how the milk got to the dairy

[RON SIMUNIC]

I found an old 5gal. milk pail. I know the route just not the details. Timing, handling, etc. Any help or direction would be appreciated.

[Steve Sweeney]

Hi, Ron. 

Please let us know a few more details about what you have, maybe even a low-resolution picture of the milk can. Please also let us know what part of the country you are interested in. There are a lot of good people here with information who can help you out. 

Best,

~SS

[switch7frg]

Ron ,the can you have is just a part of the dairy story.In days past the cans were picked up by truck at the farm and continued on to other farms. At the end of the route the driver took all the milk to a dairy. There in south eastern Ohio the dairy was in Westerville  Ohio. Later as the cans became obsolete  a pipeline to a tank  from a  milking stand of cows  is the thing. When the tank was full then a tank truck came and pumped the milk into the tanker . At the end of the route of farms  the tanker went to the creamery at Westerville. All this was done on very sanitary conditions and inspected on a weekly  basis by a health inspector. I know because I was there on the farm in my younger years. Sure hope this helps you. 

                                                                  Respectfully, Cannonball

                                                           

[samfp1943]

RON SIMUNIC

I found an old 5gal. milk pail. I know the route just not the details. Timing, handling, etc. Any help or direction would be appreciated.

 

Welcome, RON!

  Without a photo, it is more of a guess than anything... If your 'milk pail' is in fact a milk can.. It should have an opening with a 'collar like a funnel' the opening will be possibly six or more inches wide, for transit to the collection point they were fitted with a plug-type cap... If the opening to the can is smaller, possibly, about four inches wide; you have a 'cream can'. (?) [ They were used to transport, seperately, the more valuable cream from the milk.]

 Dairy farming out here is a dying industry, smaller dairies, giving way to the  fewer,larger, industrialized dairy farms...Milk is shipped in truck-load quantities to the proicessing plants. Some Amish farm communities out here (southeast Kansas), still utilize cans to transport their milk to collection points; The milk is put into storage tanks, and then trucked to cheese plants for processing.  You may even have an old milk can that bears the name of the Creamery on it?   

[tree68]

Many farmers hauled their own cans to the station, too, behind a team, or eventually by truck.  My mother recalls doing this.

The cans oftimes had markings for the owner and the proper station, so they could be properly returned.

It was this business that coined the term "milk run," a train that stopped at every station, as well as special stations/platforms set up just for the milk trade.  As these trains sometimes carried passengers as well, it made for a loooong trip.

Milk was a stock in trade for the New York, Ontario and Western.  The loss of the milk trade was a factor in its downfall.

 

[Boyd]

I thought of taking this thread in another direction, but I decided I'd be mliking the subject. 

[Paul of Covington]

   Looking at the title.... Didn't the cows bring it?

[narig01]

Can't we moooove along.

 

[RON SIMUNIC]

Thanks for the helpfull posts so far. Even like the attempts at humor (everything else in the world is "so" serious. Five gallon milk pal has the following identification on it. 116522  B&O - MONON   otto brimm    Salem IND.  A triangle, with Tri State Butter under the triangle is what looks like two ovals. There is no longer a farm or people with the name Brimm in Salem. The google for tri state dairy, Cincinnatti wasn't much help. So prob. steam era? Could milk be delivered to a railroad in the P.M. And still be good, the next A.M.? Because it was used for butter, did that make a difference? etc. Thanks again for the help. History has a way of slipping away. Ron S.

[Semper Vaporo]

This thread is turing into udder PUNishment.

[Vern Moore]

tree68

Many farmers hauled their own cans to the station, too, behind a team, or eventually by truck.  My mother recalls doing this.

The cans oftimes had markings for the owner and the proper station, so they could be properly returned.

It was this business that coined the term "milk run," a train that stopped at every station, as well as special stations/platforms set up just for the milk trade.  As these trains sometimes carried passengers as well, it made for a loooong trip.

Milk was a stock in trade for the New York, Ontario and Western.  The loss of the milk trade was a factor in its downfall.

 

Locally, there is an old DL&W creamery location that stood along the Hallstead-New Milford Cutoff in Susquehanna County, PA.  All along the DL&W from Binghamton, NY to Scranton, PA and further east to NYC.  There were additional creameries located on the DL&W Syracuse and Utica north of Binghamton that were also shipped to NYC, along with milk collected from stops west of Binghamton.

