"Quality That Speaks for Itself" - Pt. I
- halifaxpahistory
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
By: Dylan Bowman, HAHS Board Member
April 11, 2025
Miller Brothers Dairy in 1957.
Front Row (standing): Mark H. Miller; Lamar Snyder; William Zerby; Mabel Bishop; Ruth Matter; Joseph Muggio; George Szires Jr.
Back Row (standing): Donald L. Miller; Robert Troutman; Charles M. Teter; Earl Bishop; Marlin Keefer; Fred Matter.
Employees Not in Photo: Elmer Walborn; Harry Miller Jr.; Robert S. Grimm; Earl Wert Jr.; Vernon Keefer.
Photograph from: Lykens Valley: History & Geneology and the Historical Society of Millersburg & Upper Paxton Township
That Spring Beverage
Spring has sprung, and with it, new life, beautiful nature, Easter, and allergies. But there is one thing that comes to my mind each year that seems out of left field, and yet, it makes all the sense in the world.
Milk.
Now, before you furrow your brow in utter confusion (pun intended) and slowly move your computer cursor to close the tab of this article, hear me out. Sure, it sounds like a weird thought. But in my antique and bizarre brain, whenever spring hits each year, I picture milkmen walking down a sunny driveway, into the cool shade of a covered porch and placing fresh jars of milk into a metal milkbox by the door.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that farmers and livestock are getting into the swing of agricultural pursuits, but the thought of milk (as well as a few other commodities) comes to mind like gardens do in summer and pumpkins do in fall.
In so thinking, I believe that a brief look back on the history of our milkmen in this valley is in order, and through a personal connection of my own, we can get a bit of insight into the service that these gentlemen provided for so many years, and the stories of one of them: Eugene Hoffman.
Two advertisements for Speece's Dairy in Halifax/Dauphin County advertisement booklets. Documents procured from HAHS Archives.
"The Best in Milk"
Born in Millersburg in 1926, Eugene (Gene) Hoffman became a milkman for Miller Brothers Dairy in Millersburg, PA in the early 1950s after the workers at a steel mill he was working for in Steelton, PA, went on strike. It was only a short time that he worked for Miller Bros before moving to Speece's Dairy as a milkman in 1959. He would end up working for Speece's for the next 25 years, then for Feaser's Dairy for 12 years, before retiring from the dairy scene around 1996.
When interviewed about his time as a milkman, Hoffman had much to say.
His days would begin with him waking up at 2AM, eating breakfast, and getting ready so that he could load up his milk truck with dairy products and ice, before often catching the Millersburg Ferry at 5:30AM, shuttling milk and dairy products to towns on the West Shore. He mentioned that the deliveries would often regulate back and forth day to day as needed; Millersburg one day, then across the river the next, before delivering to the East Shore on the following.
This delivery pattern followed his route which consisted of (moving down from the North) Thompsontown, Millerstown, the village of Reward near Liverpool, Newport, Millersburg, Halifax, and the Harrisburg area. Regularly working 14-16 hour days often seven days a week, he was paid in what jars were collected, not in those that were given. On Saturdays, he often had over 100 collections for a 16 hour day.
When asked about how much he was paid hourly, he looked to the ceiling of his living room, pondering.
"Gee zooie," he reminisced, "it was eventually around $0.47 an hour at one point, then it eventually went up to a minimum wage of a dollar-something later."
An undated post card view of a dairy farm near Loyalton, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Document procured from Lykens Valley: History & Geneology.
"WE DIDN'T ORDER ANY CHOCOLATE!"
As comes with the spring and summer, the heat was always a factor that had to be contended with. In the back of the metal milk delivery trucks, many pounds of crushed ice would be placed on top of the crates (12 quarts of milk per crate) to keep them cool for the long days' journey. Milkmen would often leave the sliding doors of the trucks open on hot days for both their own health in the heat as well as air circulation to help keep the milk cool.
Inversely, when winter hit, milk still had to be delivered. However, in the freezing cold, Hoffman confirmed, "if you heard the milk caps in the back start popping from the milk freezing, you knew to keep the doors shut."
Deliveries would be ordered through a hand-written note left by the homeowner in the milkbox stating "4 quarts," "6 quarts," or "NO MILK," letting Gene and other milkmen know what they needed to leave in the boxes. When delivering in the warmer days of the year in Harrisburg, Gene remembered, "kids would sleep outside (due to the heat), and would add notes listing 'one quart of chocolate' to the regular orders inside their neighbors' milkboxes."
Gene continued, a laugh creeping up on his voice.
"When we put the chocolate milk in the box, the kids would sneak over after we left and take it out! Then the folks at that house would say, 'We didn't order any chocolate!'"
This video provides a great resource for describing the commitment and value hosted by milkmen in the 1900s.
More Milk to Come...
As I interviewed Gene, I realized that again there was an awesome sum of history to be secured from his stories. So much so that one article would not be enough...for there were not only stories of long days and bountiful dairy deliveries, but also tales of danger and near-death experiences, making the story of The Valley's milkmen all the more...rich.
Tune in a few weeks for the conclusive article to this spring saga of our heroic milkmen of the past!
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