Clover Farms was built up by the efforts of two men, Luther Campbell and John Weisenfluh. According to 1880 census records both men were raised in the dairy farm country of Sullivan County New York and apparently Campbell married Weisenfluh’s sister. The business started on Broadway in New York City in the 1890’s and was ultimately sold in 1924. Through that period, Campbell served as it’s only president and Weisenfluh as a director, either secretary, treasurer or sometimes both.
A story about the sale in the December 12, 1924 issue of the “Cortland Democrat” describes the company and it’s history. The quotes below come from that article:
Clover Farms, Inc had it’s origin in November, 1891 as L.L. Campbell & Bro., starting in business with one lone milk wagon, the driver of which was L L Campbell. The first day’s deliveries consisted of 68 quarts. The company now has 160 delivery routes. It was incorporated four or five years later as the Clover Farms Company. The name was changed to Clover Farms, Inc in 1913.
While the timing is a little different, the general progression of the business is confirmed in the NYC Directories:
- Luther L Campbell is first listed with the heading milk in the 1891 Directory.
- LL Campbell & Brother is first listed in 1895 or 1896.
- Clover Farms Co. (NY), Capital $51,000. is first listed in 1902.
- Clover Farms Co., Inc is first listed around 1915 with the main office located at 534 West 48th Street. In 1915, 15 branch offices were also listed.
In 1913, Clover took over the Dairy Demonstration Company.
The Dairy Demonstration Company was organized in 1908 by a number of prominent New Yorkers interested in infant welfare work. A plant was built at Homer (NY) and after much educational work among the farmers, the company began to supply milk to infant feeding stations which had been established by the New York Milk committee. These stations were taken over later by the New York City Department of Health. Since 1913, Clover Farms, Inc. has continued this service to the City without a break, making the name of its Homer milk famous…The Homer plant was described by Dr. Royal S Copeland, when he was Commissioner of Health in New York City, as one of the finest in the United States in point of sanitation and low bacterial count.
In 1920, Clover listed it’s main office at 533 w 47th Street (it was back to back with the 48th Street address so probably one and the same facility) as well as 8 branch locations: 228 and 286 Broadway, 311 and 533 Columbus Ave, 622 W 130th Street, 435 Amsterdam Ave, 431 E 164th Street and 1010 Lexington Avenue.
The sale of the company took place in December 0f 1924.
Clover Farms milk stations and city distributing plants have been sold to the Dairyman’s League and the formal transfer will take place Tuesday morning December 16…The Dairyman’s League will retain the country properties of Clover Farms, consisting of seven modern milk receiving stations in New York, four of which are Grade A plants. The large distributing plant at 470 West 128th Street, New York City, will be sold to the Borden Company.
Clover Farms, Inc. continued to be listed in the telephone directories through at least 1931 but was not listed in 1948. I don’t have access to the directories in 1932 through 1947 so I’m not sure when they dropped the name.
The bottle I found is a machine made pint embossed Clover Farms Company. This puts it in the 1902 to 1915 time frame.