photo by Ed Shannon

The former creamery at Lerdal is a prime example of a dairy-related business at a rural location on Freeborn County Road 25 northeast of Albert Lea. About a century ago farmers would bring their milk to this creamery, then go to a nearby general store to purchase groceries and other items and to socialize with other rural neighbors.

Reminders of the era of country creameries

By Ed Shannon | Albert Lea Tribune

Published Saturday, June 6, 2009

Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts.

Freeborn County’s era of creameries ended nine years ago when the Conger Cooperative Creamery Association ceased operations. Yet, during June, the time designated as dairy month, there are still a dozen or more places in Freeborn County that can still serve as legacies of this part of rural and even town and city life.

Many of these rather distinctive buildings were constructed about a century ago. They still serve as landmarks in several county communities, plus several rural localities. And despite the fact these still sturdy buildings of brick and stone are now either used for other purposes or are unoccupied, they are still identified by many people with long memories as the old creamery structures.

For a large number of the county’s localities a creamery was one of the first commercial ventures to be organized for the benefit of the nearby dairy farmers.

A century ago the farmers and their families and the hired hands milked the cows, collected the milk in large steel cans and hauled those cans loaded onto horse-drawn wagons to the nearby creameries. In later years those rural folks used their pickup trucks and even cars to make the milk deliveries to the creameries. And in time several creameries started to use their own tank trucks to make regular routes to pick up the milk at the various dairy farms.

One of the legitimate questions that could be asked is how many creameries actually existed in Freeborn County. The highest known number is 28, plus two cheese factories. This is verified by a special edition of the Freeborn County Times weekly newspaper, which issued a 16-page creamery section on Feb. 9, 1900. Still another verification can be found in the 1911 book. “History of Freeborn County Minnesota” by Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge. His book had an entire chapter based on a 1910 report by the state’s dairy and food commissioner which said the county had 28 mostly cooperative creameries with 2,728 patrons (or members) and 27,253 cows.

One way to verify that there are a dozen or more buildings in Freeborn County that can be identified as former creamery buildings is to take their photos and indicate the actual locations. Thus, dividing the county into two sections based on Interstate 90, can serve as a way to be even more specific regarding these reminders of another era.

Next: Six more of the old creamery buildings, which are located south of Interstate 90 in Freeborn County.

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