Samuel Phillips Jr., born in North Andover,…

Samuel Phillips Jr., born in North Andover, Massachusetts, is a graduate of Governor Dummer Academy in 1767, and Harvard College in 1771.

Beginning in 1775, Phillips had aided the revolutionary cause by producing gunpowder for Washington's troops at a mill on the Shawsheen River in Andover.

Though plagued by difficulties, the powder mill will remain active into the 1790s.

Phillips also runs a paper mill in Andover during this period.

In the midst of the Revolution, and with financial backing from his father and his uncle, Dr. John Phillips, Samuel Phillips Jr. founds Phillips Academy in Andover, today the most prestigious secondary boarding school in the United States, as an all-boys school.

The great seal of the school is designed by Paul Revere.

John Hancock, the famous signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, signs the school's articles of incorporation; the school opens on April 21, 1778.