7 Baker Lane – Thomas Donovan - Mary Mahoney House - Parcel #33 1927 map S&D Co.

Baker’s Lane, now Baker Lane, takes its name from the former Bake House of Alfred Putnam circa 1827-1853 at the highlighted location in the period photo. The Putnam place was a double tenement house to #9, #11 #13 & #15 Baker Lane. Smith & Dove Manuf. Co. purchased the property on Dec. 6, 1918 and the tenements were later razed in 1919 as they are no longer enumerated in the January 1920 Census.

The property along Baker Lane and down to the river was once co-owned by Benjamin Ames and Daniel Cummings in 1814. Benjamin Ames, Esq. b. Oct. 30, 1778 son of Benj. & Phebe (Chandler) Ames, married on May 1, 1809 to Mary Boynton, who sadly died on Nov. 3, 1810. Benjamin remarried on May 11, 1812 to Sally Boynton, Mary’s sister. Daniel Cummings 2nd b. Sept. 2, 1778, a Carpenter, married on June 30, 1801 to Hannah Ames b. July 19, 1781 who was Benjamin’s sister. Ames & Cummings became business partners. Cummings died Dec. 26, 1827 in Maidstone, VT.

Deeds at the Salem registry trace ownership back to Benjamin Ames and Daniel Cummings who sold 5 acres 18 rods of land for $436.72 to Stephen Abbot & Stephen Russell on June 9, 1814. The parcel on Baker’s Lane included buildings and extended down to the river, but excluded a house "now owned and improved by David Holt during his natural life with the liberty to remove the same at his decease, unless sd. Abbot & Russell shall purchase at the appraisal..." Russell later sold his undivided half of the property to Abbot on November 18, 1818.

Stephen Abbot held for a total of ten years then selling on Dec. 17, 1824 to Jonathan Merrill, a Blacksmith, including six acres w/blds for $1500. (b. 236 leaf 193) Abbot held a $1000 mortgage deed. Merrill mortgaged the 6 acres for $1500 to Amos Choate of Salem, MA on Dec. 17, 1824 and an additional $500 on April 3, 1827. The deed includes a small adjoining parcel from Jos. L. Low and includes "...“with one new and two old dwelling houses with the Bake house and Stable about to be erected and all other buildings now standing on the premises.”
Amos Choate held the mortgage deed until his death in 1845. Thomas C. Foster & Jonathan Merrill then released the mortgage deed to his widow Mehitable Choate on Sept. 27, 1846. The Choate mortgage was sold to Samuel Gray on June 16, 1847, for $1710 which only included two houses. The dwellings appear to be 63-65 Essex St. and 1-3 Baker Lane, a portion of the six acres. The Bake House property deed was assigned to Jesse Sargent and included this dwelling house.

Jesse Sargent was born Nov. 10, 1793 in Methuen, MA son of Nathaniel & Martha (Quimby) Sargent. Jesse became a merchant and trader, married Mar. 6, 1822 in Hillsboro, NH to Hannah H. Moore b. Nov. 10, 1793 in Henniker, NH dau. of Thomas & Mary Moore. They settled in the North Parish of Andover and had five children; Charles Horatio, b. 1823, Martha Ann b. 1828, Hannah Frances b. 1833-d. 1842, Eliza Sutton b. 1835, and Jessie Grandville b. 1837.
Jesse purchased several mortgages including property in Abbott Village which he then sold off individually.

#7 Baker’s Lane was purchased by Thomas Donovan on Feb. 17, 1852 for $300. …Land with a dwelling house by the Bake House occupied by Alfred Putnam, (#9) which joins the same, then N 80*E 38’ 11” to pipe, then S 9½* E. 31’ 10” to a pipe, then S 80½*W 38’ 11” to a bank wall crossing a passageway eight ft. 8” in width (one half of passageway included) N9 ½* W 31’ 10” by a passageway [Baker Lane] leading from the road leading from Baptist Meeting House to the stone bridge [Essex St.] to the first bound at the Bake House, with the privilege of obtaining water at all reasonable times from the well in the premises of said Sargent adjacent hereto. Donovan took a $175 mortgage from Sargent. Jessie died on Sept. 10, 1857 age 64 and his estate went to his widow Hannah and surviving children. Thomas defaulted on the loan and the Sargent heirs took possession of the house on April 27, 1861. Son Charles H. Sargent was assigned the mortgage. Thomas Donovan had also borrowed money from Wm. Phillips Foster who filed “Right of Equity” with the court on Donovan’s property on Apr. 29, 1862. Foster then purchased three properties for $833.62 at auction on March 21, 1863.

Foster sold this dwelling house to Timothy Callahan, (wife Ellen) on May 5, 1863 for $425. Callahan held for 15 months then sold the house to Catherine Mahoney, widow & Mary Mahoney a single woman on Aug 13, 1864 for $475. Catherine and Mary took a mortgage of $175 from W. Phillips Foster and paid off the loan on Nov. 11, 1865. The Mahoney family owned the home for 46 years. Deeds refer to it as the Thomas Donovan house and also the Mary Mahoney house. The 1900 Census list, Mary Mahoney, age 60, and her 14 year old niece Mary Mahoney, a Doffer at Smith & Dove Co. Earlier Andover directories list Mary as a house servant. It appears that Aunt Mary died as she is not listed in the 1904 Directory. Her niece Mary then sold the property to Lucy Ann Donohue on July 19, 1910. The 1910 Census enumerated in April lists Ann Donohue age 60 b. 1840 Canada, Widow, no children, a Dressmaker, renting the house at #9 Baker’s Lane. Directories list Lucy, widow of Patrick Donohue. Lucy sold the house to Smith & Dove Co. on Dec. 6, 1918. Lucy may have been the last resident of the home as it was razed in 1919 and the lot was later combined to the property at #5 Baker Lane. Lucy Ann's maiden name was Sheehan, and she died on Dec. 10, 1924 and is interred at St. Augustine's Cemetery in the Sheehan family lot.