ANDOVER — Merrill ancestor Nick Chandler recently led Bethel historian Will Chapman and others on a tour through the Merrill-Poor-Chandler House on South Arm Road in Andover.

Chandler, who manages the home, gave its history and dispelled some of the myths surrounding the house that has been in his family for eight generations, beginning with Ezekiel Merrill in 1791.

Chandler disputed the locals’ stories of secret passageways that were meant to hide the family from Indians or alternatively hide fugitive slaves as part of the Underground Railroad years later.

The real story, he said, the one worth telling, is that Ezekiel Merrill came up the river from Bethel, was befriended by Indian princess Mollyocket who helped Ezekiel’s wife birth their children.

Metallak, an Arosaguntacook Indian, was instrumental, too, helping the Merrills live off the land. “They clearly had a strong relationship with the Native Americans,” Chandler said.

“Several generations later, the homesteading becomes part of history, of industrial America, especially capital finance with the investors’ guide to the railroads that Standard and Poor’s started with,” he said. “That’s the story that I think is the really cool American story that this structure tells.”

Chandler’s relative, Henry William Poor, either enlarged the farmhouse or more likely built a larger structure in its place, which stands today. He was the son of the founder of Standard and Poor’s, the S&P market index still used in finance today. The index began with Poor’s railroad industry guidebooks in the 1860s.

The tour

Chandler described the 14-bedroom house “a big, pretentious vacation home, built by a guy (Henry William Poor) who had the wealth to do it when he did.”

The property is currently for sale for $2.195 million.

There are actually two houses. A 9,600-square-foot “big house,” that Chandler was referencing and a four-bedroom caretaker home. In one of the five barns on the property is a two-story workshop and “the big barn,” which is 6,000 square feet.

The tour began in the Great Hall, a large front-to-back living room. The architecture was contributed by Stanford White, Chandler said. Stanford designed many houses for the rich, including Rosecliff, one of the Newport, R.I., mansions.

An enormous bearskin hangs over the fireplace and a moose head is mounted over the staircase.

The north section of the house was completed in 1902, yet the date on the chimney says 1791. Chandler believes it is the date of the original homestead. Ezekiel Merrill built a log cabin first, then the farmhouse, and finally “The Big House” was financed by Henry William Poor. It looks very much as it did in 1902.

In the third-floor attic is a small half-stage encircled by three windows that look far out over the property. “We made plays that we put on here,” Chandler said.

Myth No. 1: Secret hideaways for Indian defense and Underground Railway 

Chandler continued the tour to the front stairwell on the first floor. “I will show you the Indian defense features,” he said. “The secret hideaway that was part of the Underground Railroad — or not,” he said jokingly.

A look into the “hideaway” under the stairwell shows a gap that encircles the chimney with just a few inches of access space all around. It is obvious that only a tiny child could have hidden in the space.

Yet in the book, “Andover: The First 175 Years,” the Friday Club authors wrote, “Most of the Indians in and near Andover were friendly, although Ezekiel Merrill did take the precaution of making a hideaway, the opening of which can still be seen in the big house on the hill, which was built to include some of the original house.”

Chandler said that is most certainly a myth, not only because the space is impossibly tiny but also because the history does not line up. The new house was not finished until 1902, well past the time of the Underground Railroad and the conflicts with Native Americans were over by 1800 in New England.

The Museums of the Bethel Historical Society has this account: “In July of 1790, Molly Ockett served as midwife at the delivery of Susan Merrill, the first white child born in Andover, Maine. The child’s parents, Ezekiel and Sarah Merrill, settled in Andover in 1789 and constructed a small log shelter on the site of this massive Colonial Revival house, which still stands in 2007 and may contain elements from a dwelling built by the Merrills in 1791.

“Andover’s first white family, the Merrills maintained frequent and close ties with the local Abenaki, including Molly Ockett. One local history mentions that “in the large hall of the new house, Indians were often permitted to lie stretched along the floor, wrapped in blankets, with their heads toward the brick fireplace.”

According to a history of Andover at andovermaine.com, “Metalluck, the “Lone Indian of the Magalloway,” had great admiration for Mrs. Merrill and taught her many of the Indian arts. He was very proud of his pupil when he saw the garments that she had manufactured out of the animal skins he had taught her to tan.

Myth No. 2: Window shutters for Indian defense

In an unheated first-floor living room, Chandler pointed out the interior wooden shutters on all three windows. They were “probably storm shutters, (not used as protection in case of an Indian attack).”

On the opposite side of the room is a large fireplace. Chapman said the shutters were likely for keeping the heat contained. “This is probably a room they hung out in. People had these giant houses, but they didn’t use the whole house all the time,” he said.

Myth No. 3 :The Chrysler Conversation

In the sunlit dining room, Chandler said, “This has been the scene of many wonderful meals. The founding board of Chrysler Corp. met here before they decided to create the car company. It is a myth. There is no written record.”

Myth No. 4: The farmhouse still exists

Chandler has closely examined the foundation of his ancestors’ home and has concluded that the original farmhouse does not exist. However, “in the basement in the south side of the house are hand-hewn floor joists,” which he believes were kept when the big house was constructed.

“The foundation is not a farmhouse foundation. While the middle of the house foundation was built from fieldstone, the stones are very large,” he said.

The basement has more nooks and crannies, but none that could possibly fit a child, never mind an adult.

Discussion turned to whether Mollyockett traveled from Andover to Paris Hill to cure future Vice President Hannibal Hamlin who was ill as a baby.

“That story is not true, not in my opinion,” Chapman said, dispelling yet another local myth.

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