A Creamery and the Blacksmith Shops in La Grange

A CREAMERY AND THE BLACKSMITH SHOPS IN LAGRANGE

Edmund Van Wyck

A creamery is a place where cream is churned into butter. By definition, cream is the yellowish, fatty component of unhomogenized milk that tends to accumulate at the surface. ( Cream has nothing in common with "peep" or "pream" or any other concoction presently being sold to put in your morning coffee.) The cream is agitated in a churn (there are dozens of different kinds of churns) until the particles of butterfat separate from the milk and "gather" in a mass. Then we have butter. "The LaGrange Creamery" was a co-operative organization and the creamery, or factory, was the brick building which still stands on the west side of Todd Hill Road about a quarter of a mile from Route 55 at "Apple Valley". The head of the company was Henry Hoyt, a member of the firm of "Cheney and Hoyt, Grocers". Their store stood on the north side of Main Street a few doors east of Catharine Street in Poughkeepsie. It was at this store that most of LaGrange butter was sold. The butter was packed at the creamery in crocks holding two, five or ten pounds each, or in wooden firkins which held about 50 pounds each. From the firkins the butter was sold in any quantity the housewife might want.

The cream was produced by the Co-op members of dairy farms all around the area, and collected daily by gatherers who visited each farm to pick up and deliver it to the creamery. Three gatherers whom I remember were William Cramer, Robert McConaghy and Peter Cornell.

Each producer had what was called a "Cooley Creamer" which was a big water tight tank. It had a metal rack inside the tank that could be raised and lowered by a crank. The creamer cans were placed on the rack, the tank was filled with water and cooled with ice. Morning and night, batches of milk were put in the cans and the next day the collectors raised the cans from the tank, drew off the milk through a spiggot at the bottom of the can, measured the amount of cream by means of a narrow graduated window on the side of the can. After the cream had been registered on a talley sheet, it was dumped into an ordinary milk can and transferred to the factory. The skimmed milk was left on the farm.

At the creamery, the cream was held at near 70°F. and allowed to sour, then it was placed in the churn. The churn was a cradle type, oval in shape, mounted on grooved wheels which fitted a track of circular form, low in the middle and raised at each end so that the churn rode back and forth. It had a vertical motion at each end. After the butter "came", the buttermilk was drawn off to an outside tank and the butter was lifted out and placed on the "working table" where the remaining buttermilk was worked out by rolling and folding. Salt was added and the butter packed in crocks or firkins. It was ready for sale. The farmers usually kept the buttermilk which was fed to the pigs.

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The blacksmith shops, three in number, which I knew best were one at Manchester Bridge and two at Freedom Plains. Blacksmiths were the repairmen of the times. In addition to horseshoeing, most of them could fa about anything made of iron, patch an iron fry pan, put a new handle on a pail, weld a new link in a broken trace chain or make a whole set of irons for a new wagon.

Horseshoeing was, and still is, an art. In addition to knowing how to trim the outer shell of the hoof ( it grows just like your nails), fit and nail on a, shoe, it was necessary to know something about the horse's habits as well as the work wanted of him. A team used on a farm where the ground was soft would need a shoe of medium weight and not much calk. A heavy draft horse, used on hard roads and city streets, needed heavy shoes and calks to get good footing and pulling power.

On the other hand, a light "road horse" required light shoes and calks, and right here is where the smith has to know what the animal does with his feet when called upon to "show a little speed". If he "interferes", that is, clips the inside of his ankle as the other foot passes, it called for the outside of the front shoe to be a little heavier than the inside, pulling the foot out and away from the ankle. If he "reached", that is, hit the heel of the opposite front foot with toe of the hind foot as it came forward, then the toe of the hind shoes were made a little heavier so that the hoof came ahead tipped down a bit and missed the front foot. If you had a "stumbler", the toe of the front shoe was made lighter and weight added to the heel to make the hzel strike first, lessening the chance of stumbling.

The shop at Manchester Bridge stood just where the abutment of the present railroad arches up from the east bank of the Wappingers Creek. It was destroyed in 1911 when the railroad was double-tracked. Who started a shop there I do not know, but it probably was not long after Moses DeGroff put his gristmill nearby. "Billy" Donnally operated it from before my time until he died just after 1900, and it was run after that by one or another "journeymen", most of whom fell far short of being good blacksmiths. "Bill Hen" Baker had a blacksmith and carriage shop just over the fence from the "Little Red Schoolhouse" at Freedom Plains. Paul Berger maintained a similar shop at about where the "Diamond Horseshoe" is now. These, as with all shops, were busy places, especially after a sudden freezeup or an ice storm when every horse used on the road would have to be "sharp shod", that is, have sharp calks all around. Deep snow called for no calks as an animal might easily cut himself floundering around in deep snow or drifts.

Shoeing oxen was something else again! They are too "low slung" for the smith to get under to hold a hoof between his knees to work on it and oxen are obstinate when it comes to picking up a foot! Ox shoes are entirely different from horse shoes. They are made in two pieces to

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fit the two halves of the cloven hoof and, of course, a right and left half for each.

They were shod in an "ox rack", a sort of "crib" or "cradle" hung on gimbals so that they could be turned 900 either side to get the hoof up where it could be worked on. The ox was held in a stanchion and each leg secured before the rack was rotated. Very few shops would shoe oxen as it was a time consuming and often dangerous. After about one experience, Mr. Ox objected strenuously to the whole process, and demonstrated disapproval with well-swung, wide spread horns!

Blacksmith shops were interesting places: forges blazing, sparks flying, hammers clanging, anvils ringing, the "clack-clack-clack" hammer nailing on shoes, the smell of hoof, sweaty horses, men working and last, but not least, conversation!

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