Next Meeting: May 14, 2025

The next meeting of the Foster's Pond Corporation is our Annual Meeting.

Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Time: 6:45 - 8:45 p.m.
Location: Memorial Hall Library

The Annual Meeting of the Foster's Pond Corporation is your chance to connect with your neighbors from around the Pond; to hear all the latest information about the Pond, the Dam, and the surrounding community; and to express your views about what the Corporation should be doing. The Foster's Pond Corporation is your organization. Be a part of it!

Our meetings are open to the public.

Featured Presentation:

A STORM OF WITCHCRAFT:
THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

It took a perfect storm of factors ranging from religious discord and frontier warfare to political factionalism and the worst weather of the century to create the greatest witch hunt in American history. A third of a millennium – 333 years – later, the 1692 Salem witch trials still resonate in the American psyche. History professor Tad Baker will explore the context and lingering effects of this shocking episode, and debunk popular myths that cloud our understanding. The trials had a particularly profound impact on Andover, where more residents were accused than in Salem itself. Among them: Ann Foster, the aging widow of Andover’s 22d resident, Andrew Foster. Despite Andrew’s prominence – his land on what had become known as Foster’s Pond was just part of his extensive estate – Ann would die in prison.

Our speaker: Emerson "Tad" Baker is a professor of History at Salem State University and has previously served as vice provost and dean of the graduate school. He is the award-winning author or co-author of six books on the history and archaeology of early New England, including A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience and The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England. Baker has served as consultant and on-camera expert for historical documentaries and TV shows for networks ranging from PBS and TLC to Smithsonian and the History Channel.

If you have questions or comments about the Corporation, contact Steve Cotton.

Help us preserve and protect one of Andover's premier public resources!  Join the Foster's Pond Corporation.  If you live near the Pond, or if you just visit to hike its shores, fish its waters, or cross-country ski its wintry ice cover, you can be a Corporation member and support our efforts.  To join or make a donation, go to our donation page. Dues are $25 per year individual/$40 per year family/$100 per year sustaining.

The Foster's Pond Corporation is tax-exempt pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.  Your contribution (including dues) is tax deductible.