This article examines the dairies in the greater Garden Home area:
- Recollections of area dairies
- Alpenrose Dairy (Cadonau)
- Shattuck Dairy (Gertsch)
- Von Bergen Dairy
- Fanno Creek Dairy (Feldman)
- Garden Home Dairy (Marugg)
- Hoffman Balmer Dairy
- Schallberger Dairy
- Fulton Park Dairy (Raz)
Tom Shreve, 2023.
Recollections of area dairies
Bob Feldman of the Fanno Creek Dairy recalled:
Other dairies of the area were: Silver Hill Dairy, Maruggs, 3 Denney dairies, Schallbergers, Alpenrose, Fulton Park, Gertsch, Von Bergen, Raz, Lehman Brothers, Kinnaman and Kosmalski. Some of these dairies sold directly to the Red Rock Creamery in Tigard.
Pete Gertsch of the Shattuck Dairy recalled:
During that time there were several large dairies operating with herds of more than 100 cattle. One of these was the Shattuck Dairy which was producing for over 60 years between 1892 and 1955 located at the intersection of Vermont Street and Oleson Road. The Dairy was located on the west side of Oleson, site of current Arranmore, apartments and Montclair School.
It may be interesting to review the names of most of the dairies, which produced during the previous mentioned time. Some of the names are as follows: Tapfer Dairy, C. Balmer Dairy where the Collins View School is now located, Steudler Dairy, Raz Brothers dairy, later named the Fulton Park dairy where the Wilson High School is now located [Ed. Wilson High School has been renamed to Ida B. Wells High School.], the Teuscher Dairy, Pleasant View Dairy, H. Neiger Dairy, Silver Hill Dairy, three individual Raz Dairies, Brugger dairy, Ludi Dairy located on the Jackson High School property, the Derley (?) Dairy, the H. Frutiger Dairy, the Multnomah Dairy on the Gabriel Park property, the Edelweiss Dairy located on the Safeway property, the Cadonau Dairy, the Roth Dairy, the John Zweifel Dairy, the Hoffman Dairy, the Leman Dairy, the Garden Home Dairy, the Feldman Dairy, the Long Dairy where the Alpenrose dairy is now located, the Ruby (?) Dairy, the Hillsdale Dairy, the Short Horn Dairy, the Meyer Bros Dairy, the Fukret (?) Dairy, the Schallberger Dairy, the VonBergen Dairy and the Shattuck Dairy. Undoubtedly several small dairies have been overlooked in this list. All these dairies were located within a radius of three miles from 45th and Vermont Street.
In History of Garden Home written by students in 1962, a student writes:
In the year 1911, the community of Garden Home consisted of a post office, a train depot, two stores, the beginning of a school and eight dairies.
Shorthorn, Elco, Kosmalski, Feldman, Brown, Fuhrer Brothers, Shattuck and Marugg were the names of the dairies in the vicinity. Marugg Dairy was later changed to Garden Home Dairy which was established in 1930. The last dairy sold out in 1940.
Alpenrose Dairy
See History of the Alpenrose Dairy.
Doc Hickman recalled:
The Cadonau family ran the Alpenrose Dairy which was then off of Vermont. They suffered a severe fire at the dairy, causing them to move up Shattuck Road to the vacant Elco Dairy property, presently the outstanding Alpenrose Dairy facility.
Shattuck Dairy
See Shirley Gertsch Bartels on Peter and Pete Gertsch.
See Early Dairies by Pete Gertsch.
See Robert Gertsch.
Robert Gertsch recalled:
The first Gertsch brothers, Peter, Christian and Fritz came over from Switzerland in the 1890s and Peter settled on the west side of Oleson Road north of Garden Home. The Shattuck Dairy had regular routes for every other day deliveries. They stopped the home delivery service in 1950.
Shirley Gertsch recalled:
A son whom they called “Pete” to distinguish him from his father, Peter, was born to Katie and Peter but in July of 1895, when the child was 6 weeks old, his father died. Honoring the custom of their Swiss heritage it was decided to send to Switzerland for the remaining brother, Christian, to come to America and marry his brother’s widow. Katie and Christian Gertsch were married and had two sons, Albert and Christian, who were half-brothers to Pete. Katie and Christian raised Pete and the dairy was later passed on to Pete who ran it until the mid-1950s.
Von Bergen Dairy
See Andreas and Magdelana Von Bergen Dairy.
Doc Hickman recalled:
The lane they lived on became known as Hickman Lane which is located off of Miles Court just north of the Garden Home intersection. At one time the Ole Oleson family farmed the Hickman property, now Hideaway Park, and other parcels of land.
