Learn lots more about Franklinville by
following these links !
Introduction
Early History
Death Records 1860-1894
Pioneers
Early Settlers
Joseph McClure
Pardon T Jewell
Marvin Older
Delos E Lyon
Curtis Brothers
Searl and Storrs
Doctors
William McNall
Park Square and Fairs
The Story
The Trial
The Wedding
Franklinville Fair
Bands
Postal History
Introduction
Post Office
Postmasters
Hotels and Inns
Globe Hotel
Hotel Lester
Bard Hotel
Brown Eagle Hotel
Businesses and Industry
Bartholomew's Pharmacy
West Park Square Drug Store
Quality Bakery
Cutlery Industry
Mercantile
Dairy Industry
Firehouse Liquors
Blount Plow
Churches and Buildings
Baptist
Other Churches
Presbyterian
Methodist Episcopal
Amusement Hall
The Miners Cabin
In the Public Trust
Newspapers
Chronicle-Journal
Fire Department
Mt Prospect Cemetery
Public Works
Railroads
This information came from the files of Joie Wilson, formerly the Franklinville Town
Historian and the section editor for Franklinville on the Cattaraugus County website.
If you have information about Franklinville, or have a question,
contact Joie at ChasandJoie@webtv.net
Thanks, Joie !!
You are our visitor since January 29, 1999--
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In the beginning, of
course, if there was milk on the table it was
because the family kept a cow. As the years went by, and the dairy
business developed, things slowly changed.
First there was the possibility of taking your milk can
and going
to a local dairy farmer to buy your milk. As the late Marjorie Graves,
local historian, once wrote "Many will remember going [for milk] to the
Clark Riggs farm on North Main Street."
In 1880 Ben Howard saw the need for the home delivery
of milk and
began running a route with a lumber wagon, carrying a supply of milk for
distribution to homes in an ordinary milk can. Others followed suit
later; eventually there was home delivery of milk in bottles. That was
discontinued in the 1960s.
Milk as an industry also had its place here for many
years. The
following paraphrased information is from an old clipping found in the
Blount Library, hand dated December 12, 1912:
Sheffield Farms-Slawson-Decker bought the fomer Charles
Adsit
property on the west side of the railroad track just north of the Elm
Street railroad crossing and also one acre of the Clark Riggs farm that
adjoined it. This company then built a milk plant said to have cost
approximately $15,000.
Once the plant facility was finished in 1913 there was
a daily
procession of horse drawn wagons and, later, pick up trucks carrying
milk cans to the plant for years. The plant also had its own switch to
the main railroad track; this was because most of the processed milk was
shipped to the Philadelphia market, although some went to New York City.
In November of 1937 Breyer Ice Cream Co. of
Philadelphia, Pa.
purchased the operation. The local plant at that time handled daily an
average of 60,000 pounds of raw milk. The plant, having been
extensively remodeled, then employed 12 to 15 men constantly. As a
result of the new ownership the plant then began to prepare the
ingredients for ice cream for shipment to other places.
Obviously the productive capacity of the plant improved
as the
years went by. A blinding snowstorm in February of 1957 caused the
Sentinel Press, the local newspaper, to make the following report on the
storm's effect on the reduced supply of raw milk reaching the plant:
"....Breyer Ice Cream Company in Franklinville received 45,190
lbs. of milk from 72 of its 149 dairy farm suppliers, slightly more
than half the daily nornal of 83,000 lbs."
Environmental regulations contributed to the closing of this plant
on October 15, 1970.
The facility, now used for other purposes, still stands at its
original location.
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