The Rise and Decline of
The Cheese Industry
In Lorain County
By FRANK C. VAN CLEEF*
THE SECTION OF OHIO NOW KNOWN AS LORAIN
COUNTY was
first settled about 1820. The ensuing
three decades saw the
southerly and westerly portion of the
Western Reserve being
cleared of forests and the land put into pastures and
meadows.
The soil, the topography, and the
climate proved to be quite
ideally adapted to dairy farming.
And so this entire section in a period
of thirty to forty
years was converted from a wilderness
into a vigorous dairy-
farming country sprinkled with growing
settlements and com-
munity centers at five mile intervals.
These villages were
quite generally patterned after the New
England towns from
which the original settlers came. This
pattern, so laid out,
was to continue for almost a hundred
years with only super-
ficial modifications. Each year these
energetic, resourceful,
* Frank C. Van Cleef is a resident of
Oberlin, Ohio.
His article is taken from a paper
delivered before the Lorain County Historical
Society on January 13, 1958. By way of
preface to his paper he related some of
the circumstances connecting him with
the subject: "My maternal grandparents
migrated from New England to Huntington,
Ohio, in 1833, and the entire family
participated in the development of the
industry. My grandfather Van Cleef
migrated from New York state to
Wellington, Ohio, in 1849 to perform his
contract to furnish the ties for the Big
Four railroad from Grafton to Crestline,
Ohio. My father was cashier, secretary,
and treasurer of the Horr Warner
Company from 1876 until his retirement
from business in 1913. Most of the
persons mentioned in the story were
personally known to me, and I was prac-
tically reared in the midst of the
cheese industry. I even added milk books
kept by each factory as a record of milk
received."
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 33
frugal forefathers brought their acres
into better cultivation,
and their cows multiplied into larger
milk-producing herds.
For over forty years virtually the
entire care and disposition
of milk was to be an individual farm
operation. The conver-
sion of milk into cream and skim milk,
of cream into butter
and buttermilk, and of skim milk into
cottage, or Dutch,
cheese and whey--each and all of these
were daily farm-
household operations. In fact, many of
these household func-
tions became so much an ingrained part
of farm life that they
persisted long after most of the milk
was processed away
from the farm.
The care of milk in the house was
undoubtedly a per-
suasive reason for the springhouse,
where cold water from a
spring was circulated around the pails
or cans of milk and
helped keep the milk sweet and fresh.
Many farms had an
ice house, where cakes of ice, cut from
a frozen pond or
stream, were stored, with sawdust
packed tightly around
them. In warm weather a cake of ice was
removed, washed,
and used to keep the milk cool.
But always there were the milk
pantries, where large pans
were filled with fresh milk from two to
three inches deep and
arranged on shelves to permit the cream
to rise. The house-
wife would skillfully remove the thick,
rich cream each morn-
ing with a round, flattish spoon
perforated slightly in the bowl
to permit the skimmed milk to drain.
The cream was col-
lected in cream jars for churning into
butter. Such butter
came to be known as dairy butter. The
product of the best
farmwife's buttery enjoyed a ready
market, with those that
knew, long after the factory-processed
creamery butter was
being produced and almost universally
marketed.
Cottage, or Dutch, cheese was another
household product
that persisted after most of the milk
processing was taken
from the home. The solids in the milk
were precipitated by
curdling. The liquid remaining, called
whey, was drained out
and the white curds worked over and
seasoned to suit. This
product, like fresh-laid eggs straight
from the farm, and
dairy butter when made by a
well-regarded household, always
34
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
had a ready local market. Cottage, or
Dutch, cheese was,
however, a limited, small-volume
product.
The domestic production of cheese in
the home must have
been a great time and energy consumer;
and it resulted in a
product varying widely in quality from
farm to farm. It is
necessarily a long process, taking a
minimum of twenty to
thirty days to bring cheese to a
marketable product. Whether
a hundred or twenty-five hundred pounds of milk were
to be
made into cheese, the same steps had to
be taken,
Since, in the making of cheese, the
solids in milk are pre-
cipitated by a curdling process, it was
practical to hold per-
haps a morning and night's milking to
the following day,
when three milkings could be processed.
This required the
exercise of a very strict cleanliness
in all steps and reasonably
quick cooling of the milk and
maintenance of a fairly steady
temperature, low enough to "keep
the milk sweet," in the
terms of the early dairymen. The modern
explanation would
be to "retard bacterial action in
the milk during storage."
The size of the batch of milk to be
processed, of course, de-
pended on the size of the cheese the
farmer planned to make.
If he found a fifty-pound cheese best
suited to his supply of
milk and his market at the store, he
would require about sixty
gallons, or about five hundred pounds,
of milk. This means
he had from twenty to twenty-five
milking cows at least and
stored his full day's milking for
processing with his morning
milking.
The milk was poured into a cheese vat
and heated to ninety-
five degrees. There were several
sheet-metal workers in Wel-
lington making this piece of apparatus
for dairymen. O. Sage
had Sage's Patent Cheese Vat and
Heater.1 Rennet, made
usually from the fourth stomach of a
calf, was added to coag-
ulate the milk and precipate as much of
the solids in the milk
as possible in the form of curds. The
treatment of the curds
in the remaining liquid, called whey,
was a slow, three-hour
1 Lorain County News, March 7,
1860. All subsequent references are to this
Oberlin newspaper, except a few at the
end of the article, which are to the
Wellington Enterprise. The subsequent references to the Lorain County News
are by date only.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 35
process. It determined the number of
pounds of cheese that
would be made and also had a great deal
to do with the qual-
ity of the cheese. Special tools were
available for working
the curd, such as D. G. Young's Steel
Dairy Knives, which,
it was claimed, would increase the
amount of cheese made
from a given quantity of milk by at
least three percent.2
When the dairyman was satisfied with
the curd, the whey
was drained and saved for feeding
calves, hogs, and chickens.
