Westminster Crackers - It's History in the Baking

We’re often asked, "What’s the unique taste in Westminster Crackers?" 

The answer? History. 

Westminster Cracker Company’s history is as rich and flavorful as the crackers themselves. Built layer upon layer, our story begins in 1828. Let us take you back . . .

Tucked in the warm basement of a colonial house on Route 2A in Westminster, Massachusetts, Alfred Wyman began fashioning crackers in 1828. This was before commercial bread bakeries; even before the modern day mail system. In fact, we believe that our delicious crackers were enjoyed by Pony Express riders, stashed in their saddlebags among packets of mail. 

Mrs. Wyman loved the light and puffy crackers her husband baked. She did not, however, care much for the muddy boot prints left on her clean kitchen floors by tradesmen walking in and out. Therefore, she persuaded Mr. Wyman to erect a small factory adjacent to the main house. Featured in our company logo, that red building still stands today.

Times changed, as they always do, and the Westminster Cracker Company grew and changed along with them. For more than a century horse and carriage had delivered the popular crackers to nearby towns. Eventually trucks replaced the old-fashioned delivery method. And in 1988, Keith Dunn, fifth-generation member of the Dawley family that entered the business a century before, moved the Company to the Green Mountains of Vermont. Using the same recipe as his forefathers, Mr. Dunn obtained an authentic 1926 cracker-cutting machine to serve as the cornerstone of the new bakery. The real challenge, however, was not in moving the antique cutting machine from the warehouse in Hawaii where it had sat idle for many years, but in dismantling and restoring it to working order. 

Still, as any red-blooded New Englander will tell you, “The world is your cow, but you have to do the milking."

And milking, or in this case, tinkering, is exactly what Mr. Dunn did. Because the old oak and tanned leather drive chain was dry with age, the cracker-cutting machine had its share of problems. Night after night, Mr. Dunn could be found amidst the rich aroma of freshly baked crackers, coaxing the machine into finishing its shift.

The Westminster Cracker Company pressed on. If it could survive over a century of change, surely it could continue to grow and change, couldn’t it? 

It could.

Westminster Crackers, which were previously available only through retail stores, branched out again, this time into an entirely new market: food service. Beginning with a single popular New England restaurant chain, Westminster All-Natural Oyster Crackers have since found their way into thousands of independent restaurants and more than 40 national chains. Westminster crackers can also be found in numerous supermarkets, convenience stores and specialty food shops, and the number grows each week. 

Over the past 10 years, we have received more than 23,000 telephone calls, faxes and letters from people who love Westminster Crackers. It’s exciting to see that our simple crackers can cause such response! 

We continue to bake our crispy, delicious crackers with only seven all-natural ingredients, just as we did over a hundred years ago. So, when people ask us, "What’s that unique taste in Westminster Crackers?" we tell them the truth. It’s history in the baking.