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Dairies Scooped Up Ice Cream Profits
Steffen Was First With Special Treat

by Beccy Tanner, The Wichita Eagle, April 22, 1993, p. 6E

Memo: PEOPLE & PLACES IN THE PAST: DID YOU KNOW?: During World War II, the city's largest dairies Steffen and Meadow Gold had to revert back to horse-drawn vehicles because of a gas and manpower shortage. Steffen also hired women drivers.

Nicholas Steffen was interested in quality when he came to Wichita in 1882. Steffen was only 20 years old but he had a secret recipe that turned out to be a success. That was when he first opened the Steffen Bakery and Restaurant in a one-story frame building near First and Main. He started serving his customers a special treat ice cream.

By 1897, Wichita had grown to the point that Steffen, along with another Indiana man William Bretch opened an ice-cream plant. Steffen and Bretch formed the Steffen-Bretch Ice and Ice Cream Co. By the end of the century, their company was producing 20,000 gallons of ice cream a year. Although the company no longer makes ice cream, it still produces milk and other dairy products, including cottage cheese and chive, sour cream, jalapeno and French dips.

Through the years, Wichita has never really been at a loss for dairy products. Some of the larger companies have included Steffen, DeCoursey Cream Co., Hyde Park Dairy, Linwood Dairy and Meadow Gold Co.

"They were all considered as first-class dairies offering pasteurized milk," said Bill Ellington, historian at the Wichita Public Library. "Each family that took milk had it delivered to their doorstep usually their back door."

Ellington said there was usually a friendship created between the milkman and the resident.

"You knew the milkman on a personal basis," Ellington said. "You also developed a loyalty to those dairies."

In its heyday, Hyde Park Dairy was at 943 S. McLean. It boasted a 16- truck fleet that traveled to more than 60 towns within a 100-mile radius of Wichita serving milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, butter, buttermilk and other dairy products. It was formed in 1941 when Wichita Mello Maid Dairy went into receivership. A group of Wichita businessmen took over and formed Hyde Park Dairy.

Borden bought the dairy in 1961. It shut down operations after its last owner, Zarda Brothers Dairy of Shawnee, bought Steffen Dairy Foods, 700 E. Central, in March 1987. Zarda merged the Hyde Park operations with Steffen and moved some of the 50 employees to the larger Steffen dairy. The Hyde Park buildings were torn down in 1989.

Meadow Gold, at 202 N. Handley, made The Eagle news on Jan. 22, 1975, when thieves evidently had more than just a sweet tooth.

"During the weekend, burglars broke into the Meadow Gold Ice Cream Co. warehouse . . . and stole 700 pounds of sugar. The loss was discovered Monday morning. Apparently, the old sweet tooth struck again, and sometime between 5:30 p.m. Monday and 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, burglars again entered the warehouse and escaped with 800 pounds of sugar."

Meadow Gold originally was known as Copley Dairy, then it became Beatrice Foods. But in the 1920s it was bought out by the Chicago-based Meadow Gold Co. The DeCoursey Co. and the Armstrong Creamery Co. were merged in 1965 as independent subsidiaries of Tip Top Dairies in Hillsboro.

Linwood Dairy, which primarily served the south end of Wichita, Ellington said, began on a farm as early as 1915. Heavy competition with larger dairies forced the family-owned business out in the late 1940s.

Of the major dairies, only Steffen and Borden remain.

"Bear Grease, Builders and Bandits," a compilation of the "People and Places in the Past" features, is now available in book form for $15.95 at several Wichita bookstores and through The Wichita Eagle.

[PHOTO]: The former Hyde Park Dairy buildings were torn down in 1989 after the new owners combined Hyde Park with Steffen.
Dave Williams/The Wichita Eagle

Transcribed by Erica DeCoursey 2002