Cheese Factory

The Clover Hill Cheese Factory, as it was called, was located on the lake just west of the church and opened in 1902. Owned by the Cassidy brothers, the first year it received 376,360 lbs of milk. Income was $3820.30 and expenses $483.33. The average price of cheese was 9½ ¢ per lb. The average price paid for milk was $0.88 per 100 lbs.

Fred Price was the first manager. Allen Cassidy was manager of the factory from 1904. How long the cheese factory remained in production we do not know. It was at least initially successful by virtue of a note in the Kings County Record that from May to November 1906 the factory paid out between $5,000 and $6,000 to the farmers of the area.

Anne Renwick came across the following tidbit about the cheese factory in her grandfather, Allen R. Cassidy's, letters: "1908 to 1911...The cheese factory was operating then...About that time there was a cheese maker named Hiram Gilles a good & honerable man. Something went wrong with the vat of milk & Mr. Gilles paid for the milk from his wages. He also made cheese at Carsonville Kings Co."

The cheese factory was not operational in 1949. By then, all that remained were the foundation beams.

 

Cheese Factory 1921