It has been said that the home delivery of milk started in rural Vermont around 1785. This was when wagons drawn by horses with cans of milk from nearby farms were used to deliver to customers. Whether it is true that it began in Vermont, it is clear that the home delivery of milk was a reality even up to the 1960’s in the state. Those of us who grew up in the in the 1950’s and 60’s and before undoubtedly remember the milkman, and the delivery of milk to the home in glass bottles. In my family’s case, we were able to get our raw milk in glass bottles each day from my grandfather’s small dairy farm next door. My mother would often take the cream off the top of the bottle where it settled for baking and making other things. For others, who were not on a farm, the milkman came and left the glass bottles in a metal box on the steps near the front door. Some even placed the milk in the refrigerator in the home if they were a trusted figure. The milkman was a fixture in America, described as a humble figure, circulating the city at all hours as the guardian of public peace and safety.
In the early history of home milk delivery, before the invention of glass bottles in the 1870’s, it is said that milk was often delivered in a sheep’s stomach, and later in metal cans. In one historical case (A Brief History of Home Milk Delivery by Robert Taylor) it is stated that for a period in the 1840’s, John O’Sullivan of Utica New York delighted customers with his Fresh From the Teat campaign, wherein the milk man would bring the cow to the customers’ doors and extract milk on the front lawn. People loved the service, but the cows became prone to performance anxiety, workers complained about unfair working conditions, unionized, and eventually drove O'Sullivan out of business. In the early 1900’s a large percentage of families kept a few cows to provide milk, and to make butter and cheese. Families who did not keep a cow, relied upon a neighbor for milk. At that time most of home delivered milk was raw. The interest in public health and milk quality, resulted in state laws and city ordinances that required that all milk be distributed in sealed containers and many ordinances also required that it be pasteurized.
According to records, the home delivery of milk was a big business before the 1960’s. The U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows that the home delivery was a mainstay in the 1950’s with one-half of all milk was home delivered. In 1963 29.7 percent of homes relied on this method of delivery but by 1975 it had dropped to only 6.9%, and by the 1990’s to less than 1 %. The late Dr. Fred Webster, a Professor of Extension at the University of Vermont, stated in a Rutland Herald interview in 1996 “that when I came to UVM in 1956, there were 230 milk dealers in the state, and most did home deliveries. Going back to 1920’s and 20’s, you could multiply that number by 10.” In 1944, data indicates that 44% of Burlington and 45% of Essex Vermont residents relied on the milkman delivering their milk. Several dairy farmers had a small home delivery route that served their community in the 1800’s and the early to mid 1900’s. In the area of Southern Vermont where I grew up there were still several distributors of milk to the home in the 1950’s
So, what happened to cause the decline? The post-World War II period brought a boost in automobile ownership as well as the movement to the suburbs of the population. Automobile ownership boomed after World War II. During the war years gasoline supplies were restricted and automobile production for public and commercial use ended in 1942 to be resumed after the war. In Vermont and across the United States, people became more mobile after the war with greatly improved roads. The 30’s and 40’s also saw the beginning growth of supermarkets where people could buy a number of items at one time, no longer being dependent on local specialty food shops. These stores had large refrigeration units that could store items for longer periods of time and in larger units, and in volumes and pricing that made it economically difficult for the milkman to compete. Milk could also be shipped longer distances and in much larger volumes. Tanker trucks, that replaced milk trains, with improved highways could transport up to 7,000 to 8,000 gallons of milk at one time to a processing facility in or near the city where the milk could be packaged into coated paper cartons and polyethylene containers, replacing the glass bottle. Due to economies of scale in assembling and distributing milk, these specialized processors grew in size. Dairymen became more involved in the production of milk as they could not afford to expend the time and cost in distributing the product to the home. They could not compete with the supermarket.
Yes, a lot has changed in the delivery of milk and other food items today. The horse drawn wagon of early years that went house to house has disappeared to be replaced by large supermarkets. There has however been a re-emergence of the home delivery of food with on-line shopping. A 2017 study by the Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen, twenty-three percent of American households are now choosing and buying their groceries on-line. In some places the Milkman is back too. In several areas now across the U.S., there are companies delivering milk and other food products to the home. While customers pay more, they are said to like the convenience, quality, and tradition of the Milkman of the past. In Vermont today there still are family owned milk companies that started their businesses by delivering to the home that still exist doing delivery to stores. Glass bottles with local milk can be found in food cooperative stores in the state. Raw milk like I and others grew up on can also be purchased by consumers directly at many dairy farms. The milkman does not exist in many places in Vermont today but the interest in convenience, quality and customer service still does.
