From the Book:  "When Cheese Was King"
By:  Edward S. Moore
ISBN 0-919939-10-3
Printed in Canada by the Aylmer Express Ltd., 17 King St., Aylmer, Ontario, Canada
June 1987

  The following account was published in the Tillsonburg Observer, February 21, 1867:
  "The Brownsville Cheese Manufacturing Company have obtained their charter from the government and will go into actual manufacturing operations about the first of May next.  The officers of the Company are:   President - Benj. Hopkins; Managing Director - Edward York; Director - E. M. McDairmid, John Allison, E. B. Brown; Secretary - Benjamin Ford.

  The capital of the company amounts to $2000; the whole of which is paid up, and $900 deposited in Niagara District Bank, Ingersoll, to meet current expenses.  The Company will do all their financial business through the bank and will have no treasurer.  The building in which to manufacture the cheese , and for the residence of the employees, is already purchased and will be moved on the ground in a few days.  The contract for building the drying house has been let to Mr. H. Helmker for $1200.00. The land on which the building will be placed has been leased from Mr. E. B. Brown for 15 years with the privilege of renewal.  The milk of 400 to 500 cows will be manufactured the first year."

  From an account in the "Brownsville Tweedsmuir Book" (taken from the Tillsonburg Observer) we learn that the building purchased for use as a cheese factory was an abandoned church, which was one of the earliest buildings in Brownsville.

  The Walker and Miles Atlas of Oxford County for 1876 showed the Brownsville cheese factory as the largest in the Province at the time with an annual production of 247 tons of cheese from 1320 cows.  It is claimed that this was the first "joint-stock" cheese company in Canada.  It was located on Lot 22, Concession 10.

  A news item dated March 23, 1877, in the Woodstock Weekly Review, tells us that at the annual meeting of the Brownsville Cheese Company report was read showing a make of over 238 tons of cheese which sold at an average price of 10.99¢ per lb.  The figures given would indicate that the patrons took back for their use during the year almost 4 tons of cheese (9541 lbs.). Directors elected at the meeting were: Benj. Hopkins, E. York, John Allison, N. Cuthbertson and J. D. Freeman.  George Lish and Ewen McDairmid were appointed auditors.

  A year or two after the Brownsville factory was built other factories were built at North Bayham, Campbellton and Culloden.  Eventually North Bayham, Campbellton, Culloden and Brownsville factories amalgamated and at one time had an output of 600 tons a year.

  The Sentinel Review of March 17, 1887 carries a report of a meeting in the Temperance Hall, Brownsville to consider the advisability of amalgamating the Brownsville and Culloden cheese factories.  Although no decision was made, it was felt that amalgamation would take place, as proved to be the case.  According to listings of the Ontario Bureau of Statistics in 1895, Wm. A. Edgar had purchased the Culloden Cheese Factory.




Canadian Milk Products - Brownsville, Ontario
  In 1903, Mr. B. A. Gould acquired the sole rights for Canada to produce powdered milk by the "Just" process.  After a good deal of searching he decided to establish his plant at Brownsville, with the head office in Toronto.  He purchased the Brownsville Cheese Factory which at that time was owned by Ebenezer Agur.  The new business was solely owned by Mr. Gould and was operated under the name of "Canadian Milk Products", but was not incorporated.  Mr. Agur, the owner of the original cheese factory, was hired in 1905 to take care of the manufacturing of powdered milk in the Canadian Milk Products Plant.

  The first four years of operation were very difficult as methods of manufacture had not been thoroughly worked out, and there was difficulty also in developing a market for the new product.  Some area farmers became disillusioned and started another cheese factory in 1906, on land bought from John Baxter on Lot 21, Concession 10, Dereham.  But the years 1907 and 1908 showed considerable improvement in Mr. Gould's operation and the new cheese factory was closed down in 1911.

  Towards the end of 1908 a deal was made by Mr. Gould whereby he turned over his existing business and incorporated it under the name of "Canadian Milk Products Ltd."  The new company acquired rights to all the "Merrell-Soule" processes for making powdered milk by the new spray process and proceeded to equip the Brownsville plant to use this process.  The first spray process milk powder to be produced in Canada was made here in 1909.

  By 1912 it was seen that the capacity of the Brownsville plant was insufficient and a second plant was erected at Belmont.  With the outbreak of the war in 1914 the demand for powdered milk was greatly increased and another plant was built at Burford in 1916, and another at Hickson in 1917.   In addition to these, the company had receiving stations at Harrietsville and Glanworth, and owned the site of a cheese factory at Harley which had burned down about the time that the Burford plant opened.  It is of interest that the old church building remained the receiving room for milk throughout the whole history of the Brownsville plant in spite of all the additions and changes made over the years.

  In 1928 the Borden Company bought the Canadian Milk Products branch at Brownsville and manufacturing was terminated there.  It continued to operate as a feeder station for Borden's Tillsonburg and Belmont plants until 1953 when it was finally closed down.

Early directories list the following cheese makers at Brownsville:

• 1867 - Justus Colive - cheese manufacturer
• 1874-5 - Ed York, President, Adam Bell cheese maker
• 1887 - Cheese manufacturers - Brownsville Cheese Co.
  M. R. Brown, John Fulton, Wm. Hamilton and M. Hooley, all of Brownsville, listed as cheese manufacturers.
• 1899 - Brownsville Cheese Co. Ltd. - also T. L. Barry.
• 1910 - Canadian Milk Products, Jos. Skelton, cheese maker.

Information from "History of Canadian Milk Products Ltd.", by B. A. Gould taken from The Powder Magazine, Merrell Soule Company, Syracuse, N. Y. July 1917, also articles in Tillsonburg Observer and "Brownsville Tweedsmuir Book".