Graham Farms Dairy Products 1927-1941
Daviess County once enjoyed top quality dairy products - literally fresh from farm to table – produced locally from the milk of the finest Jersey herds in the state. Records show that by late 1927, Graham Farms had entered the local retail dairy market.
In September 1927, Joseph and Harry Bassler sell their Main Street Good-Luck grocery store to Graham Farms. They each take a position with Graham Farms Dairy and their former store is converted to a Graham Farms Dairy retail store, making Graham Farms dairy products available to the general public. By October, home delivery is made available also.
October 1927 Graham Farms newspaper ad announcing “…that you can get their real Jersey milk delivered to your door. It costs 15 cents a quart. It is produced by the famous Graham herd and gives you fifty per cent more cream than the ordinary milk.”
“The public is invited to inspect our modern dairy and inspect our modern methods. The bottling is all done by machinery. Bottles are washed by machinery and doubly sealed against contamination. A refrigeration plant keeps the milk at 42 degrees at all times.”
“We deliver to regular customers only. A call on the telephone will put your name on the Jersey’s customer’s list.”
Local newspapers describe the dairy as being equipped with the most up-to-date bottling equipment with the bottles never “handled in the course of bottling the milk, the work of the bottling and washing all being done by machinery.” A new truck was acquired for the milk route, “The truck is a Paige, and was especially built for the milk route. Joe and Harry Bassler will be in charge of distribution.”
Advertisements comparing the cream and butter fat content of Graham Farms Jersey milk to the milk of other dairy herds from competing dairies show the superior qualities of the milk from the Jersey cows versus the milk from the other leading breeds of dairy herds such as Guernsey, Ayrshire and Holstein cattle.
Note the message across the bottom “Daviess County Needs More Registered Jersey Cattle”.
Graham Farms continuously promoted breeding Jersey cattle, hosting and participating in livestock shows throughout the area and sharing calves, especially bull calves, with neighboring farmers to build up the breed in the county.
By 1928 word was spreading about the fine quality of Graham Farms Dairy products.
Early in 1928, a Swiss born cheesemaker, Albert Steffin (sp?) is engaged by Robert Graham Sr. to produce quality cheeses for the wholesale trade and add to the line of retail dairy products available locally. Cheese making equipment is purchased and is set up in a temporary factory building adjacent to the milkhouse under the supervision of Mr. Steffin.
Graham Farms Cheese Factory No. 1 is ready for operation January 30, 1928 on the same grounds of the dairy farm where the prize herd of Jersey cows are kept.
An interesting note within the ad cautions against mixing “morning” milk with “night” milk. Traditionally dairymen considered it unwise to mix the milk from the morning milkings and the evening milkings account the two milking times resulted in different fat levels of the milk. Evening milk is richer in fat levels and temperatures differ from milk obtained in the morning. Blending the two changes the fat content and eventually could affect the quality of butter and cheese made from the batch. Uneven fat distribution made it difficult for makers of both cheese and butter to get a smooth and consistent product.
Graham Farms cheese is a success. Less than 10 months after the first cheese was produced, a second cheese plant is planned and under construction. Local contractor John Kretz is commissioned to build the facility in the northern part of the county, at Elnora, with the intent of providing a market for dairy farmers in that area. A desired completion date of January 1, 1929 was met. The plant costs a reported $30,000 and is described as having the capacity to “care” for 20,000 pounds of milk per day and should demands warrant, double that capacity if necessary
“GRAHAMS HIRE THREE NATIVES FROM SWITZERLAND” read the headlines of The Washington Democrat February 16, 1929. “All to be stationed in Daviess County, at
the Graham Farms cheese factories.” Joseph Donni recently arrived in America and is to assist the work of Mr. Steffin in cheese making at Cheese Factory No. 1 on the dairy farm east of Washington.
Walter Burkhardt and Paul Rohue, both natives of Switzerland will be in charge of Plant No. 2 in Elnora. Mr. Burkhardt is said to be college educated and has resided in America since 1919.