When the curd was thoroughly drained,
it was removed from
the vat to the cheese board, where it
was worked over, salted,
and, usually some coloring added.
The fairly dry curds were then put in a
press that com-
pressed the curds into solid cheese
over a period of several
hours. When removed, the cheese was
formed and ready to
be wrapped in cheese capping supplied
by Baldwin, Laundon
and Company and other merchants in
Wellington.3 The
cheese was then ready for the curing
room. Long, wide
shelves, often of solid black walnut
boards, permitted each
cheese to be stored separately, with
free circulation of even-
temperature air. The cheeses were
turned over daily to pre-
vent mold on the down side. Some rubbed
the cheese-capped
sides and ends occasionally to improve
the cure and flavor.
When finally cured, the cheese was
ready to be hauled to
market.
During this pioneer period, down well
into the 1850's,
money was scarce. A local correspondent,
who had evidently
experienced the early days, writing a
few years later, suc-
cinctly characterized the way to survival: "The
plan adopted
by the early settlers of Lorain County
was to kill pork enough
to last until they made sugar, then
make sugar enough to last
until the cows came in, which would carry them through
the
year comfortably. But times ain't now as they used to
be."4
It was a time when two hen's eggs,
carried in a child's hands
to the store, equaled one slate pencil.
Two pounds of maple
2 April 19, 1865.
3 April 30, May 11, 1862.
4 March 4, 1863.
36 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
sugar might be worth one pound of white
loaf sugar for the
"company bowl." All meat was
butchered and prepared for
eating on the farm. Hides were tanned
and made into leather
by the farmer. Once a year a shoemaker with his bench
came
in a wagon to the farm and made shoes
for all the family.
The farmer prepared the wool and flax
for spinning. The
women spun the yarn and wove the cloth.
Then a seamstress
came to the house, and all clothes for
the family were made
from the home-spun cloth. Tallow
candles were the only light
at night. Butter and cheese were
exchangeable at the general
store for supplies the farm could not
produce. But as the
farmers prospered and their herds grew,
there was real need
for greater division and specialization
of effort. So 1850 prob-
ably marks as closely as possible the
real beginning of the
cheese industry in the southerly end of
Lorain County.
For some time previously there were
those who made a bus-
iness for themselves by dealing in
stock. Usually such men
either had accumulated or had access to
cash. They had to be
good judges of stock and values.
Where there were many individual
dairies there was always
more or less turnover of cattle--one
farmer had more head
than he could handle; another could
take on a few more. But
the shrewd traders sensed the time when
a given group of
dairymen was going to want to take on
more cows. Then they
found sometimes as many as several
hundred head, bought
them, and had them on hand for sale.
Chapman and Horr and
Perkins, Chapman, and Warner brought
three hundred head
of milch cows into Huntington in the
spring of 1863 and sold
them to the local dairymen.5 Huntington
was the center for
the dealers in livestock. Some twenty
individuals held licenses
taken out for this purpose. But every
community of dairies
had one or more persons undertaking
this service more or less
actively.6
Then there were the suppliers of
necessary equipment--
pails, pans, cans, churns, cheese vats,
tools of all kinds, salt,
5 March 18, 1863.
6 July 6, 20, 1864.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 37
rennet, coloring supplies, and the
bulky, consumable cheese
boxes and butter tubs. Most of this
material that was used
on the farm had to be bought and paid
for. The center of
supply gradually tended to follow the
market for the product.
For instance, in Wellington, L. and L. Bennett
operated a
rake and cheese-box manufacturing and
cooperage shop, using
steam power. They made about 30,000
wooden rakes per
season, and 30,000 cheese boxes, 250 to
300 flour barrels, and
100 butter tubs per week.7 The
Wellington Manufacturing
Company was grinding out 6 barrels of
flour per hour, 60 per
day, and 360 per week, marketed mostly
in New York and
New England. This made a market for the
farmers' grain,
and as many as 1,000 bushels of grain
were bought from the
wagons in one day in the season.8
Huntington, five miles south of
Wellington, was the im-
portant center of farming activity and
of most general ac-
tivities in the southerly portion of the county
throughout the
first thirty years of settlement. Then,
with the final decision
in 1848-49 to locate the railroad connecting
Cleveland, Co-
lumbus, and Cincinnati on a right of
way diagonally bisecting
Wellington Township, Wellington
gradually became the cen-
ter of the rapidly growing cheese
business.
So it was natural that one of the
first, and probably the
first, of the cheese dealers was Rollin
Albert Horr of Hunt-
ington. As a young man he began his
business career in 1850
by undertaking to dispose of the cheese
and butter products
of his relatives, friends, and
neighbors.
Whether or not it was his merchant
brother-in-law, Barlow
Greene Carpenter, who enlisted the
young man in this new
business of dealing in butter and cheese just as
others were
then dealing in livestock is not
definitely known. However,
Rollin A. Horr made it his business in
Huntington for over
ten years to help the farmers market
their cheese and butter.
Meanwhile, his brother Carpenter was
building and operating
the first cheese and butter warehouse
along the east side of
7 April
30, 1862.
8 Ibid.
38 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the Big Four
Railroad tracks in Wellington. Eventually Car-
penter moved
to Wellington, although he continued to attend
church in
Huntington as long as he lived. Rollin Horr con-
tinued his
residence in Huntington until May 1864.
