SUMMERS COUNTY W.Va. (Hinton News) – It is time for another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Every week, local history collector, William Jones, discusses various pieces in his collection and their historical significance. The items range from photographs to ceiling tiles. This edition is about the dairies that once filled the county.
To begin the discussion, Jones said, “During the course of this series, we have discussed numerous businesses throughout Summers County, such as pharmacies, convenient stores and hotels, to name a few. Now comes one that was quite popular and successful throughout the county, dairies. West Virginia once had a large amount of producing dairy farms, which is obvious by how many were in Summers County. As of 2020, West Virginia only had 32 working dairy farms that produced 12.9 million gallons of milk that year.”
While there were many such businesses in the area, there are some that are on Jones’ radar more than others. He stated, “Let’s first address Greener Acres Dairy in Lowell, West Virginia, started by Bill and Jo Halstead when they first started pasteurizing milk in 1956 and delivering door to door in Hinton, Nimitz, Sandstone, Alderson, Ronceverte, Lewisburg, Maxwelton and to all points in between. They stopped selling door to door in 1977 but continued selling milk to other dairies until 1985. My Grandfather Bernard Thompson drove one of their delivery trucks part time in 1959.”
“The green receipt [in the photo] is from Greener Acres Dairy, dated September 29, 1959. He had driven for the months of May, June, July and August, and his pay was $21.50. You might be thinking that was a small amount for 4 months of work. But remember, he was only part time. And when you factor in inflation, that would be the equivalent of $225.42 in today’s dollars. Plus, a dollar went farther in those days. Keep in mind that gas was only 30 cents a gallon then, so that was pretty good pay for a part time delivery man in those days.”
The second business on Jones’ list is Holloran’s Dairy. He said, “Next is Holloran’s Dairy in Talcott, started by Eddie (Chubby) and Betty Holloran. It was established in the 1930s and was moved to the 1000 acre Bacon Plantation in Talcott in 1938. My grandfather drove their delivery truck part time for decades as well. Talking to my Uncle Bob Thompson, Bernard’s son that now lives in Upper Falls, West Virginia, he told me that during the second World War, Bernard got pulled over for speeding driving a Holloran’s Dairy milk truck doing the break neck speed of 35mph. According to the story, the state trooper allegedly threatened to take him to jail but let him go because he was delivering food to people.”
“The Holloran family, when needing extra help, would call Gladys Thompson, my great grandmother, when granddad and Uncle Leonard were teenagers in the early 1940s, to see if they wanted to come to the dairy to work. Not having much else to do during the summer months, they would agree, and their father, Orice Thompson, would take them over to the dairy. Uncle Leonard loved bottling the chocolate milk. He would have a glass beside him. When he would drink a glass of chocolate milk he could then reach up and turn the spigot on the stainless steel tank to fill it up again. His only pay was having all of the chocolate milk he could drink.”
Jones continued, saying, “My Uncle Bob went on the delivery truck once delivering milk door to door. At every stop the customers wanted to talk. The further along the route they went, the more his father, Bernard Thompson and his uncle would blow the horn and yell for him to hurry up. They were supposed to get the milk delivered before the sun came out. But, the further they went, the more behind they got. Towards the end of the route customers started complaining that they were running so late. Uncle Bob’s only pay was one chocolate milk. He was never invited again to help deliver the milk for some reason. Ha Ha.”
“The photo you see of ‘Brud’ Holloran Jr. standing beside one of the dairy’s delivery trucks is also the truck my grandfather Bernard used to drive. My father, David Jones, can recall that in the early 1960s his father was injured while working at the federal prison in Alderson. ‘Brud’ had also gone to work at the prison. During the time my grandfather was recuperating from his injuries, Brud would drop milk off on his way to work at the gate to our farm in Pence Springs as he worked the evening shift. Dad and his sisters would carry the glass bottles of milk home after they got off the school bus. And would then take the empty bottles to the road the next morning when they would catch the bus for Brud to pick up as he delivered milk that evening.”
Jones continued by listing some of the other dairies that once served the county. He said, “I am sure there were others throughout the years, but some of the other dairies included the Hinton Dairy, the Homer Kessler Dairy in Lowell (which you can see five 1916 and 1917 receipts in the photo) sold high grade cream, milk and butter, Thompson’s Dairy located on Beach Run, Deeds Dairy in Jumping Branch. Greener Acres dairy delivered milk to Pence Springs school. And since Talcott High School was located closer to Hollorans Dairy, they got the contract to supply them with milk. The same goes for the other dairies in the county. The ones in the closest proximity to the schools were awarded the contract by the board of education.”
Finally, Jones said, “An interesting thing that happened with all of these dairies during World War II was having to increase the price of their products. An ad I ran across from July 13, 1946 For Holloran’s Dairy reads ‘Notice, due to the high price of feed and the discontinuance of milk subsidies July 1, we are compelled to advance the price of milk to 18 cents a quart effective July 16, 1946 Beech Valley Dairy Holloran’s Dairy Producers of grade A milk’. The glass milk bottle you see here is one from Hollorans. I had looked and looked for one for years and finally found one on eBay last year.”
This brings us to the end of another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Did you know about all of these dairies? Do you know of others not listed here? If so, send us an email!
If you have a story from Summers County’s history, let us know by emailing news@hintonnews.com.
