Published by permission from the historical society.

Transcribed by Mrs. McElroys' MMS class.

The Milk Plant Years

            When Pet got interested in putting an evaporated milk plant in Mulvane, I was a young man away at school, but when at home lived with my family on a farm northeast of Mulvane.

            During much of this time I was attending Kansas State at Manhattan.  In 1917 I was graduated with a B. S. degree in dairy manufacturing.  My brother, Clarence, was married and working in the Mulvane State Bank.

            As I recall, the Howard brothers had lived originally in the Highland, Ill. area.  As Highland had a Pet plant and Louis Latzer, president, and guiding force of this company lived on a farm nearby and had his office in the plant, it was natural for members of the Howard family to try and interest Mr. Latzer in considering Mulvane for a plant if sufficient milk could be made available.

            After a thorough study of the area and after analyzing the enthusiasm of the producers and the businessmen, Mr. Latzer and his board of directors decided to build a plant here.  As I recall, Robert L. Latzer, younger son of Louis Latzer, was in charge of building the plant and putting it into operation.

            In order that a mild supply be built up as rapidly as possible, the company shipped hundreds of cows and two-year-old heifers into the area and sold them to producers, allowing them to be paid for out of the milk check.

            Charles Kaylor was the first manager and Clarence, my brother, was in charge of the office and the milk and labor payrolls.

            At that time, Pet hired me to do field work at their Lamar, Colo. Plant.  In 1922, I was sent to Mulvane to rearrange some of the milk routes and shortly thereafter I was transferred here as the second manager of this plant.  My brother was transferred into management at the Hudson, Mich. Plant before I was sent to Mulvane.

            While milk receipts had never reached the volume anticipated by the company and the local boosters, the bankers and businessmen were always high in their praise of the milk checks that were supplying a cash flow throughout the area.

            Of course, production was highest during the early spring grass season; however, many producers endeavored to hold production high all winter by filling silos with green corn and sorghum.  This provided succulent feed for high milk production during the winter months.  As I recall, peak production reached in the neighborhood of 50,000 to 75,000 pounds daily.

            Most of the employees in the Mulvane plant were old friends of people I knew before leaving the area a number of years earlier.  They were a good and willing crew and this plant earned the record of an efficiently run operation.

            Plant cooling was supplied form wells and stored in wooden tanks held together by metal hoops.  On one of these tanks, one of more of the hoops were rusted, the tank ruptured, allowing water to run in all directions, and some went through the roof of an engine room where the men’s shower was located.  Only one man was in the shower and he came out shouting, “The boiler blew up!”

            The final closing of this plant came about when economic conditions caused an unbalanced condition of production and consumption nationwide.  As less evaporated milk was consumed a heavy stock of milk was on hand.

            The smaller production plants naturally had higher cost milk and in most cases, transportation costs were higher to deliver the product to the consuming market.

            By 1928 I was transferred to Iola, Kansas.  It was centrally located for me to cover the several plants the company had me supervising as district manager.

            When it was decided to close both the Mulvane and Lamar plants and I was to relay this message to the businessmen of these locations, I would willingly have shirked this responsibility.  The company had no choice but to retrench, hence we handled this task as best we could.  Our officials knew well that the plants closing would work a severe hardship on our labor crew, the producers and businessmen, which it did.

            There were many things the company did to soften this shock but with economic conditions being rather bad, it took a long time for these communities to feel their way back to normal.

Contributed by Frank Reynolds

NOTE.  In the summer of 1907 or 1908, Marion L. Howard, Mulvane farmer, who had come to Kansas from Highland, Ill., was visiting in the Highlands area and called at the Helvetia Milk Company’s condensed milk plant to see Mr. Lewis Latzer, president of the company, and with whom he had been close friends before coming to Mulvane.

            Mr. Latzer showed Mr. Howard through the plant, explaining its milk processing principles, and told him about the economic effects the plant had on the farm and business economy of the community.  Mr. Howard invited Mr. Latzer, who was looking for some new locations for plants to market their product, unsweetened condensed milk, to visit Mulvane.

            That invitation resulted in Mr. Latzer coming here to assess the feasibility or the area as a plant site, and the eventual establishment of the Mulvane milk plant.

            One factor that brought about the closing of the plant in 1929was the growth of population in the city of Wichita, with its accompanying demand for fresh (raw) milk.  Raw milk prices were higher than condensed milk prices, which caused many farmers to change from selling to the condenser to the Wichita market.

            The name of the canned milk produced by the Helvetia Company was “Pet Milk”, and eventually the name of the company was changed to Pet Milk Company.

Note by Geo. Smysor