The Dairy Blog

My Grandmother told me that the first year of making ice cream was a learning experience.  My Grandfather built up an inventory of ice cream, which was sold on the 4^th of July.  With this money, he built a new creamery on Green Street in downtown Athens.  Not only did he make ice cream, but he installed the first milk pasteurizer between Knoxville and Chattanooga.  The high quality of both his milk and ice cream made the business successful from the start.  The ice cream business covered East Tennessee, Western North Carolina and the North Georgia mountains.  Customers dipped bulk ice cream and sold novelties.  The milk business was much more localized – mainly glass quart bottles for home delivery.

My Grandfather was both a successful farmer and business man.  He was also a generous person, who gave away buttermilk and other items to people during the great depression.  By the time of his death, the farm had three large dairy barns and over a hundred Jersey cows.  The creamery also purchased milk from thirty-four other farms.  Daily milk processing was over four hundred gallons and annual ice cream sales were over 60,000 gallons.  Weekly payroll was nearly $500 for the thirty employees.  There were five ice cream trucks and three milk trucks.

We’ve already mentioned eating ice cream at the St. Louis fair as a reason for getting into the dairy business, but something else he did changed the focus of the family farm.  You see, my Great Grandfather’s principal business was horses and mules.  My Grandfather came home from college with a Model A Ford!  Time to focus on Jersey cows and the dairy industry.