By Ken Anderson — Columnist
The first time I brought my wife, Lynda, to Concord, she saw signs for Anderson’s Market, Richardson Drug Co., and Anderson Photo. Knowing that my mother’s maiden name was Richardson, she thought that she had hit the lottery.
Not quite. Here is the backstory.
My parents met at Concord High School. Bill was in the class of 1942, while Mary was in the class of 1943.
Anderson was the name of my great-grandfather, who was born in Norway. He founded Anderson’s Market, which my grandfather, Leslie, took over, and my Uncle Dave ran until he closed it.
My grandfather married Esther Wheeler. The Wheeler name goes quite a bit back in town. She was one of several sisters but was the only one who could run the Wheeler farm, which covered much of the land around the intersection of Sudbury Road and Route 117. My father went to World War II expecting to return to run the farm. Unfortunately, his mother couldn’t run it without help during the war and had to sell off much of the land.
My parents, Bill (William Wheeler Anderson) and Mary Richardson, married at the farm in 1945. After their honeymoon, they went to UMass for Bill to study pre-med with one son and another to arrive shortly thereafter. (Sounds like a Loretta Lynn song.)
Shutterbug
In addition to studying, he started a photography business in Amherst, which seemed promising enough to support a family of four. He returned to Concord and joined with a friend doing portraits and weddings. They took to the air and captured many images of the town in the 1940s and ’50s.
Their business began in a space over Anderson’s Market that wasn’t being used to store foodstuffs. Their partnership ended, and my father started Anderson Photo on Walden Street beside Woolworth’s, still doing photographic work while now selling photographic supplies and processing film for customers.
One particularly notable Wheeler person was my grandmother’s uncle, William Wheeler. In 1867, at age 15 (!), he became a student at Massachusetts Agricultural College (now UMass Amherst). In 1876, he became a professor at the first agricultural college in Japan. During his time in Japan, he undertook agricultural projects as well as civil engineering works, which had an important impact.
[Editor’s note: Massachusetts and Japan have been sister states since 1990. Concord and Nanae officially became sister cities in 1997.]
His role was unknown to me until a Japanese historian, Tetsuro Takasaki, came to Concord to do research on William Wheeler, noting that he was revered in Japan for his work there. He eventually wrote and published, in 2004, a book titled “William Wheeler: A Young American Professor in Meiji Japan.”
He generously gave many of us a copy of the book — a book written in Japanese. Thankfully, the late Wilson Flight, a teacher at CCHS, stepped in and arranged for its translation into English.
Canada connection
My mother’s father, Harry Richardson, was born in Canada. He was in the Canadian air force and an engineer.
He married Rose Mansbridge, who was born in Nagasaki, Japan. Her mother was half-Chinese and was born on the island of Macao. Her father was British and worked for Mitsubishi in Nagasaki. She emigrated to Canada around the age of 20 and became secretary to a man who later became prime minister.
After marrying, they came to the United States, first to New York City and then Lincoln. During World War II, Rose and Harry went to Washington, D.C., where he worked on guided missiles. Mary remained in Concord, living with friends so that she could complete her high school education. Passing up Radcliffe for the moment and, as it turned out, for good, she joined her parents in Washington, where she worked.
After the war, Mary’s parents went to Tennessee, where he was part of the management team at an Air Force engineering base that worked on missiles using German wind tunnels. In the late 1950s he went to Detroit to serve on the board of Chrysler missiles before retiring back in Tennessee.
Cross-country, with kids
Anecdotally, Mary said that when she arrived at CHS, she immediately picked out my father as her man.
Bill was in the Marine Corps in World War II and the Korean War. In the early 1950s, Mary, perhaps age 26, took their two sons, 5 and 4 years old, and one daughter, about 1 year old, across the country by train. We raised such a ruckus that the conductor decided that we could not go to the dining car but would be served in our room.
We eventually returned to Concord and took up residence at 14 Hubbard Street in a two-family house with our cousins on the other half.
And then I started to observe things.
Postscript: Many years later, with Radcliffe long in the rearview mirror and her children out of the house, Mary graduated from Brandeis magna cum laude in 1994 at age 68!