By 1860 the
amount of cheese being made by individual
farm
households, then hauled to and warehoused in Welling-
ton,
preparatory to shipment on the railroad, was beginning
to reach
truly remarkable proportions. During the year 1859
H. B.
Franks, a Wellington cheese dealer, purchased 650,000
pounds of
cheese at a cost of some $50,000. Starr, Foote and
Company and
Baldwin Laundon, both merchants in Welling-
ton,
reported $85,000 and $75,000 worth of business respec-
tively that
year. They advertised that they took all kinds of
merchantable
country produce at cash prices in exchange for
goods and
that good butter was bought for cash at all times.
Carpenter
and Wooley, doing business in the basement of
Parker and
Hall's "Young America" store, advertised that
they were
paying cash for both butter and cheese. The rail-
road station
agent at Wellington reported the total shipment
by rail for
1859 of 1,084,500 pounds of cheese and 378,854
pounds of
butter.9
At the
middle of the summer after the start of the Civil
War, cheese
was bringing only four cents a pound. Shipments
in August
and September from the railroad station in Wel-
lington were
reported as follows:
August September
H. B. Franks
..................... 51,846 49,415
Carpenter
and Wooley............. 46,577 46,071
Emilios O.
Foote .................. 30,371 23,821
J. Magraugh
..................... 10,078 13,426
All
others ....................... 20,651 13,343
159,523 146,07610
In one week
of early June 1862, 64,708 pounds of cheese
were shipped
from the station in Wellington as follows: by
9 March 7, 1860.
10 September 18, October 16, 1861.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 39
Carpenter and Wooley, 32,496 pounds; by
Henry B. Franks,
19,871 pounds; by Emilios O. Foote,
12,341 pounds. It was
bought at an average of five cents per
pound, making
$3,235.40 paid for this product alone.
The dealers reported a
number of thousands of pounds of cheese
unshipped, all
bought during the preceding week.11
These three firms' sole business was
the buying and selling
of cheese. Year by year they increased
the amount of their
purchases and found ready markets to
the west and southwest
for the cheese they bought. At the same
time there were sev-
eral smaller dealers and some farmers
in the country who
were largely, although not exclusively,
engaged in buying and
shipping. This necessarily made keen
competition in buying.
With so many buyers at one point,
dairymen found they real-
ized better prices in Wellington than
in any other market
either in Lorain or any adjoining
county.12
The combination of good railroad
facilities, the strategic
location at a central point about
twenty miles distant from
Elyria on the north, Medina on the
east, Ashland on the south,
and Norwalk on the west, in the midst
of sixteen hundred
square miles of excellent dairy
country, settled by highly in-
telligent, energetic farmers, naturally
attracted the dealers,
merchants, and facilities that were
rapidly to make Welling-
ton the capital of
"Cheesedom" for over a quarter of a century.
There remained one other development,
which now followed
naturally from the substantial volume
of homemade dairy
products being handled by the
Wellington dealers. On June
24, 1864, a national bank charter was
issued to the First Na-
tional Bank of Wellington. By September
the bank was or-
ganized with $50,000 of capital and
ready to transact business.
S. S. Warner, who had recently moved
from Huntington to
Wellington, and who was then state
representative from
Lorain County in the Ohio legislature,
was the first president.
Rollin A. Horr, who had also just moved
to Wellington from
Huntington, was the first cashier.
These two men, with B.
11June 18, 1862.
12 October 15, 1862, May 17, 1865.
40
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
G. Carpenter, S. K. Laundon, and
Frederick M. Hamlin of
Wellington and T. W. Laundon and Roswell G. Horr of
Elyria, constituted the first board of
directors. R. G. Horr
was a twin brother of R. A. Horr,
cashier, and was a prom-
inent and successful attorney in
Elyria. Hamlin was about
to serve two terms as Lorain County
treasurer beginning in
1865. Both Carpenter and the two
Laundons were merchants
dealing in and warehousing dairy
products.
The significance of the formation of
the bank to the grow-
ing cheese industry at this time lay in
the fact that the farmer
often received receipts for his butter
and cheese delivered to
the dealer. These receipts could be
made the basis for excel-
lent bankable collateral. The farmer
needing cash for more
land, cows, or barns, or the dealer who
had bought from the
farmer, had the basis for a
self-liquidating secured debt, pay-
able when his cheese was sold. Thus the
bank became another
very important step in providing the
facilities for the growing
industry.
By the end of the Civil War all of the
components were
present for a really fascinating
development. The splendid
new lands had been built into well
equipped and efficiently
managed farms. Every cow on the farms
was one of nature's
most marvelously contrived chemical
plants converting grass
into milk. Each year mother nature
ordained a new calf chem-
ical plant, producing cow's milk in
about three years. Each
new cow meant more grass. More cows and
more grass meant
more barns. More well fed and well
housed cows meant more
milk. Every farmhouse was now, among
other things, a min-
iature factory producing butter and
cheese out of the ever-
increasing flood of milk. The
foundation for the erection of
a real cheese industry had been well
laid in the Western Re-
serve during the busy years from 1820
to 1865. The situation
was now ripe for the driving energy of
a man convinced that
he knew a better way to solve the
problem and determined to
make his plan work.
After the end of the Missouri campaign,
having completed
his term of service, Captain Charles
William Horr returned
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 41
to Huntington to join his wife, Esther
Lang Horr. Mrs.
Horr had been living in the home of her
brother-in-law Rollin
A. Horr while her husband was in the
war. About the same
time, an older brother, James Courtland
Horr, had returned
to Huntington from Australia, where he
had been for four-
teen years.
These men landed in the midst of a
family well acquainted
with dairy activities. Both men were
soon to make it their
business. Their experience and personal qualities were
well
fitted for the task they were to
undertake. J. C. was the ex-
plorer, initiator, hail-fellow-well-met
type, while C. W. was
the student, teacher, lawyer,
organizer, and leader of men.
