April 27, 2012 Coats Museum News
The season was fall in the Coats Grove area in 1927 and there were very few people who had electricity in their houses. However, we do know that most of the families in or outside of town had one or two cows which provided the family with milk, butter and buttermilk. To keep the se items cool, they were either placed in an ice box—literally a box with large hunks of ice lowered into the well, or placed into a running stream.
For those readers who are familiar with the fact that milk really comes from a cow, and not from the grocery store, might remember that the cream would rise to the top of the milk and it was used to make butter and buttermilk. Some households had more cream than was needed to make those products so these households were likely excited to hear that Benson was going to have a creamery and someone would actually travel a route to pick up the cream. The November 11, 1927 edition of the Harnett County News stated the creamery truck would start a creamery route in the town of Dunn, Erwin, Bunnlevel, Mamers, J.K. Stewart Store, Angier, and Coats. Meetings were held to see how much interest there was for the selling of cream. Coats had their meeting in the Coats School. The route would start in Benson and go to Erwin by Parlia Wood and the John L. Sorrel l farms. Did Parlia Wood not have a cane mill and was not John L Sorrell the father-in-law of Dr. Gordon Townsend? Did you ever sop cane syrup mixed with hot butter using a hot buttermilk biscuit? I don’t know but I do know that the truck would go from Coats by the Mack Stewart farm to Bailey Store at Bailey’s Crossroads then to Harvey Turlington’s farm. J.G. Keen’s store in Coats was a drop off point. Anyone wishing to sell cream could leave it at those points named. It was not necessary to have a separator—“a what?” you ask. All one had to do was to skim the cream from the top of the milk and place it into a container that was tagged to show ownership of the container. The price of the butterfat (cream) was to be 43 cents per pound (Harnett County News November 11, 1927).
Do you know whether your parents or grandparents sold cream? If you do, then you likely know about milking a cow, have seen milk strained, and know how sour milk and cream were churned into butter and buttermilk.
The following may bring back memories from your days when cows were cherished as much as dogs and cats are today and were by far more necessary for the family.
Most farm families assigned jobs to the children. One child would collect the eggs, while others would feed the mules, horses or chickens. Usually the older sibling had the responsibility of milking the cow twice a day. The number of cows the family had was determined by the need of the milk products by the family. Once the cow had a calf, the cow became “fresh” which meant that she would produce milk to feed the new calf. Most cows had a stable and, as did the mules and horses, she knew exactly which was hers. The cow stable had to have clean straw in it often because the cow bag (utters) would become dirty and caked in mature if allowed to sleep in a dirty stable.
Most cows were milked twice daily-once in the morning and then at sunset. Usually a pail of warm water and cloth were taken by the milker to the cow stable where there was usually also a cow pen for the cow to have water and feed and walk around. The cow was brought to the pen where a trough was used to put feed to be eaten while she was being milked. The milker might or might not have had a milk stool to sit upon while milking. The milker sat a foot or so from the back of the cow and used warm water to wash the cow’s bag or utters and then dried them.
In very cold weather, the milker had to hurry up the process or the water would get cool. The bucket was placed on a board or clean dirt. The milker had to use one hand on one utter and the other hand on another utter. There was an art to the process. It was a squeeze and release of the fingers as the milk streamed into the pail. A good milker could obtain a couple of gallons in five or six minutes. Some cows would hold back the milk for her calf and most of the time one utter was reserved for the young calf.
The cow had to be milked before the sibling went to school. The morning milkings sometimes had drawbacks compared to the sunset one. For one thing, if the stable did not have fresh straw, the bag could be caked in mature that really had to be washed off well before she could be milked. By the way, that was usually on the morning that the milker was running late. Another problem present when milking a cow was that they have a tail of mass destruction to kill the horse and dog flies that seem to love the natural juices that lay under the hide of the cow. They especially love to suck the torso in the area that the milker had seated himself to milk. This meant that the cow’s long mop of a tail was constantly attacking the biting flies about her torso.
Recall that the milker is sitting in the direct path of the weapon of mass destruction. Hence, it was not uncommon to return to the house marked with streaks of cow mature on face and clothes which meant a quick bath was needed to prevent the kids on the school bus from saying, ”You smell like cow mature.”
Did you say that they were the “good old days’? Next week you will read about what was done with the milk once the milker had delivered it to the house. You will always learn how many bales of cotton were bailed in Harnett County in 1927 as compared to 1926. You might wonder about how much tobacco was sold in Fuquay in 1927. The most exciting tidbit will be a decision made by the Coats Town Commissioners.
A special thank you to those who gave memorials to honor George Scott, brother-in-law of Mack and Juanita Hudson, and to Sadie Francis Parrish Melvin, sister of Joyce Parrish Turner. Also thank you to Jerry Gardner of Fredricksburg, Virginia and to Mike Tocci of Starks, Nevada who gave the Coats Museum a picture of Private Alexander Baker in the Confederate States Army. Baker was born in 1844 and died in 1926 in Harnett County. He had enlisted in June 1861 and was wounded at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He was paroled on July 9, 1865 at Appromattox, Virginia.
PLEASE BE MINDFUL THAT THIS COATS MUSEUM NEWS WAS PUBLISHED IN THE DAILY RECORD ON APRIL27, 2012.
