History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

510 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
pursued, in a way that secured public favor and
patronage. After some time his son, Joseph Bond,
Jr., took the business, the father still continuing
to oversee the bakery. This largely extended the
business, and made lively work for teams and
bread-drivers. When Mr. Bond was ready to re-
tire from business, it must have been gratifying to
him to know that his sons were able to carry it
forward, and take a personal interest in maintain-
ing the high reputation that " Bond's crackers " had
attained through the exertions of their father and
grandfatiier. The business, thus descended to the
third generation, was carried on and greatly ex-
tended by the introduction of improved machinery,
so that the magnitude of the establishment in all
business relations made its destruction by fire, in
February, 1864, and the removal of the business
to Boston, a heavy blow to Wilmington.
Messrs. Perry, Cutler, and Company erected at
North Wilmington a spacious tannery, which went
into operation in July, 1873. Both tanning and
currying are successfully carried on. The estab-
lishment employs forty-five men.
Within a few years the Boston Union Ice Company
have utilized Silver Lake by erecting spacious
houses for the storage of ice, which enables them
to transport annually large quantities to Boston by
the Boston and Lowell Railroad.
The old Middlesex Caiuil, comjjleted in 1803,
was the great public enterprise of its day. It was
favorably located as respects Wilmington, entering
the western border of the town and passing one
mile west of the Centre, to where it entered Woburn,
a distance of about five miles. It had two
locks in the town, about one mile apart. Each
liad a commodious house for tiie entertainment of
boatmen. It was of much advantage to the people
in transporting wood and lumber to Boston, and
gave to the town a business-like appearance. Its
greatest drawback was its leakage, whereby a large
area of meadow and swamp lands were greatly in-
jured by excess of flowage.
The Boston and Lowell Railroad went into opera-
tion in 1835. Four and a half miles of its line
are within the limits of the town. The station is
one mile south from the centre of the town. The
Lawrence branch railroad runs for two and one
half miles in Wilmington, connecting with the
Lowell line at the above-named station.
Tiie Boston and Maine Railroad has four miles
of track in Wilmington, its station being one niih^
north of the Centre.
j
The Salem and Lowell Railroad traverses the
north part of the town.
The people of Wilmhigton enjoy the benefit of
a well-selected library of one thousand volumes.
In 187-4 there was formed a Farmers' and Mechan-
ics' Club, which now more than maintains its origi-
nal vigor and interest. The town has two post-
ofiices, one near the station of the Boston and
Lowell Railroad, and one at the Boston and Maine
Railroad station.
Wilmington, in the outset of her career as a town,
had the school-house, the schoolmaster, and such
books and appliances as those early times demanded
and supplied, in use.
Whilst the too meagre records of that day do
not give those details which grow more and more
valuable, it is evident that in the earlier days of
Wilmington she had four schools. The north,
called Nod, the east, called City, the south, known
as Butters Row, the west, as Goshen, are names
retained to this day.
Not till 1840 did the Centre have a school-house,
her children being quite cosmopolitan as regarded
school.
In the summer the mistress bore rule in these
schools ; in winter the master, " born to rule,"
held sway. Here the undergraduate of Harvard
was glad to teach, and later the teachers' department
of Phillips Academy sent from its ranks
several "to pour fresh instruction " o'er the minds
of the youth of Wilmington. Of those native to
the town we find the Blanchards, the Bucks, the
Burnaps, the Carters, the Eameses, the Jaqueses,
the Thompsons, the Walkers, and others.
If the amount raised for education has been less,
pro rata, in this town, than in some others in Old
Middlesex, it is at least safe to say that in none
of them has the expenditure yielded better returns
than in Wilmington. .
Though never having had academic advantages,
Wilmington has done that which, in some respects,
brings broader culture ; she has sent out her sons
and daughters freely (means and luinibers consid-
ered) to other places where these ])rivil('ges ex-
isted.
On the first catalogue of Phillijis are the names
of ^ViImington boys, and so on, through tiie years,
even till now.
'i'lic "Old Bradford" shows the nanus of a
goodly iiinnher of Wilmington's sons and dangh-
Wiliiiiiigtnii suiiports a Jn'gli school by her own