Both had a full measure of courage,
conviction, and per-
sistence. Almost immediately they must
have been impressed
with the inefficiency of every farmer
making his milk into
butter and cheese in order to market
the milk his cows pro-
duced. Brothers Carpenter and R. A.
were fully qualified to
testify to the problems that the
resulting varying qualities of
dairy products made for the dealer.
As early as September 1864 the subject
of starting a cheese
factory in Huntington was being discussed.
Dairy farmers
were investigating so as to be ready to
decide, when called
upon, whether it would be to their
interest to patronize such
an institution by sending their milk
there for processing
rather than continue to make butter and
cheese themselves.
The basic question for them was which
plan would produce
the most money for the farmer.13 The
Huntington farmers
were also organizing a dairymen's union
to take steps to com-
bat the low prices they were receiving
for their products.
They soon were holding a meeting in
Elyria to discuss cheese
factories.14
In the summer of 1865 J. C. and C. W.
Horr returned to
Huntington from a long visit through
the East, where they
had been studying cheese factories and
making a thorough
investigation of the cheese industry as
it then existed there.
13 September 28, 1865.
14 June 21, 1865.
42 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Their studies convinced them that an
up-to-date, well-operated
cheese factory could make better
products for less cost per
pound than home operations. They
announced that they were
prepared to erect an establishment in
Huntington costing
$6,000, provided a sufficient number of
cows would be fur-
nished to supply the necessary milk.
The able Huntington correspondent of
the Lorain County
News concluded his account of the announcement with this
generous boost: "No doubt the
enterprise will be successful,
for the most of our dairymen are
anxious to have the factory
erected, and have perfect confidence in
the ability and integrity
of the gentlemen now offering to
accommodate them."15
Within less than two weeks in September
1865 a sufficient
number of cows had been pledged to
insure an adequate supply
of milk. C. W. and J. C. Horr announced
that they would
build a cheese factory in Huntington.
Preparations started
immediately. Forty acres of the David
Rugg farm, a short
distance east of the township center,
were acquired at $79 an
acre as the site for the factory.16
By the end of November the main factory
building, thirty-
two by forty-two feet, was erected and
housed six milk vats
eighteen feet long and four feet wide,
side by side, each deep
enough to hold seven hundred gallons of
milk. The press room
was fourteen by fifty feet, extending
as a wing off the main
factory room. The curing room was
eighteen feet from the
factory building and was a structure
two stories high, built
on a fine cellar twenty-six by a
hundred feet. On each floor
there were twelve cheese racks
extending the entire length of
the building. One hundred and fifty
tons of cheese could be
cured at the same time on these racks.
A track connected the
factory, press room, and curing room,
extending the full
length of each building. There was an elevator
arrangement
between the different floors of the
curing room for handling
the cheese in and out.
The plan was to take the curd from the
vats and load it in
15 August 30,
1865.
16 September
13, October 11, 1865.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 43
curd boxes on a truck or cart, which
was drawn by hand
along the track to the press room. When
the cheeses were
ready for the curing room, they were
again loaded on the
cart and drawn along the track into the
curing room. When
the cheeses were cured, they would
again be loaded on the
cart and drawn along the track to the
wagon that was to haul
them to the warehouse in Wellington.
The boiler and engine room was a third
separate building
sixteen by thirty-five feet.
The factory was designed to handle the
milk of 2,500 cows,
and it was planned to make an English
type of dairy cheese.
The potential supply of milk was there,
for the farms within
the range of the factory then had herds
aggregating 4,000
milking cows.17
The year 1865 was a prosperous one for
dairymen. Stock
of all kinds had come through the winter of 1864-65 in
fine
condition. Dairy cows were never known
to have done as
well in the production of cheese as
they were doing in May
1865.18 Carpenter and Wooley, H. B.
Franks and Company,
E. O. Foote and Company, and Crosier
and Palmer, the cheese
dealers, were not only competing among
themselves but also
vying with the general merchants
Baldwin, Laundon and
Company and C. S. Foote and William
Barnard for the farm-
er's product. This helped make
Wellington the best point in
Ohio for the sale of cheese, and the
trade for cheese that
spring was particularly brisk at from
fifteen to seventeen cents
per pound.19
During the fall of 1865, well into
November, the farmers
were still making good-size cheeses.
This was quite an un-
common event. The weather was so mild
and the fall feed so
abundant that milch cows were
exceedingly profitable.20 And
so it was not strange that with the
turn of the year Hunting-
ton was reporting that several of the
local stock dealers had
gone west to purchase stock. Soon
after, hundreds of cows
17 November 29, 1865.
18 May 10, 17, 1865.
19 May 17, 31, 1865.
20 November
29, 1866.
44 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
were
arriving from the west and were being disposed of with-
out trouble
at big figures. Even the wool growers were selling
their sheep
and buying cows. John Snow, a thrifty farmer,
reported
that from 23 cows in 1865 he had made 12,850
pounds of
cheese, or 559 pounds per cow. He had sold his
cheese at
an average price of 14.95 cents per pound. Another
farmer
claimed 600 pounds of cheese per cow for the season.21
The new
factory began operations promptly at the opening
of the
season on April 1, 1866. An expert cheesemaker from
Herkimer,
New York, was on hand to supervise the starting
up of the
factory and inaugurate good practices from the out-
set. The
owners also had employed Mr. and Mrs. C. S. Lewis
of Geauga
County, Ohio, to be superintendents of operations.
Milk routes
were laid out. Operatives were employed and
taught
their work. About double the number of cows were
offered
with the opening of the factory over the number
pledged the
preceding fall.22
The success
of the enterprise seems to have been apparent
at once.
