Wheatley Dairy: home of the 5-cent ice cream cone for a penny

By Stephen Wuerch

One of the oldest dairies in Essex/Kent County was Wrightside Dairy out of Wheatley.

Due to the scarcity of fresh milk in the village, Joseph Wright opened a very small milk business in 1891, selling milk from his farm. Wrightside Dairy served the Wheatley area very well until Joseph sold the dairy to Reg Willett in 1943.

Reg grew up in England, but was sent over to Canada as a British Home Child to work on the farms in Essex and Kent Counties. The British Home Children were boys and girls from the United Kingdom who were relocated to British colonies — including Canada — in order to have more and better life opportunities. More than 100,000 of these young immigrants came to Canada between the 1860s and the late 1940s, with Reg Willett being one of them.

Reg entered the dairy business as a young man by first working as a labourer for Arthur Poulters Dairy. While at the dairy, Reg became very interested in the industry and excelled at everything he was being shown and taught.

As it was a dream of Reg’s to own and operate his own dairy business, he took some time off work and attended the Ontario Agriculture College (OAC) where he not only graduated in “Dairying”, but met his wife Isabelle. As both shared the same passion for the industry, they returned to Wheatley and bought out Wrightside Dairy and renamed it Wheatley Dairy. The dairy was located on Erie Street South, across from the Wheatley Hotel, at the corner of Chestnut St. Wheatley Dairy was a family operated dairy right from the beginning. Both of Reg’s sons — Tom and Don — worked in the dairy early as young boys with daughter Betty helping out in the Dairy Bar. As the years went by, Tom started to take a great interest in the dairy, working at least 60-70 hours per week, eventually enrolling in the Ontario Agriculture College himself in 1961.

Both Reg and Tom insisted that all the raw milk brought into the dairy plant had to come from local dairy farmers within a 20-mile radius. This was done by the way of milk cans that were picked up at the farm and then brought to the dairy and placed in cold storage until pasteurization later that day. The dairy building had two components – the dairy plant at the back and the dairy bar in the front.

While Reg continued with much of the administration, Tom spent the majority of his time working at the dairy plant where milk delivery, cooling of the raw milk, pasteurization, packing and shipping took place.

Once loaded onto the trucks and wagons, the milk was delivered to all of Wheatley proper and the surrounding area, which included Cedar Springs to the east and west to almost Leamington. Tom did all the town routes while, Howard Nicholson, Dan Johnstone and Bob Charlton did out of town. Archie Reed delivered with horse and wagon.

So while Tom worked at the dairy plant, his wife Villa (married in 1953) worked every day managing the Dairy Bar where many local girls were employed. Villa was also responsible for picking up the milk samples from Lewis Dairy in Kingsville, as Tom also did the testing for that dairy.

The Dairy Bar sold a variety of dairy products including milk shakes, sundaes, cottage cheese, cream, chocolate milk and of course, a particular favourite with kids, the large ice cream cones for five cents!

The ice cream came in three-gallon cardboard buckets in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavours. Villa recalls that some of the funniest moments would be when many of the local kids would come into the Dairy Bar and order an ice cream cone. However, once received, they would promptly dig into their pockets and pull out a penny, smile and then put the penny on the counter knowing full well it wasn’t five cents. Villa and the other ladies would just laugh and smile and say, “Alright… that’s fine! Now go on and scoot and say hi to your mom and dad.”

Villa said it was all that most of the families in town could afford, “so this is what we did. It was our way of giving back to our community and the children of our community.”

Villa also noted that the Dairy Bar was open all year and was busiest Friday and Saturday nights because of the local dances and concerts.

During the late ’50s and early ’60s, the dairy business continued to serve the Willet family and the community of Wheatley very well.

However, by the mid ’60s the winds of change began to blow in the dairy business across Ontario as continued government regulations slowly put a “financial squeeze” on the smaller town dairies.

Consequently, due to continued regulations, increased maintenance and overhead costs, plus the fact that Tom had been working nearly seven days a week for the last 23 years, it just wasn’t feasible for the dairy to stay in business.

As a result, the Willett family decided to sell the dairy plant (and Dairy Bar) to Purity Dairies of Windsor on February 1, 1966, bringing an end to one of the last locally owned dairies in Essex County, with only Lewis from Kingsville and Lakeside Jersey from Leamington still remaining.

Following the closure of the dairy and dairy bar, Reg decided to retire while Tom continued to work for Purity, driving milk back and forth to Wheatley. Villa opened a hairdressing business out of their home.

Wheatley Dairy bottles came in round red quart, pint and ½ pint sizes and are very collectable and desirable today.

A very special thanks to Villa Willett, Craig Willett and the Wheatley and Area Heritage Society for all the assistance they provided.

If anybody has any other additional stories, memories to share regarding Wheatley Dairy for permanent record, please email sewuerch@ hotmail.com.

For more information on Essex County and other Ontario Dairies, visit Ontario Dairy Collectibles & History page on Facebook.

Reg Willett sits at the Dairy Bar counter in Wheatley during its heyday.

The Wheatley Dairy on Erie St. South in Wheatley in 1944. Photos courtesy of the Willett family.