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PHOTO
photo day
By Jeremy Waltner 
March 4, 2024

PHOTO OF THE DAY: MONDAY’S HISTORICAL REVIEW

This is Monday’s Facebook post from Heritage Hall Museum and Archives.

We know the familiar building (pictured here) on the north side of Railway Street between Main and Juniper in downtown Freeman as part of AMPI.

But there’s a remarkable “rest of the story.”

The milk-processing plant traces its roots back to Jake T. Gross, who in 1915 began buying grain, cream and poultry and a few years later began making butter. But, when Gross set his sights on another venture, he convinced a newly formed farmers cooperative to take over the business.

In his 1958 history book, longtime Freeman Courier Publisher J.J. Mendel wrote that Farmers Coop Creamery Association was incorporated on May 7, 1930. It operated in the building that today is home to Flawless Nail and Hair Salon. A new production plant was built at the corner of Railway and Main in 1935. It became known as the “Freeman Creamery.”

In the decades that followed, numerous expansions, renovations and upgrades – including producing powdered milk in 1960 – created the plant that continues to operate there today. It joined Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) in 1969.

The new business Gross decided to establish 95 years ago was a hatchery, in which fertilized eggs are placed in incubators where they are kept warm and automatically turned gently at regular intervals. Fertilized eggs hatch around the 21-day mark and the baby chicks that emerge from those eggs, are sold to farmers.

In 1954, the Freeman Courier published a special section as part of Freeman’s Diamond (75th) Anniversary and included brief stories about some of Freeman’s businesses, including Gross Hatcheries, including the accompanying photo. Here are some excerpts:

“Jake T. Gross, veteran hatchery man of Freeman and his employees are always willing to help poultry raisers with their poultry problems.

“At the age of 14, Jake had to discontinue his schooling and took his first job with the John Gross Nursery in Freeman.”

He went on to work for both the Freeman Courier and the Freeman Telephone Exchange for several years.

“In 1915, at age 25, he began buying grain, cream and poultry, the Courier noted. “In 1929 Gross began his hatchery business here in Freeman. He ventured out and acquired hatcheries in Menno, Marion, Yankton, Armour and Wagner. Through careful management and frugal living, the Gross Hatcheries weathered the depression.”

The Courier reported the six hatcheries were hatching 600,000 chicks a year.

Gross built his business in a sprawling building on the north side of Railway Street between Main and Juniper in downtown Freeman.

After the hatchery closed in the late 1960s, AMPI moved its offices from Main Street into the hatchery building that Gross had built after he had turned the creamery over to the farmers’ cooperative four decades earlier.

And, as they say, “now you know the rest of the story.”

We hope you enjoy learning a bit more about the fascinating history of our community.

We enjoy digging into details like this and sharing them. We also do that with our always-changing exhibits at our museum. We invite you to stop in and visit us. We’ll be open from 10 to 7 next week Friday and Saturday (March 15 & 16) in conjunction with Schmeckfest. That includes special programming; you can learn more here: https://heritagehallmuseum.

We’re open weekday afternoons from noon to 4 from October through April and Mondays through Saturdays from 10 to 4 May through September.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All reactions:

21Viki Graber, Marnette Hofer and 19 others

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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