In Winfield Illinois on the east end of Beecher street at 27W359 is the former location of the Winfield Cooperative Creamery. This site was once the location of a major company that operated in Winfield.

Here is a brief history of the Creamery written by Louise Spanke in her book: Winfield Good Old Days: A History of Winfield Illinois (1978), (pps 37 – 38):

The biggest local enterprise was the Winfield Cooperative Creamery east of town . . . . In it first year of operation, 1882, Rufus Blanchard recorded that it “consumes 6,000 pounds of milk, manufacturers 120 pounds of butter and 425 pound of cheese daily on an average.” Two years later it was outbidding the Warrenville creamery by 5 cents, to pay dairy farmers $1.55 per hundred pounds.

Jacob Mueller was the treasurer of the creamery and Mathias Elsen [father of Susan Elsen who married William Daleiden the son of Christopher and Margaret Daleiden of Mack Road ] served some years as secretary. In 1887, when Gilbert Higgins and A. G. Ransom did the engineering for a new boiler, “D.A. Rinehart, Superintendent, and John Kline, President, managed the job” according to the Wheaton Illinoian.

Production jumped in 1889 when West Chicago creamery was destroyed by fire. Then in February 1895 the Winfield plant, including the second-floor living quarters of managers Maurice A. Dooley and J.H. Wilcox, met the same fate. It was quickly rebuilt and remained in operation until early in the 1900s. After 1899 it was the property of Jacob Mueller’s son Mathias, who later served the village as clerk and police magistrate.

The creamery was eventually dismantled, and the materials were used in the building on Winfield Road now [1978] occupied by Circle America WinView Realtors.

The property, following the death of Mathias Miller, was purchased by Casper Schlick my great grandfather. Christoper Daleiden his Grandfather owned over 10 acres open farm land west of the Creamery that was used as his hay field according to my grandfather Frank Schlick. Albert Schlick my mother’s uncle lived in the house for a period of time in the 1940s. Albert worked for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and eventually became a train engineer. The former garage (no longer on the property) was made from a Chicago and Northwestern Railroad boxcar. I can still remember seeing a number with “CNW” printed with a stencil in white paint on the interior walls of the garage. I also remember when I was young finding many remnants (glass, bricks, foundations, butter and cheese crock shards, etc.) buried or under the grass on the property. I grew up in the home at 27w359 Beecher from about the age of 4 until I went away to college in 1986.

Here is a copy of the deed for the Winfield Creamery:

The Winfield Creamery was a major business. It served many people who lived and farmed in the Village of Winfield and the surrounding region. The cooperative business model allowed the dairy farmers who produced the milk to control the business and hire a cheesemaker to make and market the cheese produced from their milk. Butter was another dairy product produced by the cooperative. There are still a few cooperatives located near dairy farms and rural areas today.