An early 21st Century view of the building that housed the Johns Dairy (small building in center of photo), Loyalton, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
The Johns Dairy was established in 1910 east of Loyalton at Stone Hill where it operated until about 1925, when it was moved into town at the same time John P. Johns and his wife Sarah [Miller] Johns purchased this house and lot on Main Street.
Johns purchased his milk supply from area farmers and brought it to the small building in Loyalton for processing. He also purchased a supply of fresh produce (in season), eggs and chickens for re-sale to his customers. About 200 quarts of milk were sold each day in pint and quart bottles. One of the surviving quart bottles is pictured below.
Paul ‘Silas” Troutman (1916-2007) worked for the Johns Dairy from 1930 to 1941. He recalled that this was during the depression years and he was thankful for the steady, but rigorous seven-day-a-week job. He started at $5 per week plus one quart of milk. One of Silas’ jobs was to wash the returned bottles and empty milk cans. His pay in 1941 had risen to $13 per week by the time he married Lucy Sitlinger, the daughter of Melva Sitlinger, who had just been appointed Postmaster of Loyalton.
During the war years, vouchers were given to purchase milk, but the milk had to be pasteurized. However, because the Johns Dairy only sold raw milk, they had to get special permission from the government to provide it to voucher holders. Margaret [Johns] Matter (1910-2009), daughter of John P. Johns and Sarah [Miller] Johns, wrote to the milk board for permission to sell the raw milk, which was granted because the Johns Dairy had always passed inspection.
The Johns family sold this property in 1945 and moved their operations to the Troxell Dairy that they purchased in Big Run, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
__________________________________
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.
The photograph of the milk bottle is from Worthpoint.