Guest Blog Post! Thank you to St. Thomas student Arnold Rosas for volunteering in our research library this past month, and for writing a blog post for us on Scott County Creameries. Are you interested in researching and writing a blog post for SCHS? Email our Program Manager Rose James at rjames@scottcountyhistory.org
Scott County Creameries
Although we love the sweet, sugary taste of ice cream and cake, the process of making these delicious desserts oftentimes goes unnoticed. The ingredients that make these foods so special are made from creameries all around the world and are central to our daily lives. You may not have known this, but creameries have been a huge part of Scott County’s history. In this article, we will discuss how local creameries start out and four major creameries located in Scott County and why this matters today.
There are a lot of things that need to be done just to build a creamery such as approval from the state. The New Prague Times recounted the Farmers’ Cooperative Creamery’s city hall meeting on September 7th, 1911. At this session, “the committee discussed the cost of building, operating name, the number of cows to each creamery, and the price paid for butter fat.” In addition to this initial report, the committee brought in Mr. Grosser, the butter maker of the Cannon Falls creamery, and Mr. Meyer, the manager of the Webster, Minn. creamery to explain the success and higher prices of Farmers’ Cooperative would be for the community.” “The city members were pleasantly surprised at the facts brought out by the report and Farmers Cooperative was able to start building plans the following day.” Without a doubt, starting a creamery in Scott County takes a lot of preparation and research, but when all of these components come together, it is the community that really benefits.
Have you ever wondered how thousands of dairy products are brought to your local grocery store every week? Well, it takes a lot of machinery, packaging and transportation. Historically this was very difficult because of the lack of technology. One local creamery in New Prague was able to mass produce butter and cream at an astonishing rate. An article from the New Prague Times published on February 11 in the year of 1926 notes “the importance of the dairy industry not only to the farming community but also to small family businesses.” On this historic date, “the New Prague Creamery Association ranked third among all of the co-operative creameries in the entire state of Minnesota and produced 974,464 pounds of butter and 2,892,716 pounds of cream.” Needless to say, New Prague had an amazing creamery, but there were also notable ones located in Shakopee.
The Scott Co. Argus on October 15th, 1915 boasted the success of “the Shakopee Creamery, Geo. and the proprietor, A. Dellwo.” This “creamery has listed 85 farmers and pays them an average of $85 a day for their cream.” In addition to this, “Mr. Dellwo manufactures a fine grade of ice cream, averaging about 75 gallons per day during the summer months.” Even though Scott Co. Argus is a famous creamery in this area, the first one started in Shakopee by J.C. Munsch was another prominent creamery. Another Scott Co. Argus article published on December 14th, 1906 invited “farmers in the vicinity who have cream to sell or shipping abilities to work with Mr. Munsch.” Some questioned his qualifications, “but he was a practical butter maker that learned the trade from the Silver Lake creamery, where he was sole in charge of the business.” Understandably the creamery business takes a lot of marketing to provide the best dairy products, but this task was very easy for the Milton Creamery in Belle Plaine.
The Belle Plaine Herald revealed Milton Creamery’s immense milk shipping on June 8th, 1898. This creamery operated here in Scott County way before New Prague and Shakopee. The authors found that “eighty teams had hauled in milk that day, from which 440 gallons of cream had been separated and shipped out.” It was also found that “the amount of milk received each day seemed to vary from 14,000 to over 22,000 pounds a day, the latter amount coming in on Mondays.” What made this feat so significant was how this creamery was able to produce so much in such a competitive environment where “business had been lost to the number of other creameries that had sprung up around them.” Clearly, it was a stressful time and even though a pound of butter amounted to a couple of dollars back in 18th and 19th centuries, there were some that chose to steal these products.
The Jordan Independent mentioned multiple butter robberies in the Scott County area during the year of 1927 in an article published on March 31st. According to “the police department, Olschlagle purchased creamery butter that was stolen from someone in the area and sold them to residents.” This influenced “sheriffs to set out a stakeout and “E.J. Dee was apprehended by Hastings police for trying break into a local pool hall and around the same time, Jack Welte was taken into custody in Owatonna while trying to rob a grocery store.” It turns out “that these two burglars traded stolen butter for Olschagle’s bootleg booze.” Although these two were put into jail, “Olschagle pleaded that he was innocent, but police later found out that he had a second identity as George Harvey, and arrested him for receiving and selling stolen property and selling illegal liquor.” The aspect “that made this case so controversial was whether or not the creameries were going to be reimbursed for their losses.” Overall, creameries are difficult to sustain and these issues are even faced today.
Today, many companies today move towards sustainability and protecting the environment. In terms of the future, creameries in Scott County will have to be less mindful of bootleggers, and more mindful of the changes in our society and how their products are being made.