Andover

History

Andover first organized in 1857 as Round Lake Township. In 1860 after an Anoka, Minnesota speech by U.S. Representative Galusha Aaron Grow from Pennsylvania who was an abolitionist and a major figure in the Homestead Act, the town name was changed to Grow Township. Ham Lake Township split from Andover, known as Grow Township at the time, in 1871. Once a stop on the Great Northern Railway, Andover was established as a city in 1976. A popular myth surrounding the origins of the name "Andover" describe a train tipping off the railroad tracks, and an eyewitness describing that the train "went over and over", however this proves to be false because an Anoka County Union Newspaper article first mentions the name in an articled dated March 14, 1899, before any railroad tracks went through the city. The article described the Great Northern Railway announcing the names of new stations being located throughout the area, including a station named "Andover Station". The origin of the name for the station is probably the town of Andover in the UK .

Race & ethnicity