"Everything about the cheese factory seems to work
like a
charm," runs a current news item. One thousand pounds
of cheese a
day were made at the outset, with the quantity
steadily
increasing as the milk delivered for processing went
up.23
Perhaps the
most convincing proof of how the dairymen
regarded
the operation is shown by the gallonage delivered to
the factory
for the first four months of operation:
Number of
Cows Gallons
Contributing Delivered
April
............... 700 24,400
May
................. 900 55,500
June
................. 1,050 64,400
July
................. 1,300 71,00024
By June 25,
1866, the gallonage being delivered made neces-
21 February 28, 1866.
22 April 4, 1866.
23 April 25,
1866.
24 August
29, 1866.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 45
sary the processing of milk twice each
twenty-four hours.
This required two shifts, or fourteen
employees in all. The
number of pounds of cheese made did not
vary greatly from
the number of gallons of milk received.
April cheese netted the dairymen 14.5
cents per pound, May
and June 13.5 cents, net. July cheese
was somewhat higher.
By the end of August all of the April,
May, and June cheese
had been sold. The patrons of the factory
were receiving con-
siderably higher prices for their milk
than their neighbors
were generally receiving for their
home-manufactured cheese.25
Within six weeks after the Horr factory
began to make
cheese, two other new factories in
Huntington were being
planned for erection during the year,
so that they could start
the following spring.26
By the end of June, H. E. Mussey of
Elyria had a cheese
factory in operation on his farm south
of Elyria, on the east
bank of the Black River. He had begun
operations with the
milk of 100 cows and was making five
and a half cheeses per
day. There were two vats installed on
the basement floor of
his twenty-two by seventy-two foot
factory building, with
room for three additional vats, each
holding six hundred
gallons. Thus he had a potential
capacity to take care of 1,200
cows. A spring of cold, pure water
flowed through the stone
wall of the factory building, across
the floor, and into Black
River. The curing room was directly
above, with a capacity
for 2,500 cheeses. Mussey's master
cheese maker was H. M.
Viets.27
During June, Nathan P. Chapman of
Huntington an-
nounced that he was building a cheese
factory on his farm
two miles south and one half mile west
of the township center,
which would be ready for operation,
April 1, 1867;28 and in
June, Charles Biggs reported that he
had sold his tavern in
Sullivan, just across the line from
Huntington in Ashland
25 Ibid.
26 May 16, 23, 1866.
27 June 20, 1866.
28 Ibid.
46
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
County, to a company that proposed to
start a cheese factory
on the site.29
By October, John Snow, who had made
such a fine record
with his own herd in 1865, had his new
factory building,
twenty-six by ninety-six feet and two
stories high, entirely
enclosed, with a cellar underneath part
of the main building.
This factory had one of the best water
privileges in the sec-
tion.30 Snow was also
ensuring his own supply of boxes for
his cheese by erecting and equipping a
shop alongside his
cheese factory. During the summer of
1866 J. C. and C. W.
Horr had been hard put to get
sufficient boxes for the cheese
they were making and had found it necessary to haul
them
in from other cheese making localities.31
On November 30, 1866, when the
contracts to supply milk
terminated, the Horr factory made the last cheese for
the
1866 season and shut down a very
successful first year's
operation.32
Meanwhile, the impact of the starting
of factory opera-
tions had been stimulating increased
activity in every other
line of the dairy industry. Yet even before the
effects of the
building of the factories could be
felt, the cheese dealers'
business in Wellington, the Wellington
correspondent of the
Lorain County News wrote, had
grown to a magnitude that many of our
neighbors are not aware of. If
we are not the "Hub" of
Cheesedom we must be very near it. We shall
be glad to hear from any town in Ohio
that can show figures anywhere
approaching those below. They would hardly seem
credible to those
who do not know that this is the center
of shipment for a large territory,
and that cheese is brought by producers
to our dealers here from dis-
tances of 20, 30, 40, even 50 miles
away.
This burst of enthusiasm was backed by
the figures of A. G.
Burt, the railroad agent, showing gross
monthly shipments of
29 June 27, 1866.
30 October 10, 1866.
31 October 31,
1866.
32 December
5, 1866.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 47
cheese from Wellington during 1865
aggregating 1,956,278
pounds.33
The cheese dealers Crosier and Palmer
were building a new
business block on the west side of
North Main Street to house
their butter, cheese, and produce
business; and across North
Main Street, H. B. Franks was erecting
a three story and
basement block for his cheese business.
The third floor was
designed for an assembly room called
"The Opera House."34
In Huntington B. G. Carpenter was
buying E. A. Ledyard's
wagon shop and moving the structure to
Wellington to aug-
ment his cheese warehousing facilities.
This may not have
been the first, but it was one of a
series of movings that almost
literally transported Huntington to Wellington
over the quar-
ter century from 1855 to 1880.35 A. D.
Swain of Spencer
bought the O. S. Wadsworth store in
Wellington and announ-
ced that he was prepared to deal in
butter, cheese, and dairy
products.
The activity in the equipment and
supplies line of the cheese
industry was equally vigorous. Early in
winter of 1866 Van
Cleef and Perkins were enlarging their
mill and lumber busi-
ness, bought in September 1865 from P.
N. Stroup, by the
purchase of H. B. Franks and Company's
cheese-box factory.
The new owners were to continue the box
factory and supply
Franks with his cheese boxes.36 John
Snow was taking O. T.
Baker as a partner in his cheese-box
factory. A planing
machine and buzz and upright saws were
installed to be used
for custom work. By June an addition on
the box factory
was required to help supply the heavy
demand for boxes. At
the start of the season in 1867 Snow
was also to sell at least
a two-thirds interest in his cheese
factory, probably to E. O.
