History is replete with people performing extraordinary acts
that change the course of the future. Rarely does one town have
two people who, in the course of their ordinary lives, make such
an extraordinary impact on their town as to change its history.
Alice Buck and Harold Rafton were two such people. Amazingly
their efforts as early environmentalists were similar in effect
and separated by nearly 60 years. Each one’s actions were
initiated in response to dramatic changes taking place in their
community. Alice Buck was born in 1842 in New York City where
her father, Edward Buck, was a successful lawyer. Mr. Buck, with
his wife, daughter and son, moved to Andover when Alice was 1.
Her father had been elected a trustee of Abbot Female Seminary
and had taken a new position with a law firm in Boston, Mass.
The family moved into their new home at 19 School St.et in
Andover, directly across from the seminary entrance. Alice Buck
received her early education at the “Fem Sem,” but attended a
finishing school run by