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Barn find

C

charlie n

Well-known Member
Found 2 of these in an old shed I tore down when I built my house.Pretty cool old cases.I have know idea how they made it to southern IL.Any body in the north ever heard of this outfit?
DSCF0001-14.jpg
 
charlie,

I googled Pomeroy Bottling Works. One of the first items found
was an eBay listing for labels and bottles from Pomeroy.

I didn't spend much time looking around in there, but I bet that
you could sell those crates on eBay pretty quickly. Apparently
there are collectors for that sort of thing.

Just a thought.

Tom in TN
 
I'm thinking that was probably for milk bottles wasn't it? It looks just like the old boxes we have around here from the old Dairyland Co-op in Carson City Michigan.
There were so darned many bottlers around it's about impossible to keep track. I like to look them over at the flea markets. I've yet to find one from the old Rush Creamery north of Sheridan here.
Libbys got their start right here in Sheridan though. It was named for Libby Randolph. That plant was later sold to Carnation and closed in July of 1975. I was shipping to and hauling milk in to there when they closed.
 
Your post piqued my interest as my surname is Randolph and my family is from Michigan. They farmed and fed cattle around Hillsdale which is 125 miles south of Sheridan. In the early part of the last century, my grandfather used to drive cattle north into central MI for summer pasture.

I went to Wikipedia and looked up Libby's. It said: "The company was founded as Libby, McNeill & Libby in Chicago, Illinois, by Archibald McNeill and the brothers Arthur and Charles Libby. (1875)"

It was eventually sold off to Nestle, ConAgra, Swift and Company, and Ssneca Foods although the brand name still survives.

You must be referring to another Libby. I bring this up because I had never heard of a Libby and Randolph connection.
 
There was a local book written by the Dickenson family that said that milk plant was built by a Randolph.Right off hand,I can't remember if it was Jake or his father. I don't recall off hand if Libby was his wife or mother. I do remember Jake from when I was a kid. He was an old man way back then.Two of his sons lived here,one is still alive. Their sons were more my age. There was some way that Jake or his mother or wife was related to the Dickensons. That's how the story ended up in the book. I wish I had a copy of the book,but I borrowed it from one of the decendants quite a few years ago and read it.
The company itself wasn't sold to Carnation,but the condensary where the little cans of condensed milk were made was sold to Carnation. I don't remember it ever being Libbys,but my dad,uncles,everybody from that generation always refered to the plant as Libbys.
That's all I know about it. If Libby wasn't a Randolph,then the book was wrong.
 
My deceased Aunt (my father's sister) published a thick anthology on the Randolphs and other family names. I don't have a copy but the Randolphs you knew are probably in there. I think the first Randolph settled in MI around 1820 so there were many generations before me (born 1944 in Ann Arbor).

There probably was a Libby Randolph but I still have some uncertainty that what we know as the national (heck, international packing company) got its start in central MI, BWDIK.

I'll let this sleeping dog lie. Not sufficiently motivated to do anymore research. Thanks for your response.
 
I suppose it's quite possible that what was a small milk plant with the name Libbys wasn't the same company that became Libby,McNeil and Libby. It could have been like any of the other local milk companies and was bought up by Carnation and simply ceased to exist. That whole generation's gone,so we might never know.

I got thinking about it though and remember now that Jakes son Keith (Red) married a Dickenson. That might be where the Dickenson connection came in to get the story in the book.
 
They appear to have been a soft drink bottler. Birch Beer and other sodas. My bottle club just had its show last weekend . If you could put a few of the Pomeroy bottles in it it would sell easily.
 
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