Foote and Company, the Wellington dealers, although
the
factory started operating on April 1,
1867, as John Snow
and Company.37
33 May 16, 1866.
34 Ibid.
35 October
24, 1866.
36 September 27, 1865, March 21,
1866, January 2, March 27, 1867.
37 October
31, 1866, February 6, 1867.
48
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
McClelland and Company were producing
an improved
cheese press. T. Kirk and Company of
Wellington were pre-
paring for a lively business in cheese boxes, rakes,
forks,
shovel handles, and so forth. Lang and
Wilbur were driving
their business to the utmost capacity
trying to keep up with
the demands for their improved cheese
vat. H. M. Viets, the
master cheese maker of the Mussey
factory in Elyria, was
inventing his patent cheese hoop that
greatly facilitated the
"bandaging" and preparing of
cheese, doing way with the
pressing cloths and eliminating the
turning of the cheese while
pressing.38
The Horr factory resumed operations on
March 18, 1867,
with about 1,000 cows "put
in" for the season. They were
soon receiving some 30,000 pounds of
milk a day, from which
they were making 60 cheeses a day
weighing on an average of
50 pounds each--one and a half tons of
cheese every day.
At the same time, the Snow factory was
making 24 cheeses
daily weighing an average of 70 pounds
each. In one day
early in June 1867, 30,860 pounds of
cheese were shipped
from the station in Wellington.39
Cheese factories were now starting up,
it would seem,
wherever two or three dairies could be
gathered together.
Camden had a factory of about 500 cows
and making one half
ton of cheese a day. A Miss Black of
Geauga County was the
skillful master cheese maker.40 A
fourth factory in the south-
east part of Huntington was being
agitated.41 It is probable
that the Miner factory at the Quarry
and Jones road inter-
section was built that year. It is
known that J. C. Horr was
supervising that factory when he sold
his interest in the
business to A. Starr of Wellington,
giving possession in April
1868 with the opening of the season. J.
C.'s health, for some
time, had made it seem wise to go to
the Pacific Coast to seek
a less rigorous climate. He had
received a down payment on
38 March 27, 1867, March 17, 1869.
39 March 27, June 19, 1867.
40 July
10, 1867.
41 August 21, 1867.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 49
a sale of his interest in August the
year before, but that deal
fell through. The partnership now
became Horr and Starr.42
The old firm of J. C. and C. W.
completed the season's
operations with 9,313 cheeses made for
a total of 444,000
pounds, or 222 tons, of cheese.43
Wellington shipped in 1867 a total of
2,740,000 pounds of
cheese.44
The scarcity of money in the spring of
1868 caused business
generally to be very quiet. But this
did not dampen the en-
thusiasm of the dairy interests. John
Snow and Company
went after and secured 600 cows. Horr
and Starr set their
sights for 1,200 to 1,500 cows and
rapidly made up the de-
sired number. "Dairymen, whatever
may be said to the con-
trary, generally prefer the factory to
home manufactory,"
runs a contemporary news items from
Huntington.45
Operations started promptly on April 1
at the Horr and
Starr factory with Mr. and Mrs. Lewis
and their crew turn-
ing out 700 cheeses in April. For May
the goal was 50 cheeses
per day. Calvin Sage and his wife were
in charge of the fac-
tory and lived in the home vacated by
the J. C. Horrs. That
factory was processing the milk of
1,000 cows.46
There were, of course, some die-hards.
About twelve old
dairymen insisted that they could
manufacture their own milk
into just as good cheese as the factory
could make, that the
consumer could not tell it from factory
cheese. C. D. Foote
was one of the foremost of these
irreconcilables. With 100
cows of his own he made five 50-pound
cheeses a day that
compared favorably with any factory
product.47
Meanwhile, family records disclose a
very interesting de-
velopment that was progressing slowly during the year
1868.
S. S. Warner was then serving his
second term as state treas-
urer of Ohio. On his return trips from
Columbus to his home
42 August
7, 14, 1867, August 6, 1866.
43 December 25, 1867, January 1, 1868.
44 January
29, 1868.
45 March 11, 1868.
46 May
20, 1868.
47 Ibid.
50 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in Wellington he
frequently talked with C. W. Horr. Almost
as often he had a
talk with A. Starr. On Saturday, October
17, 1868, he made
this notation:
Bot. of A. Starr his
int. in cheese factory and everything connected
with it--office furniture,
safe, wagons, etc. Also half of his town house
and furniture in same.
Am to have possession April 1, '69, for which
I am to pay 4,900
dollars as follows:
In hand
........................ $1,200
Note agst. Hubbard
.............. 2,200
One yr. from Apr.
1st............ 1,500
Horr and Starr's
factory report for the 1868 season showed
3,430,545 pounds of
milk received and processed into 357,263
pounds of cheese.
After deducting all of the factory costs
and the costs of
boxing, selling, and collecting, the net amount
received by the
patrons of the factory, month per month, was
as follows:
Cents per Pound
of Cheese
April ....................... 12.448
May
........................ 11.356
June
........................ 10.557
July
........................ 12.823
August ..................... 14.183
September
.................. 14.518
October ..................... 14.998
November
................... 17.14748
Railroad shipments
from Wellington, in 1868, totaled
3,136,448 pounds of
cheese.49
Messrs. Horr and
Warner were organized during the late
fall and winter of
1868-69, ready to operate as dealers in
cheese and other
produce with the opening of the season on
April 1, 1869. In
addition to the factory at Huntington they
had acquired a
factory at Greenwich, in Huron County, and
were starting off
with approximately 1,500 cows. On the
48 March 17, 1869.
49 February 24, 1869.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 51
death of B. G. Carpenter in November
they also took over
his business from his widow and were
thus in shape to ware-
house the products of their factories
or any dairy or food
product they might arrange with others
to handle.50
There were other important changes in
the line-up of the
Wellington dealers on April 1, 1869. H.
