Local History Index: Business Index
Creamery Business History
Compiled and Edited by Michael R. Reilly
Last Revised 12/01/2005
Also read Champeny Creamery Explosion
New Store In Sussex
On the 8th day of February, 1886, I shall open the store
formerly kept by Edward Champeny, with a full assortment of dry goods,
groceries, hats, caps, boots and shoes, hardware, crockery, glass-ware, paints,
oils, etc., and a full line of goods usually kept in a general store. All will
be sold at very low prices/ Come one and all, and be convinced as to prices and
quality of goods. Highest market price paid for butter and eggs.
Yours, anxious to please,
A. J. Elliott
Waukesha Freeman, February 4, 1886, page 1. (Editor's
note: This short advertisement shows that local grocers were buying privately
made butter for resale to customers)
Editor's Note: All though the next couple of articles don't specially discuss Sussex-Lisbon creamery business, they're printed here to indicate the state of the business in 1890.
Co-Operative Dairying (Excerpt from an
article based on a Waukesha Farmers' Institute meeting)
W. B. Vankirk opened the discussion on "Co-Operative
Dairying". He said that where cows are plenty in a neighborhood and near to
the factory, it may be best for the farmers to haul their milk to the factory
and use a centrifugal separator in getting out the cream.
Mr. Utter gave some account of the working of the factory at
Caldwell, where they make from 2 to 3 1/2 lbs. of butter, and about 7 lbs. of
cheese from 100 lbs. of milk. The latter has brought the patrons an average of
85 cents per cwt. during the past year. Mr. Ward patronizes the same factory,
but thinks there is not much profit in the dairy industry at present, as it is
being overdone.
Capt. E. Enos gave an account of how he has bred up his herd
of Jerseys until he now makes 1 lb. of butter from 14 to 15 lbs. of milk, and he
has 15 cows that make an average of 300 lbs. of butter per year, which he ships
to private customers at 30c per pound. Source: Waukesha
Freeman, March 6, 1890
-----------
Our New Factory
The Waukesha cheese and butter manufacturing Co., consisting
of Messrs. F. E. Allen and M. A. Sickles, is in working order and their new
factory will soon be an accomplished fact.
Mr. Sickles, the manager of the company is a first class and
practicle dairy man, and he will prove a valuable acquisition to the business
circles of the town. The Free wishes the new firm an abundant success. Source:
Waukesha Freeman, March 27, 1890
------------
At the new Waukesha cheese and butter factory on Monday, the
opening day, 2,000 pounds of milk were received and a steady increase is looked
for. Source: Waukesha Freeman, May 8, 1890
There is quite a stir among the farmers of this neighborhood over the prospects of having a butter and cheese factory built near the center of the town, if the necessary number of cows can be obtained. Waukesha Freeman, January 22, 1891
A butter and cheese factory is about to be started
at North Lisbon. A. L. Greengo is the leader in the enterprise. Waukesha
Freeman, January 31, 1891.
Merton - The office at the condensery
is now completed, and Mr. Siefelt, the secretary, who through the winter lived
in Milwaukee, will now have his headquarters here. Source:
Waukesha Freeman, Thursday, May 6, 1915