Clermont Area Farms

From the early 1900’s until after World War II there were numerous farms in the Clermont area.  Most of the early farms supported entire families.  A few of the farms sold milk to the local residents and in the local stores.  The milk that was sold to individuals was usually delivered in a small covered metal can similar to the one shown here below:

The milk that was sold in the stores was sold in glass quart bottles with a cardboard cap similar to the ones shown here.

All of the milk sold was raw milk.  Some separated the milk and made butter to sell.  A separator and churn are displayed in these pictures:

Some of the Italian farmers made homemade cheese for family to use and to sell to other individuals. Such as pictured below:

All the farmers used teams of horses for farm work until the early 1940’s.   Teams of horses were used for plowing and preparing the fields for planting as seen in this photo from that era.

Many of the farmers raised chickens, hogs, and beef cattle and sold the meat in the stores.  Since there was no electricity at that time, the meat in the stores was placed in large ice-cooled walk in coolers. The coolers had compartments in the top for the ice and the meat was placed in the lower portion of the cooler. Both A.J. Anderson and John Erlandson had ponds where ice was cut in the winter and stored in layers of sawdust in special dirt cellars.  John Erlandson also sold ice to individual families who had iceboxes similar to the one below:

The photos above were provided by Esther Aloi.

The men that lived on these farms sometimes would work either full time or part time in lumbering or local industries.

Slowly the farms began to disappear as families moved to find work in the cities during the depression of the thirties or during World War II.

The following are the farms that were in existence during time period: