The Prairie Queen Creamery was located in Cass Township at the intersection of two country roads which today are named McMurray Avenue and 165th Street. This story is about this particular creamery, one of many in Hamilton County.

Prior to the time of the establishment of the creamery, the Iowa farmer milked his cows and used the whole milk for his family. The farmer would let the milk sit in a cool place so that the valuable cream could rise to the top. Then he would skim off the cream which was used to make butter. The milk that remained was called "skim milk." Much of the time this skim milk was fed to the hogs.

In 1872 a man by the name of John Stewart established the first creamery in the state of Iowa. His creamery, called the Spring Branch Creamery, was located near Manchester. At that time, the local butter produced on the farms was deemed to be of poor quality and could not be sold in the cities back East. Stewart changed all of that when he was awarded a gold medal for "best butter" in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. He went on to create the Iowa Butter and Cheese Association.

The Annals of Iowa reported that butter production was a "delicate subject to handle, as each farmer’s wife thinks she makes choice butter," even though the new competition from the creameries proved her false. Local butter brought only from 8 to 18 cents a pound, but the creamery butter shipped back East sold for 20 to 35 cents a pound.

Another development furthered the butter industry when a centrifugal cream separator made its first appearance in Iowa in 1882. Now cream could much more quickly be separated from the milk. This led to the establishment of many creameries in Hamilton County.

By 1900 the /Annals of Iowa/ reported that Iowa had 809 creameries and 185 skim stations. Of these numbers, 364 were cooperatives set up by local farmers. The average production was 94,000 pounds; the average creamery served 113 patrons and had a value of $3,286. Iowa led the nation in butter production in the years 1879, 1880, and 1889.

The Prairie Queen Creamery Association was established as a cooperative on May 27, 1897. The officers of the association were A. France, President; H. D. Welch, Secretary; J. M. Doolittle, Treasurer. The other board members were: A. Bailey, A. W. Garth, L. B. Grout, Jasper Kahl, and. The association held their meetings in the Mulberry Center Schoolhouse, which was located a mile east of the creamery. John Knudeson became the secretary for the second year. H. D. Welch was paid $1.25 for hauling each load of butter to the depot in Webster City.

Two buildings were built. The creamery was 30 X 32 ft. with the sides fastened to 12 X 12 foot posts. A separate boiler and coal room was built next to the creamery. It measured 16 X 16 ft. and used 10 foot posts. A well was dug to a depth of 162 feet.

D. C. Bailey was employed as butter maker. Ira B. Shinkle was hired to help run the creamery for $20.00 a month. To get the creamery going, stock in the amount of $500 was offered in $1.00 and $5.00 amounts. The value of the creamery was set at $2,205.90.

Stock was offered in $1.00 and $5.00 denominations and, according to the minutes of February, 1897 meeting, there were 41 stockholders. The last names of these stockholders, besides the officers and board members were: Nail, Thompson, Wyckoff, Christenson, Segar, Miller, Caquelin, Claude, Meissman, Shafer, and Ford.

Other buildings built at this location were a blacksmith shop, a store, and a lodge building. The Woodmen Lodge was the location of many dances. The blacksmith shop was at the northwest corner on land owned by Clyde Fletchall. The creamery was at the southeast corner of the intersection and the lodge was on the west side of the road. One very popular dance in 1897 was the "Prairie Queen Quadrille." The quadrille was a form of square dance. It was this dance that gave the name to the creamery.

Other creameries located in Hamilton County were Poplar Grove in Freedom Township, Poland’s Grove in Independence Township, Little Chicago in Rose Grove Township, and Rosendale in Clear Lake Township. Each town in the county also had a creamery. Many of these creameries served as country post offices and most had a general store. The Little Chicago Creamery was operated by Bertel Belleson, who served as postmaster. Morris Smith was the postmaster and store owner at Poplar Grove. John Skaaluve was the postmaster at Rosendale.

The largest creamery and butter maker in the county was located at Hook’s Point. The Ten Eyck farm made a very large amount of butter. To ship the butter, a cooper was employed to make the butter tubs. They also had a cheese factory. The farm had a herd of 200 cows to supply the milk for the creamery.