The Hickman farm was located in the area of the Von Bergen dairy farm on the east side of Oleson Road in the Miles Court area. At one time, they lived in the Von Bergen home. The Von Bergen grandchildren recall selling a portion of their farm to the Hickmans.
Fanno Creek Dairy
See Bob Feldman.
See Fanno Creek Dairy – Blotters.
See Fanno Creek Dairy drawing, photographs.
Bob Feldman recalled:
Bob’s parents Harry T. (born July 5, 1900 at the family home in Garden Home) and Margaret Rose Mueller Feldman owned the Fanno Creek Dairy which was located on the north side of Garden Home Road between Sandberg’s property line to the east and 92nd to the west, and north beyond the railroad tracks (now Fanno Creek Trail).
Garden Home Dairy
See Stanley Marugg.
The Garden Home Dairy occupied what is now Garden Home Park and the Skyhar development.
Stanley Marugg recalled:
The Maruggs had the Garden Home Dairy, on the west side of Oleson Road near Skyhar Drive.
Stan also remembers the big earthquake of April 1949. He was sitting in one of their milk trucks he’d driven to Beaverton High School and was bouncing up and down during the quake. His dad said he never seen concrete bend until then. He said it was like a wave moving through the concrete in the dairy barn.
Hoffman Balmer Dairy
See Shirley Gertsch Bartels on Peter and Pete Gertsch.
See Early Dairies by Pete Gertsch.
See Robert Gertsch.
Shirley Gertsch recalled:
After purchasing cows from the Hoffman, Balmer dairy, they named their new place Shattuck Dairy.
The Balmer family was involved with the local dairy of John Hoffman further east on SW Vermont Ave. and into the (now) Burlingame area.
Pete Gertsch recalled:
Just a brief comment on how the Shattuck Dairy originated is as follows: Between 1885 and 1900 there was a large dairy located at 55th and SW Vermont Street operated by John Hoffman and Christ Balmer. In 1893, two young ambitious Swiss immigrants decided to become dairymen and therefore bought part of the Hoffman Dairy and moved to the 85-acre tract of unimproved property at the Oleson Road location. (Ed: Swiss immigrants were Peter and brother Fritz (Fred) Gertsch. The Dairy was located on the west side of Oleson, site of current Arranmore, apartments and Montclair School.
Vermont Street was originally known as Hoffman Road named after John Hoffman, an 1880 pioneer, whose grandson is still living at the same location of the original dairy.
Schallberger Dairy
In the History of the Alpenrose Dairy, we note:
Doc [Hickman] also worked for the Schallberger’s dairy farm on Scholls Ferry Road near the Raleigh Hills intersection. The testing of milk was a complicated and expensive procedure in that day. The untested and thoroughly clean milk had to be sold as “dog milk.” On this farm, they rigged up a system of dog milk in big cans where one could drain the amount of milk they needed into a container and then choose to use it for dogs or to drink for the family. People paid by an honor system.
Doc Hickman recalled:
In 1948 at the time of the great Vanport flood in north Portland, Mrs. Schallberger had gone to Switzerland to visit family. One of the family members had taken a nice photo of the dairy farm to send her but then forgot to turn the dial to move the photo on to the next space on the camera. Another picture of the terrible Vanport flood got overlaid on top of the Schallberger farm to present an alarming photo. They were afraid to send this photo to Switzerland fearing that it would be misinterpreted. Addition: When Mrs. Schallberger came home, she brought one of the large famous Swiss cowbells especially inscribed for the Alpenrose Dairy.
Fulton Park Dairy
Fulton Park Dairy in Hillsdale near location of Ida B Wells high school (Wilson high school) – circa 1923 to 1936
Fulton Park Dairy in Hillsdale – Delivery fleet circa 1932 or 1933
The Fulton Park Dairy in Hillsdale was founded by the Raz brothers, Swiss immigrants. In 1951, the dairy’s cows and equipment was sold to Alpenrose Dairy. The land was sold in parcels to Multnomah County School District and land developers. [source] The dairy was located at the current site of Ida B. Wells High School (formerly Wilson High School).
GardenHomeHistory.com 
Hello This is great . There was also the SPRIGGEL JERSEY DAIRY . It was located on the cornor of ALLEN AVENUE & WHIFORD RD . There were 2 Denney Dairys . One where Jesuit high school is & one on Denney Rd . Thank you for sharing Judy Donovan Sent from my Galaxy Tab A
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