When Cheese Was King

The construction of the Ohio & Erie Canal and later the Valley Railway allowed Cuyahoga Valley farmers to export their products to growing nearby cities and to distant markets in the East. During the canal heyday of the mid-1800s, the number of dairy farmers in the valley increased. Local cheese factories began purchasing their unprocessed milk. Previously, cheese was made at home, usually by farm women. The introduction of cheese factories allowed farmers to avoid the long process of cheese-making, while continuing to reap profits from their dairy cattle. As a result of rising demand, the value of milk tripled between 1870 and 1910. According to Historian Henry Howe, the Western Reserve region of Ohio earned the nickname "Cheesedom."

For example, as early as the 1860s, the Oak Hill Factory in Peninsula was successfully producing over 70,000 pounds of cheese per year. Factory reports indicate that during a good year, it took about 9.5 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese. In 1868 alone, the Oak Hill Factory received over 670,000 pounds of milk. Other records listed Summit County's 1887 production as 1,011,957 pounds of cheese and 657,527 pounds of butter. The numbers for other nearby counties were even higher.

Cheese factory productivity directly relates to weather patterns. During hot weather and droughts, cows produce less milk. Mild temperatures and adequate water help cows produce better quality milk, which makes more cheese per pound. To overcome the summer heat, early factories developed ways to refrigerate the milk and cheese. The Oak Hill Factory passed water through boxes of ice that passed under and around the milk.

Read below to learn more about some of the many cheese factories that once operated in the Cuyahoga Valley.

Oak Hill Factory

Allen Welton (1809-1878) operated a successful dairy business and established the Cuyahoga Valley's first cheese factory in Peninsula. At one point, he owned 40 cows. By the 1870s, Welton's operation was in full production. Correspondence shows that Welton cheese was sold through produce commission merchants in Cleveland, New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia. Cheese was exported to England and to Glasgow, Scotland. Welton kept up with the latest technology, such as using annatto extract to color his cheese.

Allen Welton operated a second cheese factory at Hammond's Corners in Bath Township. It was located at the corner of Ira and Cleveland Massillon roads. After his tragic death in 1878, his son Frank took over both plants.

Click to learn more about the history of the Welton Farm.

Welton Farm and Factory

Daniel Greenfield, of Greenfield Berry Farm, talks about the Welton’s cheese factory that was once just east of his property.
2011 Oral History Project

Credit / Author:
Daniel Greenfield

“The initial family . . . Now, you have to understand this is a historic farmstead that was built in the 1850s. It's very old. The first farm family was the Weltons, Allen Welton was the first farmer there. He was a dairy farmer as well, and had a cheese factory that I believe was also on Major Road, and I think that was the first cheese factory in the county.”

Jonas Coonrad (wearing a hat) and his family pose at their farm, circa 1910. NPS Collection

Coonrad Factory

Jonas Coonrad (1836-1919) was a dairy farmer for most of his life. Around 1871, he began a profitable cheese business on his 300-acre property on Riverview Road in Brecksville. Coonrad built the cheese factory to take advantage of the products from his own farm, as well as from the numerous other dairy farms in the Cuyahoga Valley. Coonrad's factory had the capacity for 500 milk cows, which allowed for a significant profit. The money Coonrad earned from his cheese-making business helped the family construct the large brick farmhouse, which serves as a National Park Service ranger station today. Coonrad closed his factory in 1879. Completion of the Valley Railway increased competition in the cheese business by providing the Brecksville community with easy access to Cleveland's markets.

Andrew Cassidy's Factories

Andrew Cassidy became the largest operator in the Peninsula area, owning a chain of factories. His first was built in 1880, probably near where Salt Run goes under Akron Peninsula Road. During his active period, Cassidy had as many as 13 separate depots, including in Miller's Corners (now at Boston Mills and Olde Eight roads), Bedford, and Gates Mills. His largest and last factory was built in around 1887 in Peninsula, behind Cassidy's Hotel and beside the railroad.

Tilden Cheese Factory

The Tilden Cheese Factory was also known as the Boston Cheese Factory or East Hill Cheese Factory. It was located on the David Kennedy Farm at Kennedy's Corners on Richfield Road (now the corner of Major Road and SR 303). It was just down the road from the Oak Hill Factory. The founding date is unknown, but it was disbanded in 1896.

Hawkins Cheese Factory

Ira was a farming hamlet south of Peninsula that grew up around stops on the Ohio & Erie Canal and the Valley Railway. The community was a distribution point for dairy products. The Hawkins Cheese Factory was across from a depot at the intersection of Ira and Riverview roads. (Neither building remains. See historic depot photo below.) Farmers were paid every month for the milk they sold. This receipt shows that Eugene F. Cranz received $22.11 for 3,159 pounds of milk in July 1901.

A short distance north on the canal towpath, Charles and Susan Carter ran a prosperous dairy farm at Lock 26, now part of Beaver Marsh. A wayside exhibit there explores life in Cheesedom.

The End of Cheesedom

Cheese factories and creameries began to disappear after the first few decades of the 1900s when new forms of transportation forced valley factories to compete with larger markets in Cleveland and Akron. Sumner’s Creamery is an exception. The business that began in Bath Township in 1902 still operates out of Akron today.

Learn More

Listen to farmer Willis Meyers describe how his family prepared milk for transportation by a local hauler.

Listen to Helyn Fiedler Toth, the great-granddaughter of Nathanial Point, describe the dairy operation on the Point Farm. This property is now operated as Keleman Point Farm. You can stop by to visit their roadside farmstand.

Visit Hale Farm & Village. There is a dairy kitchen in the Herrick House that has historic tools used for making cheese and butter.

Where this belongs

• Cuyahoga Valley National Park

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