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Saturday, February 28, 2015

HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 2-28-15

Salisbury Dairies

When we go to the store today we take for granted that one of the staples they will always have is milk. There have been many changes in the last 100 years in the manner we acquire milk. Now it is homogenized, pasteurized and even ultra-pasteurized, the latter having a longer shelf life. There is whole milk, 2%, 1% and low fat. Anything less than whole milk seems like water to me, but that’s just my opinion.

There were no listed dairies in Salisbury before 1900 and only three by 1907. They were the Oak Lawn Dairy Co. which was owned by a Mr. Case and a Mr. Baysinger, Byrd’s Homestead Dairy, Harvey Morris, proprietor, and Grant Sexton whose home place became the Children’s Home out on old Ocean City Road (pictured in the postcard above). There is no mention of any dairy in either the 1916 or 1921 City Directories but in 1934 there were two listings under “dairy products”. They were the Purity Creamery on S. Division St and Southern Dairies, Fred Battle, mgr., which advertised they served the Salisbury-Ocean City area with both milk and ice cream. The 1940 Directory gives additional information on Purity Creamery in that H.A. Torry was the manager. Fred Battle still ran the Southern Dairies milk and ice cream operation. Two new dairies emerged at this time – City Dairy (Koontz), which carried a more extensive line to include chocolate milk, buttermilk, cottage cheese, sour cream, eggs, along with pasteurized milk and cream, and the Homestead Dairy out on Quantico Rd. (now Nanticoke Rd.) which advertised Golden Guernsey Milk.

For the milk bottle collector, there are no fewer than 25 different local bottles to collect. The rarest ones are Cedarhurst, Hickory Ridge, Archie Humphreys, Lakeview, Maple Shade, Pleasant View, Riverview, A. E. Shockley, Springfield and Sunnyside. Each of these in top shape could bring upwards of $200 so keep a lookout. The bottles of Koontz, City Dairy and Homestead are readily available and make a nice collectible. Some of the other dairies were Brown, Cherry Hill, Eastside, Fairview, Hillside, Maple Leaf, Peninsula Ice Cream Company, Herman Pryor, J. L. Smith, Purity Creamery, Sunayr and Walnut Lane.

Milk bottles come in all sizes from quarts right on down to a gill, which is about a serving in a cup of coffee or tea. Years ago, restaurants would serve coffee or tea with cubes of sugar in a bowl and a gill of milk or cream alongside.

How many remember home delivery when your mom would leave the empties out front with a note in one of the bottles with her order? I vividly remember my mom having to scrape the cream off the top to get to the milk. I always thought that was disgusting and carefully avoided any little piece of the cream. Now I crave sour cream on a nice baked potato. Maybe it’s not the same, or maybe my taste buds have changed over time. In any event, home delivery is a thing of the past. Those were the days.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't remember milk being delivered, but we had an egg man in Fruitland named Mr. Ball. He used to deliver eggs to my mom. I remember as a little girl showing him how I had learned to tie my shoes!

Unknown said...

I just pulled my quart bottle down from the shelf, George, from Stevens Dairy. Any history on them?

I grew up in Springfield Illinois and remember the trip every weekend to Hohmier's Dairy with the wire milk bottle carriers and the empties for the deposit. The whole store with only milk products! Butter to ice cream, strawberry and chocolate milk, and buttermilk. (yuk!)

Anonymous said...

I used to sleep on our front porch during warm months hoping to see the milkman when he swapped the empties for full bottles.He was so quiet that maybe only once he even woke me up.By 6AM he had come and gone.I lived on Old Delmar Rd app 2 miles south of Delmar.

Anonymous said...

Stevens Dairy was located on Railroad Avenue in Pocomoke. I think they went out of business in the early 1950s. My father bought a 1936 GMC milk delivery truck from them and converted it to farm use. I remember how easy it was to work on the engine because the only tools you needed were a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.

Anonymous said...

Gary,you mentioned buttermilk;I don't know about current uses for it,but people used to consume it to lower blood pressure and cholesterol.One of our neighbors made the best cakes ever & always used buttermilk and turkey eggs.She bought the eggs from somewhere around Delmar but I can't recall where.Buttermilk is indeed a yuk when drank straight.

Anonymous said...

9:49-And in spite of what anyone tells you there is no reason why cars couldn't still be easy to work on.Even career mechanics have to go to training classes every year just to keep up with all of it.

Anonymous said...

I remember Clark Brothers use to deliver around Salisbury they were located at the end of Salvation Army's football field and next to the old Messick ice plant!