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BLOGGER’S COMMENTS:
Today the home delivery of milk is a customer service that is missed by my generation and others. In the 50’s and 60’s when you went to the grocery store, the clerk would offer to carry your grocery bag out to the car. Likewise, when you went to the gas station, the attendant would put gasoline in the tank, and clean the windshield of the car. Customer service was considered to be necessary, as the customer came first. Consumerism and product delivery has changed since the 50’s and 60’s, but the growth of farmer’s markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA’s), Buy Local, and other venues has help to better connect consumers with products produced on or with the land in Vermont. This has helped to re-establish the connection between the producer of the product and the customer today that existed with the milkman of the past.
Picture: Courtesy Dr. Neil Pelsue.
An old carrier with bottles. From left to right: George Thomas bottle of Brattleboro Vermont with Spoon for scooping cream from top; UVM Amber bottle; Kenolie Farm Bottle from Newfane; Bellows Falls Cooperative Creamery bottle, used exclusively for First National Stores.
RESOURCES FOR THIS ARTICLE:
- The Evolution of Milk Pricing and Government Intervention in Dairy Markets, by Eric M. Erba and Andrew M. Novokovic, Cornell Program on Dairy Markets and Policy, February 95
- A History of The American Milkman, by Caroline Lange, in Food Biz, September 9, 2017
- A Brief History of Home Milk Delivery, Stanpac
- A Brief History of Home Milk Delivery, by Roger Taylor, The Big Jewel, June 24, 2015
- The Day the Milkman Went Away: A History of Home Milk Delivery, in Drink Milk in Glass Bottles
- Remember the Milkman? In Some Places, He’s Back, by Eve Tahmincioglu, New York Times, Dec. 16, 2007
- The history of the milkman: Who killed him? Newsletter posted by pam kueber, June 3, 2009, in Mid Century Culture, Historic Preservation
- The Milkman’s Robot Helper, could futuristic technology have saved the milkman from extinction, by Matt Novak, SMITHSONIANMAG.COM, March 28, 2012
- The Milkman’s Comeback Means Dairy at The Door and More, by Bonny Wolf, NPR, Weekend Edition Sunday, June 15, 2014, 10:04 AM ET
- From farm to front porch: remembering the milkman, by Cathy Knapp, in IndyStar July 20, 2015
- April 8, 1879: The Milkman Cometh…With Glass Bottles, by Randy Alfred, April 2010, WIRED
- Neighborhood milkman offers nostalgic link to history as society evolves, by Dominic Cansdale, ABC News, 20 March 2019
- Return of the Milkman, by Denise Shoukas, Specialty Food Magazine, Specialty Food Association, Jan. 8, 2019
- The milkman no longer cometh: Utah’s Winder Farms to end home delivery, by Kathy Stephenson, The Salt Lake Tribune, June 21, 2019
- Reducing the Frequency of Home Delivery of Milk, by Homer Metzher and James H. Clarke, Bulletin Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, B637
- Baby Boomers Memories: Fresh Milk Came via Horse Drawn Wagon, by Jim Shuylman, Bennington Banner, Dec. 6, 2017
- A Milkman Tells the History of Elmwood Dairy, by Dean Palin of Derby, Vermont Northland Journal, Oct. 2016
- The Milkman and His Customer: A Cultivated Relationship, by Odis E. Bigus, a Post Doctorate Student in Sociology at University of California
- Every Other Day Milk Deliveries May be Continued, Burlington Free Press, Sept 6, 1945
- Creamery Brings Back Memories of the Milkman, by Margorie Stinchcombe, Burlington Free Press, April 28, 1998
- Memories of Local Delivery of Milk by Dr. Fred Webster, Rutland Herald, November 11, 1996
- The Evolution of Grocery Shopping, Etwentyne
- Drink Up: As milk consumption declines, Osceola dairy farm targets niche market, by Mary Shown, South Bend Tribune, January 16, 2020
- Rise ‘n Shine…It’s the milkman, WCAX, So. Burlington, Jan 9, 2020 (the milkman of Charlotte, Vt)