The season was fall in the Coats Grove area in 1927 and there were very few people who had electricity in their houses. However, we do know that most of the families in or outside of town had one or two cows which provided the family with milk, butter and buttermilk. To keep the se items cool, they were either placed in an ice box—literally a box with large hunks of ice lowered into the well, or placed into a running stream.
For those readers who are familiar with the fact that milk really comes from a cow, and not from the grocery store, might remember that the cream would rise to the top of the milk and it was used to make butter and buttermilk. Some households had more cream than was needed to make those products so these households were likely excited to hear that Benson was going to have a creamery and someone would actually travel a route to pick up the cream. The November 11, 1927 edition of the Harnett County News stated the creamery truck would start a creamery route in the town of Dunn, Erwin, Bunnlevel, Mamers, J.K. Stewart Store, Angier, and Coats. Meetings were held to see how much interest there was for the selling of cream. Coats had their meeting in the Coats School. The route would start in Benson and go to Erwin by Parlia Wood and the John L. Sorrel l farms. Did Parlia Wood not have a cane mill and was not John L Sorrell the father-in-law of Dr. Gordon Townsend? Did you ever sop cane syrup mixed with hot butter using a hot buttermilk biscuit? I don’t know but I do know that the truck would go from Coats by the Mack Stewart farm to Bailey Store at Bailey’s Crossroads then to Harvey Turlington’s farm. J.G. Keen’s store in Coats was a drop off point. Anyone wishing to sell cream could leave it at those points named. It was not necessary to have a separator—“a what?” you ask. All one had to do was to skim the cream from the top of the milk and place it into a container that was tagged to show ownership of the container. The price of the butterfat (cream) was to be 43 cents per pound (Harnett County News November 11, 1927).
Do you know whether your parents or grandparents sold cream? If you do, then you likely know about milking a cow, have seen milk strained, and know how sour milk and cream were churned into butter and buttermilk.
The following may bring back memories from your days when cows were cherished as much as dogs and cats are today and were by far more necessary for the family.
Most farm families assigned jobs to the children. One child would collect the eggs, while others would feed the mules, horses or chickens. Usually the older sibling had the responsibility of milking the cow twice a day. The number of cows the family had was determined by the need of the milk products by the family. Once the cow had a calf, the cow became “fresh” which meant that she would produce milk to feed the new calf. Most cows had a stable and, as did the mules and horses, she knew exactly which was hers. The cow stable had to have clean straw in it often because the cow bag (utters) would become dirty and caked in mature if allowed to sleep in a dirty stable.
Most cows were milked twice daily-once in the morning and then at sunset. Usually a pail of warm water and cloth were taken by the milker to the cow stable where there was usually also a cow pen for the cow to have water and feed and walk around. The cow was brought to the pen where a trough was used to put feed to be eaten while she was being milked. The milker might or might not have had a milk stool to sit upon while milking. The milker sat a foot or so from the back of the cow and used warm water to wash the cow’s bag or utters and then dried them.
In very cold weather, the milker had to hurry up the process or the water would get cool. The bucket was placed on a board or clean dirt. The milker had to use one hand on one utter and the other hand on another utter. There was an art to the process. It was a squeeze and release of the fingers as the milk streamed into the pail. A good milker could obtain a couple of gallons in five or six minutes. Some cows would hold back the milk for her calf and most of the time one utter was reserved for the young calf.
The cow had to be milked before the sibling went to school. The morning milkings sometimes had drawbacks compared to the sunset one. For one thing, if the stable did not have fresh straw, the bag could be caked in mature that really had to be washed off well before she could be milked. By the way, that was usually on the morning that the milker was running late. Another problem present when milking a cow was that they have a tail of mass destruction to kill the horse and dog flies that seem to love the natural juices that lay under the hide of the cow. They especially love to suck the torso in the area that the milker had seated himself to milk. This meant that the cow’s long mop of a tail was constantly attacking the biting flies about her torso.
Recall that the milker is sitting in the direct path of the weapon of mass destruction. Hence, it was not uncommon to return to the house marked with streaks of cow mature on face and clothes which meant a quick bath was needed to prevent the kids on the school bus from saying, ”You smell like cow mature.”
Did you say that they were the “good old days’? Next week you will read about what was done with the milk once the milker had delivered it to the house. You will always learn how many bales of cotton were bailed in Harnett County in 1927 as compared to 1926. You might wonder about how much tobacco was sold in Fuquay in 1927. The most exciting tidbit will be a decision made by the Coats Town Commissioners.
A special thank you to those who gave memorials to honor George Scott, brother-in-law of Mack and Juanita Hudson, and to Sadie Francis Parrish Melvin, sister of Joyce Parrish Turner. Also thank you to Jerry Gardner of Fredricksburg, Virginia and to Mike Tocci of Starks, Nevada who gave the Coats Museum a picture of Private Alexander Baker in the Confederate States Army. Baker was born in 1844 and died in 1926 in Harnett County. He had enlisted in June 1861 and was wounded at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He was paroled on July 9, 1865 at Appromattox, Virginia.
PLEASE BE MINDFUL THAT THIS COATS MUSEUM NEWS WAS PUBLISHED IN THE DAILY RECORD ON APRIL27, 2012.