Dairy in Union County

The collection of the Union County Historical Society was greatly enlarged by a major gift of Union County dairy material collected by the late Karl Wehr of Mifflinburg. His wife Hertha Wehr, past Society board member, made the gift in memory of her husband. For decades, Karl Wehr had collected dairy material from the area and even from parts of the world when he traveled. Since the Wehr gift in 2004, others have donated local dairy material and select purchases have been made as recently as January 2009 at the Pete Gardner dairy auction.

A diary exhibit on view at the Dale/Engle/Walker House on Sunday afternoons 2-4 PM, through October 2009 includes items from the Wehr gift plus photographs, New Berlin Dairy items and pieces on loan for this exhibit.

The Society owns the Dale/Engle/Walker property in Buffalo Township, a farm on which Jacob B. Engle operated a dairy in the 1930s. The original barn foundation is standing as is the milk house used by the Engles. The Milk house now contains an explanatory panel with text written by Hertha Wehr and Jake Engle, one of the children of dairy farmer Jacob Engle.

J. B. Engle's Dairy, which was located here at Dales Ridge, was operational from c. 1936-1944. Their barn burned in 1936 and its replacement came down with a heavy snow load in 1994. J.B. Engle bottles were either embossed glass or stenciled (called pyros). The Engles operated a dairy store in Lewisburg in 1942. Nearby in Buffalo Township was the Dock View Dairy.

Lewisburg area dairies with pint and quart embossed glass milk bottles include:

            Brook Park run by A. C. Brown, Bucknell Dairy, Bechtels, Citizen (which became Bechtels in 1923),Cold Spring run by Calvin Eberhardt, Crystal Spring run by John Neman, Erdly run by J. F. Erdly, Edgar Harner, Harry Heim, W.L. Ikler, Lakeview run by Joseph S. Hackenberg, Lewisburg Creamery, Keystone run by A. C. Slifer, 5th Street Dairy run by C. E. Stimeling, 6th Street Dairy run by F. L. Zeiber, Riverside run by John Stroecher on River Road and Smith’s Dairy on 6th Street.

 The Society has just published Heritage 2010, "Cows on the Landscape and a Milkman at Your Door: Dairy in Union County 1900-2005," by Hertha Wehr, with additional articles by Donald Hoy, Tony Shively, Mareta Digan and Jeannette Lasansky. The book is available from the Society and selected local merchants.