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Centre Daily Times August 15 2005
Cream of the crop on display
Exhibit highlights county's most notable dairies
By Rich Kerstetter; rkerstet@centredaily.com
"Scan the handbill for an estate auction, especially if antiques are being sold, and you are likely to find bottles listed among the offerings -- quart and pint bottles from local dairies.
Bellefonte Milk Products, State College Creamery, Markle Brothers, Rock Farms, Mensch's Dairy, Pearce Milk Co. -- bottles from these and others frequently appear on the sale lists of auctioneers and the "I want to buy" lists of bidders.
The bottles that once held cold milk are hot items among collectors, and dozens of them, representing Centre County dairies, will be on display this weekend at the Centre County Library and Historical Museum in conjunction with the Bellefonte Arts and Crafts Fair.
The bottles, from the collections of Helen Alters and Eric Bjalme, are on exhibit in the library and museum's Sieg Room on the second floor of the historic Miles-Hume House, along with photos and information on the dairies and creameries that once catered -- and for some, still cater -- to the thirst of Centre County residents.
One of those was the Philipsburg Milk Depot at the corner of Eighth and Locust streets, which, according to information included in the exhibit, operated from 1919 to 1921, when it was sold to Robert Lupton and renamed Purity Milk.
"Sweet milk with cream," proclaimed depot Manager Calvin F. Orwig in a Philipsburg Daily Journal advertisement from May 29, 1919, included among the items on display.
Milk sold for 14 cents per quart, delivered, and 8 cents per pint, while cream was 12 cents per half pint and butter milk 7 cents per quart.
Fresh milk not only tastes good, according to a Purity Milk Co. ad in the 1930 Taillight Yearbook, it saves lives, as well. The copywriter explained:
"Children have always been subject to a host of dread diseases. Their undeveloped bodies have been easy prey to bacteria. Now parents are learning the secret of 'resistance.' They are arming their children against the microscopic foe by letting them have plenty of sleep, plenty of sunshine and plenty of fresh milk. Tested, pasteurized, bottled and sealed with expert care, the safest milk for children comes from Purity Milk Company, Philipsburg, Pennsylvania."
The cream of the exhibit, however, is the collection of bottles -- glass quart and gallon bottles, wax-coated paper bottles and plastic bottles -- from Centre County dairies.
They carry the names so eagerly sought after by collectors, such as Rock Farms, which started in business in the late 1890s and operated on Shiloh Road in Benner Township until the state of Pennsylvania purchased the land in 1912 for the Rockview penitentiary.
Another is Harman Dairy, which, as described in the book "Benner Township: 150 Years of Families, Forging, Farming, Fishing and Flying," was founded around 1895 by Hezikiah Hoy and served customers in Bellefonte and Benner Township until the 1940s.
"The milk was delivered in large cans and Mr. Hoy would measure the milk in quarts to be placed in kettle containers that the customer would bring to the wagon," the Benner Township history book explains.
The day of home delivery -- especially by horse and wagon -- is long gone. Nearly all that remains are the milk bottles, prized by collectors and on display Friday and Saturday in Bellefonte."
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