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Hanover, Massachusetts
Town
Hanover Town Hall
Seal
Location in Plymouth County in Massachusetts
Coordinates: 42°7′N 70°49′W / 42.117°N 70.817°W / 42.117; -70.817
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Plymouth
Settled	1649
Incorporated	1727
Government
• Type	Open town meeting
Area
• Total	15.7 sq mi (40.7 km)
• Land	15.6 sq mi (40.4 km)
• Water	0.12 sq mi (0.3 km)
Elevation	59 ft (18 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	14,833
• Density	951/sq mi (367.2/km)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern)
ZIP code	02339
Area code	339 / 781
FIPS code	25-28285
GNIS feature ID	0618341
Website	www.hanover-ma.gov

Hanover is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 14,833 at the 2020 census.

The area of Hanover was first inhabited by the local Wampanoag and Massachusett people before Europeans had settled. According to local history, there were a few documented sites being within the modern day border of Hanover, with one being in Assinippi, one in Pine Island Swamp, and the last being at Factory Pond, also known as Drinkwater Swamp. In the middle of the 17th century, the indigenous people were removed by force as waves of settlers from the British Isles started to migrate towards North America. The last of these natives in Hanover were removed in a small skirmish that occurred at the Factory Pond area in the 1630s.

European settlement began when the land was settled by English settlers from Scituate in 1649 when William Barstow, a farmer, built a bridge along the North River at what is now Washington Street. When Barstow settled the town, he constructed a cabin that was located off what is known today as Oakland Avenue (formerly Back Street). According to Dwelley’s History of Hanover (1849), Phineas Pratt of the Wessagusset Colony apparently spent a night crossing the Indian Head or North River in the Hanover/Pembroke area during his difficult journey from what is today Weymouth to Plymouth in 1623.

During its first decades of settlement, the land was the westernmost portion of the town of Scituate, and it would officially separate and be incorporated as a town on June 14, 1727. The name “Hanover” is probably a tribute to King George I, the first Hanoverian King of Great Britain. (While George I died on June 11, 1727, the reports would not have reached the colonies until after the town’s incorporation.) The origin of the name “Hanover/Hannover” however, comes from the Middle Low German ho or hoch meaning high, and over meaning bank or shore.

There are six separate villages settled within the town; North Hanover, Four Corners, West Hanover, Hanover Center, South Hanover, and Assinippi. Each village originally had its own school district, general store, and post offices. Hanover’s early industry revolved around farming, small mills, anchor forging, and several shipbuilding yards along the North River. The oldest building in Hanover with the best documentation to support it is the Daniel Turner house, built in the year 1693.

The ship named Grand Turk was built at Thomas Barstow’s Two Oaks shipyard in Hanover along the North River. The ship was used by Elias Hasket Derby and was later adopted as the logo for Old Spice. The “first” Grand Turk, as it was known, was the first U.S. ship to trade with China and was a part of the Derby Mercantile House. The North River in

Hanover was also the home of eleven smaller shipyards, with larger ones being Smiths shipyard and Barstow’s Lower Yard. Another well known ship that was built in Hanover was the Oeno, in 1821 at Barstow’s Lower Yard. The ship was wrecked off the coast of Fiji in 1825. Later industries would include tack factories and shoe factories along the smaller waterways in the town. The town was the site of the invention of the first tack-making machine, and making tacks and fireworks were among the industries of the later 19th century for Hanover.

It is said that the old Cornet Stetson Mill that was built on the Hanover side of the Third Herring Brook, and burnt down during King Philip’s War, was the oldest mill in America. On the Indian Head River, the E.H. Clapp Rubber Works was an industrial stronghold for the town during the nineteenth century, the original building is preserved at Luddam’s Ford Park now. Immigrants from Ireland and the British Isles settled the lands of Hanover and the North River region, also many immigrants from Northern and Eastern Europe, specifically from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and Scandinavia, immigrated into Hanover during the nineteenth century.

At one point, from the late 1920s to the early 1940s, locals of Hanover and other parts of the North River area referred to West Hanover as “Little Poland”. Today, Hanover is mostly residential. The Hanover Crossing, along with Merchants Row and other shops, are located near the intersection of Routes 3 and 53. Hanover Center has many war memorials dedicated to veterans who fought and died in wars throughout United States history.

During the American Revolution, Hanover sent Colonel John Bailey and his men to help defend Boston Harbor and Castle Island for the patriots. Later in the war, they were sent on expeditions to Rhode Island and Manchester, New Hampshire. The Four Corners area of the town was the site of Wales Tavern, which also hosted Paul Revere and Daniel Webster. An Iron Forge in West Hanover had also gone from producing anchors, to producing cannons and cannonballs. The westernmost shipping point on the North River was located at Chapman’s Landing near Luddam’s Ford. Iron would come from Humarock on ships traveling up the river to Chapman’s Landing in Hanover, where the iron would be forged.

The Stetson family, in which created the famous hat company, originated in the North River area of Massachusetts. The Stetson family made some of their very first American homesteads in Hanover. Slavery was also present in the town prior to the 1783 abolishment of slavery in Massachusetts, as one of the most prominent slave owners in the town was Job Tilden. The Tilden family of Hanover came to Scituate from England in 1634, the same Tilden family that of Samuel J. Tilden.