The Creamery

In 1887, a group of investors explored a plan to erect a creamery in Washington. At that time, Washington residents purchased their butter products directly from farmers, whose ability to make them was mostly considered substandard. A creamery would allow the farmers to sell their cream at a higher margin than butter sales, retain their milk, and provide a better butter product to Washington residents, albeit at slightly higher prices.

Josiah Snyder and John B. Muller were two of the first catalysts. In January 1887, they traveled to a Centralia, Illinois, creamery to educate themselves. Returning, they figured they needed eight more investors at $500 (~$15,000 in today’s money) apiece to make their plan work.

It did not take long to find the investors, and by March 1887, the large Elgin Creamery had been contracted. The Elgin unit constructed the creamery, dug the wells, and provided the equipment for the $5,000 invested. The Elgin unit also ran the business for the first five weeks to get things rolling.

The lot the creamery sat on, now known as 201 W. Jefferson Street (the house just west of the police station), was previously a large sawmill.  In the late 1800s, this area of town looked completely different from today.  The railroad was the focus, as three grain elevators next to the tracks existed in the area.  There was no police station building, no electric power station.  Anything north or west of the area was farmland.  Market Street, now a dead end at Threads, Hope, & Love, continued through to Jefferson Street.

After the Elgin Creamery completed its contracted duties, the stockholders took over, with Josiah Snyder serving as president. There was much work to be done: establishing delivery routes, securing teams and drivers for making those deliveries, and hiring workers for the creamery itself.

The Washington Creamery enjoyed a successful run in Washington for about ten years but was out of business by the early 1900s. In 1908, Edward Moyer closed his ice cream factory in Bloomington and started up the same business in the creamery building in Washington. The Moyer Ice Cream Company got off to a splendid start, but by 1910, it was out of business, and Moyer had taken a job in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

In March 1910 the creamery lot was sold to Roy Smith and the current house on the property was built.