Recently Motorized Force And First In Territory To Install Modern Pasteurization Methods
From the 1938 centennial edition of The Times-Register
Dating back to forty years ago when it first opened for business, the Clover Creamery Company, Inc., has in the four decades of its existence been a powerful factor in the development of the dairying interests of Roanoke county, as well as a large section of Southwest Virginia and a portion of the rick Piedmont section of North Carolina, through the establishment of branch plants in the cities of Radford, Va., High Point, N. C. and Greensboro, N. C.
Established in 1898, this firm may well be regarded as the pioneer of this section in modern dairying. The organizers were the late Charles L. Bush and Charles T. Lukens. These gentlemen were leader farmers and stock raisers of the county. With Roanoke growing by leaps and bounds, they realized the necessity of a wholesale milk supply for the community, and while beginning in a modest way, both men lived to see the business which they fostered in its infancy grow to be the largest and most important enterprise of its kind in the entire western park of the State.
Raise More Cows
Forty years ago in a Roanoke county farmer owned a half dozen cows, and many of them owned a less number, he was looked upon with envy by his neighbors. It was not long after the Clover Creamery company was organized that scores of farmers increased their dairy herds, and in the course of a few years, the production of milk and cream, not only in Roanoke, but surrounding counties, became one of the chief sources of revenue of hundreds of farmers, and the money came to them as ready cash. As a consequence dairy herds were not only increased, but greatly improved through the purchase of improved strains of stock. There are now many dairy farmers with large herds of pure bred registered cows and their efforts are chiefly centered not only in the quantity of rich testing milk produced, but also in a quality product.
With the almost unparalleled growth of the city of Roanoke and its suburban areas, it was but natural that other dairying plants should spring up, but even under the stress of competition, the Clover Creamery company has maintained its supremacy and has expanded its trade year after year, and this the Centennial years of the county’s history and the forty-first year of the company’s activities is proving to be no exception.
Progressiveness
The whole history of the company’s career has been marked with a spirit of progressivism. It was the first dairying concern in this section to adopt the Pasteurization process in handling and dispensing milk and all kinds of milk products for human consumption. The firm kept fully abreast of the times by the installation of the most improved equipment of all kinds employed by the largest and most modern dairying establishments of the nation. In order to meet the ever growing demands for Clover Brand dairy products, the first, in the past two years, completely motorized its transportation equipment at a cost of approximately $50,000. This necessitated the erection of a fire-proof garage for the storage and maintenance of the scores of trucks when not in use.
The Clover Creamery company stated in business, January 1, 1898. In 1904 Howard M. Bush, ad some of one of the founders, became a partner in the enterprise and assumed the general management. The firm was incorporated in 1914 with Chas. L. Bush, president; C. T. Lukens, vice-president; Howard M. Bush, general manager. In 1924 William C. Lukens, son of one of the founders, joined the organization, and at his father’s death was made vice president. Upon the death of Chas. L. Bush, his son, Howard Bush, succeeded to the presidency and T. T. Harris became secretary-treasurer.
In addition to supplying an immense clientele with its famous Clover Brand Pasteurized dairy products which include milk, cream, buttermilk, creamery butter, the establishment has attained a most enviable reputation throughout a wide territory in the manufacture and distribution of Clover Brand Ice Cream appreciated by connoisseurs for its wholesomeness, quality and purity. All the products of the first are identified by their green clover leaf trade mark consisting of a leaf of clover with the word brand” inscribed underneath.
– Prepared by Lingjie Gu
