WOBURN - There is a place in Woburn that hundreds of people drive past every day—never realizing that in July of 1847 the absolute funniest thing ever to happen in town took place there. Really!

The next time you are driving along Salem Street heading towards Washington Street, pull over just before the railroad bridge and get out. Glance down from the bridge along the right side of the train tracks. Here's where it all happened. Once I tell you the story, you'll never cross the bridge without thinking of it. Honest.

At this point along the rails between Boston and Lowell - just after Woburn Concrete Products but before the bridge itself—stood the Walnut Hill train station from 1836 through the 1890s.

It was located exactly half way between the two terminal cities, and so located so that the trains in either direction could stop and reload both firewood and water for the engines.

Until the Woburn Branch line opened into Woburn Square in 1844, this was the town's only train station. The small Irish Catholic community of that time used the huge wood storage shed to hold Sunday mass—the priest coming out once a month from Cambridge.

Anyhow, it seems that President James K. Polk was in Boston in July of 1847 and word reached Woburn that he intended to take the train to Lowell to inspect the new and burgeoning mills and factories there.

Every Lowell-bound train stopped at the Walnut Hill Station to take on firewood and water. Naturally, everyone in town concluded the train conveying the President and his entourage would do the same.

Not a moment was wasted in preparing a greeting worthy of this "great man and true" as the Woburn newspaper, The Guide Post, described Polk. Everyone in town scurried around making their own plans for their participation in the coming great event. Town officials wrote and rewrote brief remarks. The militia company drilled, marched - and drilled some more. Local carpenters constructed a small platform for the rail siding at Walnut Hill - the better to elevate the President for all to see as he spoke to the townspeople.

Others worried over protocol and precedence, when in reality of course since no President had ever been to Woburn - there was no precedence. As for protocol - seemed that the chairman of the Board of Selectmen should take precedence - or maybe the State Representatives - or the Postmaster as the highest ranking Federal appointee. A weighty matter indeed.

The great day having arrived, all was in readiness. At the tiny train station, the Woburn town officers stood by with a huge bouquet to present to the President - who it was hoped would favor those in attendance with a few words. More than a thousand people were assembled upon the platform, the bridge and the slopes of Walnut Hill to welcome the train whose distant smoking plume was drawing closer and closer.

The Woburn Mechanic Phalanx was called to attention by its captain. At the crest of the hill two artillery pieces prepared to fire a salute to the Commander-in-Chief as he debarked from his railroad car.

On board the speeding train there was never the slightest inclination that the Presidential party would stop at Walnut Hill. They were going to Lowell. Suddenly the clattering train came upon a wild scene. The enthusiastic cheering and flag waving of the crowds, the beaming grins of the selectmen, the firm military line of militia. And then, the train simply sped past the astonished citizens and kept on to Lowell. The two cannons fired their salute as the coaches rapidly faded from view. For minutes, an eternity, really, no one moved or spoke. They just stared at each other or glanced forlornly up the tracks. Then went home.

The Boston Post diplomatically reported that "time did not admit of a sufficient delay to stop and back the cars."

President Polk was heard to remark on his arrival in Lowell how much he regretted not being able to greet those "independent and industrious shoemakers and mechanics of Woburn and their families."

Pretty funny. Woburn became the town where irony came to die!

(Tom Smith has written many historical stories on Woburn, including a book on Charles Goodyear, and is a member of the Woburn Library Trustees.)