The main building is 24 by 30, two stories high with ice house attached, 16x16. Nothing in the construction was slighted in the least, it stands on a solid stone foundation and is sheeted with matched flooring inside and out then papered on the outside, then weatherboarded outside of this, making three thicknesses of boards besides the sheeting paper, and it has the best quality of sheet iron roofing as well as drive ways, outbuildings etc and a well that furnishes a never failing supply of water."
We know that this creamery was still in operation in 1908 at which time there was also a store there. The store was to the immediate west of the creamery but both businesses were on the southeast corner of the intersection. No information has been found as to when these two businesses went out of operation and whether they were operated by the same people.
The local "Buttermaker", whether he was at either creamery, was, apparently, held in high esteem by the community as mention is occasionally made in the paper concerning his social activities and com- ment is generally made as to identify him and his fine product. He, also, had generally received a degree from Iowa State. These creameries pumped money into the economy of the community as mention is made of how meaningful the checks were to the folks receiving the money "in these tough economic times".
Indian Hill, in the SE of the SW of Sec 4, is north of Si & Cleopa Thompson's farmstead. The camera is pointed to the west-northwest. This is where there was a creamery at one time up until about 1896 and a gravel pit where, reportedly, the gravel was hauled to start graveling the road north from Nevada in about 1919. It is not the highest point in Milford Twp. That point is in the center of Sec 3 and it is higher by just a few feet. Page 253.The other creamery was on and in the hill behind Si and Cleopha Thompson's (1950's) farmstead in the SW quar- ter of Sec 4. This was the well-known "Indian Hills Cream- ery". This creamery was moved to McCallsburg in the fall of 1899 when Mr Bates, the owner, moved the equipment to that community. The assumption is made that the business closed at that time as no mention is made of someone else taking over the business and putting other equipment in place. Here, also, no information can be found to indicate when this business was started. It may well have been started after 1883 as it is not mentioned on a fine map of the date. Apparently tunnels and caves in the `honeycombed' hill were used as storage for products to take advantage of the natural `air-conditioning' properties of the hill.
More information on page 256.
Let's Go to Indiana
Adapted from the Nevada Paper of the summer of 1896:
"Ward Hamilton and wife left Pleasant Grove on Monday last at one o'clock for Indiana. They intend to make the en tire distance of over four hundred miles on bicycles. It will be a pleasant trip."
What can you say? This is an adventure personified! Recall that there were no paved roads, very little road markings, and even very few miles of gravel roads. Since it was early July, they would miss the worst of the rainy season with its accompanying mud. So if the weather coop- erated, it may well have been a "pleasant trip". Recall that also, the year of 1895 was one of the driest on record in Iowa, so perhaps Ward and his wife were relying on weather like the proceeding year.
No record could be found indicating anything about the trip, so it's not known if they even got to Colo, or to the Mississippi River or to Indiana-- perhaps they even caught a train.
In the spring of 1904, in a short column in the Nevada Paper about the Milford Twp com- munity, there was mention of a telephone call with the sad news, from Boone, of the death of one of the Arrasmith babies and then mentioned that the "little one was laid to rest at the church" (Pleasant Grove Church). (The article made it sound as though the cause of death was SIDs as the child of 6 months was found dead in its bed at 3 o'clock in the morning.)
In the Roland Paper of 22 April 1909 there appeared this short announcement concerning the Milford Twp area: "Quite a few telephones were put out of commission by the thunderstorm of last week."
No further information was given as to the extent of tele- phone coverage but could one assume the lines were in northern Milford Twp as the announcement was in the Roland Paper?
The telephone was invented in 1875 with voice transmis- sions in 1876, patented in 1876 and by 1883 there was a licensed operation in Story County with the title "Ames and Nevada Tele- phone Company".
A list of the eleventh grade students at Milford School showed a telephone number for everyone of the people listed. Whether it is a number for the home of the student or a very near neighbor is not mentioned but the point remains that a phone was available to each. Until about 1960, Milford Twp was served by a system of "party lines" . There might be as many as 11 homes connected through one line. A series of long or short rings would serve as a code to the patrons as to whom was to answer the phone.