A third cheese plant was under consideration and in the initial planning stage. It was to be located in Pike County, near Petersburg. It is mentioned as late as November 1929, however; with the October 1929 stock market crash and onset of the Great Depression, it never came to be.
By 1934, Graham Farms Dairy is now offering milk, cream, butter and cheese, available at local grocers or delivered to your door. The country is locked in the grip of the Great Depression, with many families struggling to keep food on the table. Graham Farms Dairy starts sponsoring a weekly word puzzle contest in The Washington Herald called Milk-A-Grams. The word puzzle is similar to an anagram. Anyone is eligible to enter the contest and no purchase is necessary as the entry forms are printed in the newspaper, “neatness, accuracy and the most originally prepared solutions will determine the winners.” Weekly winner’s names will be published with the prizes of 1st place - 10 one-quart milk coupons, 2nd place - 8 one-quart milk coupons and 3rd place - 6 one-quart coupons.
Graham Farms started supplying dairy goods to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s passenger train dining cars traveling through Washington between St. Louis and the east coast in 1928. B&O’s dining cars enjoyed a well-earned reputation of excellent food and service. Seven years later, in 1935, B&O selects Graham Farms to supply their dairy products to B&O’s newest streamlined trains, The Abraham Lincoln and The Ann Rutledge, operating between St. Louis and Chicago on B&O’s Alton Railroad subsidy. This was considered as quite a compliment to Graham Farms consistency and quality as the railroad had many other dairy goods suppliers to choose from between St. Louis and Chicago.
Graham Farms dairy manager Harry Bassler with Graham Farm dairy products in hand, poses with B&O Dining Car Steward Tony Reiser just west of the Washington train station circa 1935.
Graham Farms Dairy Products Seen in Railroad Photograph
A July 2, 1935 Washington Herald article reads… “The universal satisfaction given by the Graham products on the company’s cars (B&O’s dining cars) operating between St. Louis and Chillicothe was a moving factor in the carrier’s decision to expand its business with the Washington firm.”
Purity and cleanliness were often mentioned in Graham Farms advertising and news
articles. Beginning in February 1935, Graham Farms applies a “sparkling RED CELLOPHANE CAP” to its milk bottles.
This ad highlights the advantages of the cellophane hood as being: easy to open, sanitary, transparent, waterproof, dust proof, tamper proof, and germ proof. “No human hand has touched this important part of the bottle… … It comes to you as clean as science can make it… …you should insist on this HEALTH INSURANCE for your whole family.”
Graham Farms Dairy continued to expand and improve its products throughout the challenging decade of the 1930s. In October 1935 Vitamin D is added to standard milk. The dairy begins an educational campaign promoting the additional benefits of Vitamin D milk. Many advertisements list the benefits of drinking Vitamin D enriched milk. These benefits include adding calcium and phosphorus to one’s diet helping to maintain strong bones and teeth. According to the announcement, a lack of Vitamin D can result in a childhood disease known as rickets. This condition may cause “… bow-legs, knock-knees, mis-shapen jaws, poor irregular placed teeth, flat chest, contraction of the pelvis, and similar malformations.”
The introductory newspaper ad campaign for Vitamin D enriched milk went on for several days.
To relieve public concerns of “additives” being introduced into their milk, Graham Farms explained in great detail how the process was pure.
This ad explains “The VITAMIN D milk we will supply is milk of our standard grade, produced by a part of our Registered Jersey herd, to which the VITAMIN D content has been added by feeding irradiated yeast to the cows, along with their regular diet.”
“This is the natural way of producing Vitamin D milk, for when the milk leaves the cow, it contains the right amount of The Sunshine Vitamin, no “tampering” or “medicating” as in some other methods used.”
