Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1911-04-07
PIONEER BROWN BREAD BAKER.
Asaph Parmeee Of Wilmington Estab-
llshed Business Which Was Carried on
Many Years In Boston.


The brown bread of Colonial times was
not the same as that which New Eng
landers associate with Saturday night
and Sunday morning. In Pilgrim days,
according to Alice Morse Earle, brown
bread was made almost entirely from
corn meal From very early times the
brown bread to which Bostonans are ac-
customcd has been staple article of
food throughout New England; but the
baking OF Boston brown-bread as a bust
ness was started by Asaph Parmelee,
who came to this city from Wilmington,
Vt, about 1926 ! have been told that his
home which is stil standing, was at the
southeast corner of Washington and
Springfield streets His wife, Althea
Uamb) Parmelce, like many farmers
wives, was i'm the habit of baking brown
bread in her own brick oven for the use
of her household, and gradually the re
port of her delicious cooking of 1t spread
about the ncighhorhood So much was it
liked by her friends ana neighbors, that
she was kept busy making it for the
Boston people of the South End.
At first. Asaph, her husband, delivered
it in wheelbarrow, then in a handcart,
and later invested in a horse and wagon
for the delivery of the PaTmelee brown
bread When the demand became greater
than his wife could supply, Mr. Parmelee
| built large brick oven for his own use
sides, and were sold according to weight
in whole. half, ana quarter sizes. In
1872 Asaph Parmelee bought the estate
at the southwest corner of Washington
streets, where Mnot hail now stands
The deed of sale, which is now in my
possession. records that for this estate
with frontage of eighty feet on Wash
ington street, and a depth of 100 feet on
Springfield street, containing a three
story brick residence and "other build
| ings," Mr.. Parmelee paid $1,000. Here he
| conducted the business of baking brown
bread until 1858, when financial reverses
! obliged him to sell, ana he removed to his
! former location on the opposite, south
| east corner of Washington and Spring
field streets. lie then baked beans as
we'll as brown bread. and in time had a
| general bakery. For the sale of his
| goods. he erected in his yard a small
one-story. wooden building around a
magnificent old horse chestnut tree that
he had been unwilling to destroy; and for
! many years this tree, extending through
! the above shop. was a familiar landmark
| to the people of Boston. In 1865, owing
to failing health, Mr. Parmelee sold his
business.
y few years after Asaph Parmelee had
! become established as the baker of Bos
ton brown bread Eli Waste. a relative,
| began baking beans as a business, using
| brown bread had been taken out. About
| 1876 Mr.. Waste sold out to Lorin Parme-
lee a nephew of the pioneer brown
| bread maker. who enlarged the business
| by the baking of Indian pudding. His
| bakery was on Division street, now
! called Parmelce. in the rear Of his house
which was Is East Chester park. Lorl
Parmeee drove his own delivery wagon
and in later years used to tell how, once
in a while. an Indian pudding would Slide
down from the shelf behind him and FIJI
upon his back. His route included the
lower part of Hanover and North Streets
where he supplied the sailors boarding
houses. Recognizing the rarity ana value
of many of the foreign coins paid him
Mr. Parmelee started uumismatic col
lection, which, at the time of its sale
was considered one of the finest in the
United States.
In 1877, Asaph Parmelee's son. Ashly
opened a brown bread bakery on I.eno>
street, directly behind the old Washing.
ton House. which was al the corner Of
Washington and LeuoX streets. 1t VA,
| Ashly's brown bread that Lorin carried
| in addition to his own baked beans and
| Indian pudding
In 1850, Gilbert, brother of Lorir
Parmelee, began to bake both beans and
brown bread at the southeast corner OF
| Washington and Northampton streets
but he did not continue long in the bust
, ness.
It was in the bakery Of Asaph Par
melee that his son and his nephew'
received their practical training in the
business of baking brown-bread, and II
some cases they were backed by hin
financially. From about 1926 until 1900
when Lorin Parmelee retired, some one o
| the Parmelee name was engaged II
baking the now far-famed Boston brown
bread [Boston Transcript