachusetts, which likely attracted many of the Nashaway families in the surrounding areas. Nashoba was one of fourteen communities in the colony established for the Indian converts, where they came to meld English and traditional ways.

By 1675, the peace between the English settlers and the Native Americans was broken with the uprising of the Wampanoag sachem Metacomet'' depicted the legal drama surrounding the investigation, conviction and eventual exoneration of Kenneth "Kenny" Waters, for the 1980 murder of Katharina Brow. Waters' sister Betty Anne worked with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to overturning the wrongful convictions using DNA profiling, DNA test results as evidence. In 2009 the town and its insurers eventually paid a $3.4 million settlement in response to a civil rights lawsuit by the estate of Kenneth Waters.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 9.6 square miles (24.8 km²), of which 9.0 square miles (23.4 km²) is land and 0.6 square mile (1.4 km²) (5.75%) is water.

Ayer borders the towns of Shirley, Groton, Littleton, and Harvard.

Demographics

At the 2010 census, there were 7,427 people, 3,118 households and 1,831 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 3,462 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 84.3% White, 5.9% African American, 0.3% Native American, 3.6% Asian, 2.3% from other races, and 3.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.7% of the population.

There were 3,063 households, of which 26.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.0% were married couples living together, 2.8% had a male householder with no wife present, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.3% were non-families. 32.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.86.

Of the 7,427 people in the population, 22.6% were under the age of 18, 7.5% were 15 to 19 years of age, 6.7% were 20 to 24 years of age, 28.1% were 25 to 44 years of age, 28.1% were 45 to 64 years of age, and 11.4% were 65 years and over. The median age was 38.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.2 males. For every 100 females 18 years and over there were 97.9 males.

The median household income was $54,899, and the median family income was $78,947. The median income of individuals working full-time was $53,194, for males versus $47,198 for females. The per capita income for the town was $32,179. About 8.0% of families and 12.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.5% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those age 65 or over.

Government

As a New England town, Ayer is governed by town meeting and a three-member board of selectmen.

Economy

Former head office for North America operations for Vitasoy (2016 to 2018) and now as US regional office.

Education

Public schools

Along with the neighboring town of Shirley, Ayer is served by the Ayer Shirley Regional School District.
* Page Hilltop Elementary School
* Ayer Shirley Regional Middle School
* Ayer Shirley Regional High School

Additionally, Ayer is home to the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School.

Colleges

After World War II, the army base at Fort Devens was converted into a temporary college campus. Massachusetts State College–Fort Devens operated for three years and was closed after the spring semester in 1949 due to declining attendance.

Transportation

The Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) serves the town of Ayer. The MBTA Commuter Rail's Fitchburg Line provides service to and from North Station in Boston at Ayer station.

Ayer is located on routes 2A, 110, and 111; it is one town away from both Interstate 495 and Route 2.

Freight trains travel daily through Ayer over the tracks of the historic Stony Brook Railroad. The line currently serves as a major corridor of Pan Am Railway's District 3 which connects New Hampshire and Maine with western Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York.

The southern segment of the Nashua River Rail Trail commences in Ayer.

Points of interest

Places on the National Register of Historic Places:
* Community Memorial Hospital – 15 Winthrop Ave.
* Fort Devens Historic District
* Ayer Main Street Historic District – Main St.
* Pleasant Street School – Pleasant St.
* St. Andrew's Church (1892) – 7 Faulkner St.

The Billiards Cafe on Ayer's Main Street is notable as the home of the only full-sized (6 ft by 12 ft) snooker table in New England.

Notable people

* Lee Alexander, bassist
* Bill Aucoin, band manager of Kiss from 1973 to 1982
* Foster Ellenborough Lascelles Beal, naturalist
* C. L. Blood, con artist
* Rita Briggs, an American female baseball catcher who played from 1947 through 1954 for seven different teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
* Angus Dun, vicar at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
* Robert Frazier, writer of speculative poetry and fiction
* Mike Gillian, Longwood University head men's basketball coach
* Jamie Morris, National Football League running back
* Joe Morris, National Football League running back
* Betty Anne Waters, a lawyer who was able to exonerate her brother and featured in the 2010 film ''Conviction''
* Norbert Wiener, a child prodigy who graduated from Ayer High School at age 11 and became a pioneering electronics engineer and theorist of computers and cybernetics

References

External links

Town of Ayer official website

Ayer Public School District

The ''Ayer Public Spirit'' newspaper
(index of the archive)
*
Library of Congress listing

{{Authority control

1667 establishments in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Populated places established in 1667
Towns in Massachusetts
Towns in Middlesex County, Massachusetts