The Graham Farms Dairy business continues to thrive as 1936 brings about many improvements and new products. In June, an announcement is made that the dairy has acquired another building in the downtown area. The Williams Auto company garage and building at S.E. 1st and South Street was purchased and plans made to convert the new space to accommodate several aspects of the Graham businesses. The Washington Herald reports “the feed and seed store now located at 12 East Main will be moved to the new location. The milk bottling department and a cold storage facility for the cheese factories will also be located in the building. The second floor will be used by the advertising department and the back of the building to be converted into a modern garage for the storage and service of the new Graham Farms cars and trucks.”
“The new building is in a convenient location for farmers who will have business to transact at the feed and seed store and is convenient for the delivery of dairy products to the Baltimore and Ohio. Graham Farms has supplied (B&O) dining car service with dairy products for many years.”
Graham Farms Dairy adds an orange drink to its product line in the summer of 1936. They become a distributor of “Valen’ Ju”, described as a “high orange juice content drink. It will be available at groceries, filling stations, and other places where soft drinks are served.”
The summer of 1936 also brings a new product from the dairy. Graham Farms cottage cheese is made available to both grocery stores and for home delivery. The local dairy operation continues to provide top quality products not only to the local area, but also by selling cheese wholesale to an unidentified buyer in Chicago, it is exporting its cheese to other areas.
Milk, butter, cream, cheese, cottage cheese and buttermilk are listed as products being offered for home delivery in the Washington area and at several grocers in 1938. Their products could be found at stores and markets in Elnora, Bicknell, Plainville, Wheatland, Odon, Edwardsport and Washington.
Throughout the decade, Graham Farms continued to focus on the health and purity of their products. Every aspect of the operation - from the growing and mixing of the cattle feed, to the bottling and double capping of the milk - is performed by them with great care as can be seen in this ad. The public is often invited to visit their dairy and bottling facilities to observe the operation for themselves.
Just in time for the 1938 holiday season, Graham Farms dairy announced a new
contest for children 16 and younger. The contest is a combination scavenger hunt and saving of Graham Farm milk bottle caps.
First prize is a “genuine police motor scooter” with 15 second prizes of $1.00 each to be awarded to the runners up. The scooter is described as being “of the same type of which has become so popular among the police forces of various large cities and among the actresses and actors of Hollywood.”
The contest is to go on for four weeks. “It will afford each entrant to win a handsome prize or Christmas money on his or her own merit.”
During the contest, each Saturday morning the scavenger hunt entrants met at the bottling plant located at the corner of Maple and North East Third Streets and all were awarded a bottle of KALVA chocolate milk for their efforts. Their finds are recorded and points added to their totals.
On December 13th, Bob Cleveland, 16, of 100 E. Pearl Street is declared winner of the contest with an accumulated 2895 points. Among the items collected are “Buttons ranging from a mere speck in size to three inches in diameter. The largest safety pin recorded was five inches in length and the smallest less than ½ inch. The fishhooks ranged from a minnow size to one large enough to snare the big fish of the ocean.” The items were displayed in the window of the Graham Offices.
On April 14th, 1941 it is announced that Tip-Top Creamery has purchased the Graham Farms dairy business. The sale does not include the prize herd of cattle, the cheese plants in both Washington and Elnora, nor the farm itself. Ziba Graham Sr., Vice-President of Graham Farms is quoted regarding the sale “…due to greater activities in their other business interests they deemed it advisable to dispose of their dairy products business and give greater concentration of effort to their feed and elevator divisions.”
Tip-Top Creamery announces that they “insofar as possible, will serve the Graham dairy products customers with Meadow Gold dairy products, which are made by Tip-Top Creamery.” Graham Farms Cheese continued to be made and sold at Elnora into the early 21st century, eventually closing due to the decline of small family dairy farms in the area.
A Few Examples of Milk Bottles Advertising Additional Graham Dairy Products from the Personal Collection of Robert C. Graham III
Special thanks to both Tom and Beeb Graham for their input and sharing of information related to the Graham Dairy operation.
This article compiled by Chris Palmer Daviess County Historian.
CJP 8/26
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