Part I - Agriculture, a supplement to the Big Rapids Pioneer Newspaper. Used with permission.



CREAM OF THE CROP
The Mecosta County dairy business use to be huge, as evidenced here by pictures from former creameries in Big Rapids, Barryton and Remus. A story and advertisement in the 1919 progress edition of the Pioneer-Herald told how that Farmers Cooperative Creamery in Big Rapids had nearly doubled its butter production between 1912 and 1918 from 144,603 pounds to 281,819 pounds awnd how the creamery was a solid investment in the future. It will be here and will be buying cream when all of us are past the need for butter, "the advertisement from the association running the creamery predicted. B.A. McGill was manager of the creamery and Peter Doyle was president of the association. Other memberss of the association's board were John Ncud, F.J. Harger, B.E. Sullivan, A.E. Palmer, C.W. Brown and Martin Jernstadt. By 1944-45 the creameries in Big Rapids and Remus produced 10 million pounds of dairy products and by the time of the city's centennial in 1955, the creamery at the corner of North Fourth and East Maple ranked second in the production of butter and was the second largest in the state. During that year it was employing 35 people. (Pioneer file photos)

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