The Business of Milk

Many consider July 23, 1904, to be the official date when the ice-cream cone was invented. The cone was introduced at the St. Louis World's Fair later that year. Others recognize an Italian as the inventor, who developed a similar idea in 1896 for which he received a patent in 1903. Ice cream itself probably derives from the flavored "water ice" of 17th-century Italy, probably something like Rita's Italian Ice today. English colonists brought the sweet frozen delicacy to America, where early settlers made ice cream in pewter bowls set in ice and salt. The first commercial ice-cream factory opened in 1851.

James S. Harrington established a small dairy product's plant in Dushore in 1907 with his son Maurice. Maurice J. Harrington was a dairy management graduate of Pennsylvania State University and was placed in charge of operations by his father in 1907. In 1919, he became president of Harrington and Company, milk plant operators and ice cream manufacturers. Two men collected the cream from nearby farmers. The equipment consisted of a borrowed ten-horsepower boiler and engine, a churn, a cream vat, and seven cream cans.

A Sullivan County publication called "Endless Mountains" once wrote, "No industry in Sullivan County is more intimately associated with a greater number of residents of the section than the milk and ice cream plant of Harrington & Company at Dushore. More than a thousand farmers and dairymen in Sullivan, Bradford, Lycoming, Wyoming, Columbia, Luzerne and Susquehanna Counties send their milk to some Harrington plant, the total daily supply ranging from 100,000 to 150,000 pounds. The Dushore supply of milk comes from a 20-mile radius of the plant. Checks distributed monthly to these patrons are an essential factor in the welfare of the county. The payroll at Dushore where about 20 employees are engaged further contributes to the buying power of the county."

In 1910 James S. Harrington retired from the business and it was taken over by his son, who conducted it in his own name for nine years, and expanded it by introducing "modern methods and practices." In 1917, an addition to the Dushore plant completed, a condensing plant was installed, and shipment of cream and ice cream mixtures to manufacture of ice cream in the East began. Harrington & Company was incorporated in 1919, with Maurice J. Harrington as president.

In addition to its plant at Dushore, Harrington & Company operated a large retail milk plant at Wilkes-Barre under the name of Glendale Farms. This plant supplied milk and ice cream to cities and towns in the Anthracite coal region.

Another plant was operated in Newark, NJ, from which both wholesale and retail milk was distributed in the metropolitan area. Other distribution centers were located in Sayre, Towanda and Reading.

The Dushore plant of Harrington & Company was considered a modern and complete milk preparation plant. Sanitation was a big part of milk handling and a prerequisite to quality of the product sold. Many people visited the plant each year.

Harrington's ice cream was widely distributed and had a name for itself well known throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New York State.

Maurice Harrington was a philanthropist. He made several substantial grants to fund trust accounts to preserve and maintain the older graves at St. Basil's Cemetery, Dushore, where the Harrington family is interred. Maurice was also president of the Sullivan Silk Company, Dushore.

The Harrington's operation in Dushore was for the manufacture of ice cream, condensed and powdered milk. They operated receiving stations in Benton, Fairdale and Rushville.

The "Milk Plant" in Benton primarily shipped milk to Glendale in Wilkes-Barre and to the Philadelphia area. Both George Yost and son Frank Yost hauled cans of milk to Glendale in Wilkes-Barre for many years.

The "Milk Plant" between Park Street and McHenry Alley, Benton. The outline of the Hotel Moses Van Campen can be seen on the right side, center.

After Harrington's sold the Benton milk plant, Philadelphia Dairies purchased the plant (selling ice cream under the Dolly Madison label), later the plant was sold to Foremost Dairies, then to Minneapolis Moline and finally to Smith Brothers (operating under the Dolly Madison name).

Clair Harvey worked for the operation for twenty years and was with the milk plant in Benton when it was closed in 1962. The Dushore plant closed approximately 1973.

Those of us with character lines on our faces can still remember licking cones of delicious Dolly Madison ice cream at Yost's Restaurant, Back Home in Benton, PA.

		This picture dating from 1953 was taken adjacent to the Milk Plant and shows the three trucks owned by Joe Beishline and used for hauling milk from the Creamery to Philadelphia Dairies at 52nd Street, Philadelphia.
L to R, first row: Francis Reed, Drew Yost, Gail Harrison, Roy Beishline, Joe Beishline, Ivan Bond. Back row: Three 260 hp, eight-speed Brockways, the "Locomotive of the Trucking Industry."
Milk arrived at the milk plant in smaller trucks with the milk hauled in individual cans. These trucks were eventually purchased by Palmer Trucking, Scranton, after Joe Beishline's contract was up.

A young Carl Harvey on his milk route		Carl Harvey's milk truck, 1944