VOLGA – A new display of old milk bottles and other paraphernalia related to the history of dairying and creameries in South Dakota is now a part of the Brookings County Museum in Volga.
The new display drew praise from recent museum visitor Monte Harming of Brookings, now 78, who for nearly two decades was a popular Bibby-Kallemeyn milkman delivering milk to Brookings homes, schools and businesses.
“I was very impressed with the variety of milk bottles, and the number of milk bottle caps,” Harming said. “They all brought back fond memories for me.”
What Brookings and area residents referred to as the B/K Dairy was then located at 422 Fourth St. For nearly six decades before it was sold to Lakeside Dairy of Sioux Falls, the firm delivered milk in bottles to Brookings residents, and to area farms and in communities in the eastern part of the county.
Harming’s tenure at the local dairy started shortly after he graduated from Elkton High School in 1959 and continued until the late 1970s.
Home milk deliveries in Brookings continued until the early 1980s.
Harming remembered that in many homes on his delivery route he was granted carte blanche access to the kitchens where he personally checked the refrigerators and stocked the dairy products the homeowner’s family needed.
“Times changed since those days,” joked Harming, who entered the restaurant business in Brookings after he retired from his milk delivery days.
Many of the items on display were donated by former Brookings resident Roger Scheibe, who is now retired and living in Sioux Falls.
County Museum President Phil Wagner said Scheibe’s gift fills a gap in the museum’s dairy history.
“We appreciate his help in adding to what the museum has accumulated over the years,” he said. “His gift is one of the most extensive milk bottle collections in this area.”
Scheibe grew up on a dairy farm near Wolsey and majored in dairy science at South Dakota State University before becoming an official in the state Department of Agriculture’s dairy division. He was instrumental in South Dakota’s successful efforts several years ago to convince foreign dairy producers to relocate to the state.
A few items in the display, including a rare, mint condition B/K Dairy insulated metal porch container, are gifts from Brookings resident Harlan Larkin. Other friends of the museum have donated wooden butter molds, churns, a hand-hewn three-legged milking stool, an old wooden cheese box and a curd and whey bucket dating from the Dakota homesteading years of the late 1800s.
But the exhibit’s colorful crown jewels are the more than 35 milk bottles of various shapes and sizes, all with logos representing dairy and creamery businesses from Rapid City to Sioux Falls and points between.
The collection includes an unusual figure-eight shaped milk bottle from Gagnon’s Dairy in Huron, and a brown bottle distributed by the Fenn Guernsey Dairy in Sioux Falls. There are also examples of the waxed cardboard milk containers that gradually improved through the years and eventually spelled doom for glass milk bottles.
Scheibe also gave the museum his collection of milk bottle caps representing dozens of South Dakota dairies.
Museum officials hope local and area citizens might have B/K Dairy memorabilia, including glass milk bottles, or other dairy items, they would donate to the museum.
Former Brookings milkman Harming, one of the most knowledgeable local dairy historians around, has offered to help the museum in its dairy memorabilia search. If you have items you believe would fit into the milk display, call Harming at 692-5300.
The six-building Brookings County Museum complex is open seven days a week, 1-4 p.m.
Chuck Cecil photo: Above, there’s a good chance the Brookings/Kallemeyn Dairy glass milk bottle Monte Harming, 78, of Brookings is holding was handled by Harming nearly 50 years ago when he was a Brookings milkman delivering bottled milk and other dairy products door-to-door. The milk bottle is one of several dozen representing other South Dakota dairies that was recently given to the museum by former Brookings resident Roger Scheibe, who’s now living in Sioux Falls.
Courtesy photo: Below, this early 1960s picture shows Brookings milkman Monty Harming alighting from his Bibby/Kallemeyn Dairy delivery truck. Harming worked at the B/K Dairy for nearly 20 years.