B. Franks had taken
in as partner Major Bottsford of
Wooster. John Snow sold
his interest in E. O. Foote and
Company; and the fine Snow
factory in Huntington, which years
later was known as the
Sweeney factory of Horr, Warner and
Company, was for the
time being operated as the E. O. Foote
and Company factory.51
Even for the cheese industry the spring
of 1869 was one
of uncommon activity. Cows were coming
in from the west
in droves and being immediately
absorbed into the dairymen's
herds. Sheep farmers were again selling
their flocks and buy-
ing cattle. Any cheese available in
March was quickly snapped
up at better than twenty cents a pound.
The factories opened
to a flood of spring milk. But the
busiest places in town were
the cheese box factories. Several
hundred boxes were made
each day and a large amount of lumber,
mostly elm, was being
cut up.52
In May 1869 there were fourteen cheese
factories in Lorain
County in successful operation. Several
other factories located
in Medina, Ashland, and Huron counties
received a consid-
erable portion of their milk from
Lorain County, and their
product was almost entirely handled
through Wellington.53
One year later when the milk wagons
started running again
there were thirty-two factories
receiving milk in Lorain
County. Only three of the twenty-one
townships--Avon,
Sheffield, and Black River, along the
lake--were not repre-
sented. Penfield and Ridgeville had
three each; Amherst,
Elyria, Henrietta, Carlisle, Eaton,
Pittsfield, Brighton, Well-
50 March 10,
1869.
51 March 31, 1869.
52 April 28,
1869.
53 May 19, 1869.
52 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ington, Huntington, and Rochester were
favored with two
each; and the other six had one apiece.54
The rapidity with which the factory
operation proved its
efficiency and practicality does not
perhaps seem so remark-
able in retrospect. A master cheese
maker, giving his entire
time and trained skill to processing
the milk, certainly ought
to make a better product, more
economically, than the primi-
tive farm operation carried on under
all sorts of improvised
conditions. The factory produced
uniform cheese and butter
of a quality that general market
conditions required.
However, when the milk was pooled at
the factory, the
quality of the milk and the cleanliness
of the handling and
care of the milk at every stage on each
individual farm became
a matter of vital common concern. One
dairyman's shiftless-
ness, or even single mistake, could
hurt not only himself and
every other contributor but the
reputation of the factory and
the dealer, and, most important of all,
offend the public who
consumed the product. One contaminated
can of milk could
spoil an entire batch of cheese. So at
an early stage the dairy-
men's associations were taking steps to
ensure proper care
on the farm at every stage prior to the
hauler picking up the
milk.55
On the farm each cow was milked by hand
into a pail until
the four quarters of the cow's udder
were dry. Some farmers
kept a record of each cow's milking on
a chart, using a steel-
yard scale hanging conveniently nearby.
The pail of milk
was then poured through a sieve lined
with cheesecloth into
a large milk can.
These milk cans were perhaps three feet
tall and almost
two feet wide. The can cover had a
six-inch flange that fitted
so snugly down inside the can that it
was found necessary to
place a half-inch tube in the center of
the cover through which
the air could escape as the cover was
pushed down into the
can. When this can was filled with
milk, one of the two
54 April 14, 1870.
55 January 19, 26, 1871.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 53
surviving haulers states, it would
weigh close to 500 pounds,
that is, some 250 quarts, or about 60
gallons, of milk.
So the ingenuity of the farmer was
often taxed to get his
milk from the barn out to the roadside
on the milk stand,
where the hauler picked it up. That is
the reason that the
roadsides of this part of Ohio always
had the little plat-
forms wagon-high at the farm driveway
in the horse and
buggy days. Practically every farm had
such a milk stand.
The hauler drove his wagon from farm to
farm picking up
these cans of milk.
The hauler's wagon was designed
specially for the job.
The four wheels were spaced to carry a
flat bed about ten to
twelve feet long and four feet wide. A
cleat went around the
edge of the bed to keep the cans from
jarring off the bed on
the rough roads and also helped
reinforce the bed to support
the heavy loads. Between the wheels the
bed was built out on
each side so that the wagon platform
could be driven close
to the milk-stand platform. Then the
cans of milk were rolled
onto the wagon and stored side by side
on the long wagon bed.
The hauling operation over the
uncertain dirt roads of this
part of Ohio placed a fairly definite
limitation on the site of
the factory. Walking horses pulling a
heavy load day in and
day out could not easily service a
route much over four or
five miles long.
The first factory quickly confirmed C.
W. Horr's early
conviction that he had the best plan
for building a sound
cheese and butter industry. As the
first farmer patrons be-
came similarly convinced, of course the
erection of cheese fac-
tories in strategic locations spread
rapidly. The depression of
the 1870's accentuated the marketing
problem for the farm-
produced cheese, and C. W. was quick to
push his factory
plan as a solution.
Year by year the factories built or
managed by Horr,
Warner and Company increased until
eventually in the late
1870's and early 1880's they controlled
the output of some
thirty cheese and butter factories. In
1864 William A.
Braman had entered into business as a
cattle dealer in Elyria.
54 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
By 1874 C. W. Horr was forming Braman,
Horr, Warner
and Company, and Braman was soon managing seven fac-
tories, the product of which was
marketed through the Horr,
Warner and Company organization. In
1876 Horr employed
E. A. Van Cleef as soon as he had
graduated from the high
school which Wellington had just
started. Messrs. Horr,
Warner, Webster, Chapman, and Van
Cleef, and later Grant
Watts, devoted their entire business
lives to the interests of
Horr, Warner and Company.
