Thanks Otho Eaton for sharing the information surrounding the discovery of the Fred L. Oleson Cream can... what a find!!
Parts of Otho's letter are shown below:
Dear Loyd, Max, Doug and All,
Just a few lines to tell you what I can about the cream can. As I recall, one day I was working on a trailer and Loyd and Max stopped in. As we talked, I mentioned to Loyd that I now have a trailer, I need a box to put on it. Loyd recalled that there may have been an trailer box out at the old farm west of Faulkton. He said that I should go out there sometime and check it out. I did that. While I was looking around I saw what looked like an old junk pile consisting of old tires, wire and some boards. I was almost going to skip looking in the pile, but then decided to move a few boards to look underneath. I pushed two boards aside and there was the old Oleson cream can with the copper label looking right at me. I knew for sure that Loyd would get a kick out of having it so I surprised him on his next visit. Before he left on that day, he told me some of his memories of the milking operation they had at the farm. I know he will share them with you as well. That is the story of the discovery of the Fred L. Oleson cream can as I remember it. Hope you all are well and happy.
Sincerely,
Otho
The Tale of the Fred L. Oleson Cream Can
by Loyd Oleson 3/1/2010
In the late 1930's, when I was growing up on the farm, which was six miles west of Faulkton, SD on Highway 212, we milked a few cows. I would guess the number to be ten to twelve. We milked them the first thing in the morning which meant getting up at five o'clock to got out in the cold barn in the winter time to help Dad milk the cows by hand. We sat on a one legged stool holding the milk bucket between our knees. After the morning chores were done, dad would fix us our breakfast. After changing our clothes, we would be ready to go to school. In the evening, it was milking time again. We did this winter and summer and it not only kept the family in milk, cream and butter for household use, but also left some to be sold for money for groceries.
After taking what milk we needed for the family, it was taken to the cellar (basement) to be separated by the cream separator. (You might want to go to Google to find out how this was done.) The excess cream not used by the family, was pit into the cream can, such as the one that Otho found at the farm and gave to me. When a can was full, it would be taken to the Faulkton railroad depot from where it was shipped to the Creamery at Lakeville, Minnesota. After the cream was removed from the milk, what we had remaining we called skim milk, because the fat had been removed (skimmed off). The skim milk was fed to the baby calves and baby pigs. People pay extra now for the skim milk we used to feed to the animals, what a switch.
When the full cream can was dropped off at the depot, there was always an empty one there with Dad's name on it. We would take the empty one home to be filled again. As I recall, it took about three days to fill the can such as the one you have. We did not have to pay the freight going or coming as the Creamery took care of the expense. Dad would get his check in the mail.
It was the creamery that made the nice metal address label and installed it on the cream can.
When I left home, we were still milking cows but my younger brother Duane disliked it so much he was able to talk Dad, who was aging, into quitting this chore. This eliminated much of the work on the farm, unfortunately too some of the income.
I left home on the farm in the Fall of 1945 and moved to Aberdeen, SD, where I worked on a Survey Crew at the District Off of the Highway Department. In the summer, we surveyed highways in the north eastern part of the state that were scheduled for improvement. I enjoyed the summer work; in the winter we plotted all of the survey plotting that was done the previous summer.
In November of 1947, I went to Spink Electric as Work Order Clerk - my job was to keep all records of the materials used in building power lines. That is when I started my 42 year career working for the Rural Electric Administration (REA). I worked at Spink Electric for ten years where I had been moved up to Office Manager. In November of 1957, we moved to Mitchell where I was Office Manager at the larger Intercounty Electric. I later became Staff Assistant and then moved up to Manager. I enjoyed and am proud of being part of the organization that lit up the rural areas of South Dakota.
I am glad that there is an interest in the history of the cream can - the family history. Otho is going on 90 and like myself no longer running foot races. We try to see him and Delores every time we get to Faulkton to see my only surviving family member, Marie.
Thanks Loyd and Otho for sharing your memories of the Fred L Oleson cream can. Hopefully this blog will survive in some form that interested family members can enjoy access to these bits of history - Doug