Borden’s Creamery –

Newtown Was Once A Hub For Area Dairymen

By Jan Howard

Local dairy farms once provided milk for the Borden Creamery, which operated next to the railroad station on Church Hill Road from 1902 to 1914.

The plant was owned by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, but was leased to the Borden Company for the processing of milk from local dairy farms.

In a New York Observer story reprinted in The Newtown Bee on July 2, 1909, the writer describes how the Borden Company grew from a small beginning into a large company with headquarters in New York City.

About 1850 Gail Borden invested his own and other people’s money “to prosecute an invention for preserving milk,” the writer said. However, there was an unwillingness of the Patent Office to issue a patent on his invention. “The official could not see that the evaporation of milk ‘in vacuo’ was of any special importance – so at least declared Patent Commissioner Mason in May 1856.” After Mr Borden presented a number of scientific and chemical proofs, in August the patent was issued.

At that time, the writer noted, the Encyclopedia Britannica conceded that to Gail Borden belonged the credit of originating the industry of condensing milk.

Gail Borden spent his early life in Texas, according to the New York Observer. His business was termed the largest of its kind in the world, producing a “product of keen insight and skill practically applied to the needs of humanity.” The story noted that the business had grown until the product of hundreds of thousands of cows figured as its output for a single year.

Mr Borden apparently always insisted upon the most scrupulous cleanliness, the New York Observer writer noted. His work blazed the way to the enforcement of sanitary and hygienic safeguards for securing cleanliness in every detail of milk supply and to bring about conditions that would make selling of impure milk to the public almost an exception.

One milk producer emphasized Borden’s sanitary requirements in a letter written to the Bridgeport Standard, which was reprinted in The Bee on January 20, 1911. H.F. Greenman of Bridgeport wrote that he had purchased a large dairy farm in Newtown three years before, which his son was operating. He noted that Borden’s had refused to take the milk until improvements were made to the stables and care of the cows. He also noted the company’s constant supervision that its standards were upheld.

The Borden Company maintained 40 milk depots in Greater New York and adjacent districts, the New York Observer writer said.

One of them referred to in the story was probably the plant in Newtown.

On August 28, 1903, The Bee reported that Borden’s was to operate the Newtown railroad creamery after October 1. “The Bordens, who operate immense creameries and condensed milk factories in the Harlem Valley and elsewhere, have bought out the Hubbell Brothers at the Newtown Creamery and will begin business there October 1. It is said they will pay one-quarter of a cent over the New York Exchange price. A spur track will be put in and the creamery building remodeled. There is a good deal of interest in the move locally,” The Bee noted.

In January of 1908, The Newtown Bee noted that Borden’s Condensed Milk Company “will put up their own ice this year, cutting their supply on W.C. Johnson’s pond. They have begun work on a new ice house, 40 x 70 feet.”

The ice house project, which was being rushed along, employed seven carpenters, the newspaper reported on January 31. M.A. Hubbard of Sidney, N.Y., was in charge of the job, with J.E. Ingersoll of Union, N.Y., Joseph Stone of Ancram, N.Y., D.H. Gray of Deposit, N.Y., J.D. Merritt of Walton, N.Y., and F.H. Hulse of Sandy Hook working on the building.

“By Friday, the building will be ready for the reception of ice,” the paper reported.

The Creamery was reported on that date as handling between 8,000 and 9,000 quarts of milk. William H. Stevens was the plant manager.

On March 12, 1909, the newspaper reported that 20 railroad cars filled with 14-inch ice from West Stockbridge had been unloaded by Borden’s at its Newtown creamery. The teams of E.S. Lovell, James B. Nichols, A.M. Boyson, Michael Keating, Edgar Northrop, M. O’Connell, J.R. Peck, Richard Rapp, and Herman H. Peck were engaged in hauling the ice from the car to the icehouse.

At the time it was most productive, 80 farms had served the Borden plant. By 1914, however, the number of dairy farmers had dropped to 29, and the plant announced it would close.

On February 20, 1914, a committee of Pootatuck Grange was attempting to find some reliable party to keep the creamery open at the Newtown station.

A.P. Washburne, a representative of the Borden Condensed Milk Company, was in town and met with J.J. Northrop of the committee. Mr Washburne told Mr Northrop that Borden’s would stay in town if they could receive 4,000 quarts more than they now received.

That Wednesday, Mr Christopher, a representative of the Central Dairy Company of New York, came to Newtown with W.H. Seeley of the Industrial Department of the New York and New Haven Railroad to meet with Mr Northrop.

The committee had also communicated with Einathan Mitchell of the Mitchell Dairy Company of Washington, with a view of him taking the creamery.

The Bee noted, “it now appears the Borden’s Company will withdraw from Newtown April 1. If the local dairymen want to retain them here or to bring some other concern in their place, they must act quickly.”

Apparently, Borden’s could not be guaranteed it would receive additional milk from the farmers and decided to close, effective April 1.

On March 13, 1914, The Bee reported that J.B. Shaw of Derby had leased the Newtown creamery as of April 1. He wrote Mr Northrop that he would “guarantee Borden’s prices and better if I can and mean to be fair in every way. I think I can run that factory so as to get all the milk handy to it, say 3,000 quarts a day. Expect to close deal Monday, for 300 40-quart cans and hope to be on hand as soon as Borden’s stops taking milk.”