The phenomenal success of the early
factories spurred
competition. Baldwin, Laundon and
Company, with connec-
tions at first in Elyria, eventually
came to manage and handle
several cheese factories. Another early
dealer in cheese was
John Roser, who had come from Germany
in 1851 and settled
in Wellington. Later, in association
with Charles Roser and
J. Peter Eidt, he formed the Wellington
Cheese Company
and managed five large factories. As
early as 1869 James
Sheldon had erected suitable buildings
and "commenced the
manufacture of cheese according to the
factory system." His
facilities were extended and enlarged,
until in 1879 he re-
ported that he had produced 3,000,000
pounds of cheese in his
own factory. In addition, he had
interests in some five other
factories. B. B. Herrick was unique in
that he operated and
managed his own cheese factory. He may
have worked jointly
with other factories or dealers, but he
was essentially an in-
dependent operator, conducting a
successful personal business.
Most of these and a few other operators
of cheese and
butter factories with offices or
warehouse facilities in Well-
ington were listed in Bradstreet and
Son's commercial report
of Wellington dated January 1, 1874.
Altogether it is con-
servative to say that there were some
sixty or more cheese
factories whose output of cheese and
butter was managed
from Wellington. The Wellington
Enterprise, on May 5,
1877, observed with pride an article in
the current issue of
Trade Review stating that
no place in "cheesdum" can
compare with Wellington, Ohio, as the
center of the cheese industry.
Thirty-five cheese factories are owned
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 55
by the cheese dealers in this town. The
milk from 14,000 cows is
manufactured into cheese by these
thirty-five factories. In addition, the
proprietors of from 20 to 25 other
factories market their product
through the dealers in Wellington.
In May 1877 Andrew Plumert, a provision
dealer of Glas-
gow, Scotland, visited Braman, Horr,
Warner and Company
in Elyria and arranged for an immediate
shipment to Glasgow
of five hundred fifty-pound boxes of
cheese. He also placed
orders, which the firm agreed to fill,
for a minimum of five
hundred and a maximum of eight hundred
boxes of cheese
to be shipped weekly or semi-weekly
during the balance of
the season.56 When Plumert
reported back to Glasgow, some
of his associates apparently wanted
some further assurance
that Horr Warner would be able to
furnish the cheese to meet
the very substantial commitments that
they had undertaken.
At any rate, C. W. Horr sailed for
Europe about July 1,
1877.57 His travels included
Liverpool and Glasgow and re-
sulted in firmly established relations
that produced extensive
export business for his firm for many
years.
That the firm was amply able to meet
its commitments is
indicated by its production of
6,117,113 pounds of cheese dur-
ing the season of 1877. This means over
306 carloads of
cheese, making a train 1.91 miles long.
At the end of this
1877 season the firm had 22,000 cheeses
in its Wellington
warehouses to take care of the winter
trade. Nine factories
alone had processed the milk of 3,600
cows. Their record
receipts for one week in October were
2,829 cheeses, with
shipments to market of 2,990. The
record day showed 1,032
cheeses unloaded at the warehouses and
1,505 shipped out.58
The year 1878 started on April 1 with
forty-five cheese fac-
tories owned in Wellington receiving
milk from 20,000 cows.
Among them were the following:
56 Wellington Enterprise, May 17, 1877.
57 Ibid., July 5, 1877.
58 Ibid., October 18, 1877.
56 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Horr,
Warner and Company 13
factories 6,500 cows
Baldwin,
Laundon and Company 10 " 4,500
"
George
Crosier and Son 6 " 3,000
"
Palmer
and Lewis 5 " 1,700
"
John
Roser 2 " 600
"
The
balance of the factories were personally owned and sold
their
product on the market.59
In
these years the output of cheese in Lorain County and
the
surrounding area reached its peak. Then in the 1880's
and
1890's the picture began to change, and the passing of
Lorain
County's cheese empire came about as gradually and
naturally
as the home production of butter and cheese in the
1860's
surrendered with honor and profit to the factory
processing
of milk.
The
Horr Warner Company closed its last factory in 1912
and
devoted its efforts to the raising of onions and celery
and
other garden crops, for which they had long been pre-
paring.
As early as 1905, when the forty-year-old D. L.
Wadsworth
box factory was still producing five hundred
cheese
boxes daily, it reported the receipt from Horr, Warner
and
Company of an order for fifty thousand onion crates.60
In
1913 B. B. Herrick made his last cheese and closed his
factory,
the last of all the Wellington factories to discontinue
operations.
And
every dairyman patron of the factories also prospered
by
this change. Northern Ohio began literally eating and
drinking
the milk that for so many years had to be manu-
factured
into butter and cheese to be marketed. The steadily
growing
population of Cleveland, Akron, Lorain, and Elyria
required
liquid milk and could afford to pay more for milk
than
could be paid to make it into butter and cheese. Cheese
and
butter manufacturing simply could not be profitably car-
ried
on in a district, or "milk shed" as it is called, where there
59
Ibid., April 11, 1878.
60
Ibid., February 24, 1904, April 26,
1905.
LORAIN COUNTY CHEESE INDUSTRY 57
was a large enough population to take
all of the milk produced
in that district.
So first the morning "milk
train" started siphoning milk
away from the cheese empire to the
city. A few years later
the Green Line began to
"pump" to get its share of hauling
the milk to the city. Finally the Belle
Vernon "milk receiving
station" was erected north of
Wellington and it gave the
cheese factories the final coup de
grace. In their turn each of
these facilities gave way, one to the
other, and passed from the
picture in favor of the milk truck.
Today we are seeing the
great stainless steel tank trucks
driving directly to the farm-
er's house, where the milk is pumped
from the farmer's refrig-
erated storage tank, having arrived
there from the cow's
udder through a closed circuit of glass
tubes and stainless steel.