 

To keep the milk cooled in the days before refrigeration, the creameries were built with a creek running through the building and a pool was built inside the building where the milk was kept cool.

 

Also along the DL&W in PA and upstate NY were located ice houses, where ice blocks collected during the winter were stored and kept for up to several years.  Those ice blocks were used in the milk cars on eht trrains that hauled the milk cans to NYC.

 

At several locations along the DL&W the railroad build artificial lakes which had ice houses located along the shore and sidings that ran down some major grades to get to the ice houses.  Several are located between New Milford and Nicholson, PA, one featuring a switchback grade that is still visible working down from the main line to the shore after almost 100 years of disuse.

 

During winter months harvesting the ice became a major industry for local farmers, who used horse teams to pull ice plows to cut the lake ice into shape for harvesting.  There is still an example of  such activity that takes place every year in Tobyhanna, PA, the Tobyhanna Ice Harvesting Festival.  There are several Youtube videos of the activity which can be found in a web search.

 

It's worth getting cold to take a ride up there during the event.  Even better is to ride the steam train from Steamtown when they run a special to the event.

[Expressman's Kid]

Switch7frg is correct.  My father in law had a dairy farm and a truck would come around every morning seven days a week to pick up the full cans to take to the dairy and return the empty cans. 

Around 1960, the State of Ohio said that milk had to be refrigerated from the time it came from the cow to its delivery at the dairy.   My father in law felt that his small operation could not justify the cost of a refrigerated holding tank, so he sold the farm to a real-estate developer.  This law posed a real problem for the Amish because even if they had the funds, their religion forbade them to use the electricity that refrigeration required.  The law provided that non refrigerated milk could be sold to make cheese.  So, the Amish sold their milk to cheese factories, but at a lower price than they could get for milk for drinking.

In the 1950s there was in my hometown of Massillon, Ohio a candy store that made its own ice cream.  The ice cream mix was shipped in ten gallon cans from a dairy in Orrville, about 15 miles to the west on the Pennsylvania main line that ran from Pittsburgh to Chicago.  The cans would come by Railway Express on eastbound train #44 around 10 am.  The cans would be taken off the train and immediately delivered to the candy store.  By 1960 the Express office had been closed as passenger service had declined and the dairy in Orrville delivered the milk cans by truck to the candy store.

Tree68 is also correct.  Train #44 from Chicago to Pittsburgh was called a milk run because it stopped at every town between Chicago and Pittsburgh.  Of course it made sense to do so because mail and express was dropped off and picked up at every town.  My dad told me that he remembered platforms set up alongside the tracks in rural areas between towns were milk cans were picked up.

 

“Mom!  99 is blowing for 16^th Street.  Dad will be home soon.”

 

 

 

 

[Sunnyland]

Mom used to talk about her grandma filling the milk cans, taking them by wagon to the station at Fanning, MO where they were loaded onto Frisco trains and brought to a dairy in St. Louis.  Fanning was halfway between Cuba and St. James on the Frisco main heading to OK.  Mom's mother had grown up on the family farm and she'd take Mom and her brother for a visit every summer for a couple of months.  Their dad was working as Frisco conductor and sometimes he'd take a few days off, get off the train and hike through the woods to the farm.  His parents had also owned a nearby farm but it was just a place to live, since they worked for Frisco.  Her mother's family sold milk, also timber to nearby sawmill  and some other crops as a way of generating income.  Mom and her brother would help with the daily chores while they were living there.  

[54light15]

Henry Ford was asked how wide the rear floor of a Model T should be and he said, "wide enough for a farmer's milk cans." Sheer wisdom.

[RON SIMUNIC]

Steve, just reread my first post. Pretty lame. I guess now I need to piece the two railroads time tables and find the best route or option for the milk can. Need a course on passing along pictures. good article for the novices in the group. Thanks for responding. get and love all thre of your magazines. Ron S.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

A fair number of interurbans were also involved in hauling milk.  It may be hard to believe now but Chicago Aurora & Elgin handled milk for a brief period.

[RON SIMUNIC]

CSSHEHEWISCH, see by your name you are a South Shore fan. We have taken the South Shore at least once a year from Ogden Park to Chicago. My nose is always plastered in the window. By the way as convention chairman for the Monon, next years plan is to take the South Shore from hammond to South Bend as one of our activities. The South Shore once had 20% interest in the CSS&SB. thanks for the post. Ron S.