Born: March 20, 1907, St. Lawrence, NY
Died: November 14, 1984, North Lawrence, St. Lawrence NY
Relation to Author: Grandfather
My mother grew up on a dairy farm. I have been asking her what she remembers about it. Since they sold the cows when she was around 10 years old (after Hubert's heart attack), she doesn't remember a lot. I'll need to get more info from her siblings. But one thing she does remember is that her dad belonged to the dairy cooperative in New York State.
That dairy cooperative is Dairylea, which started as the Dairymen's League. Dairylea started in Orange County, New York in 1907 and they claim it was one of the first cooperatives in America.
In order to obtain fair pricing and guarantee a market for all of its members' milk, the Dairymen's League Cooperative Association, Inc. began operating its own processing and manufacturing plants.They sold the milk they processed under the label Dairylea.
Dairylea fought for better prices and conditions for its dairy farmers. They had milk strikes in 1916 and 1919. In 1922 they helped write the Capper Volstead Act - referred to as the Magna Carta of cooperatives. The law exempts cooperatives from certain anti-trust laws. And in 1926 they helped get another law passed that strengthened USDA support for cooperatives.
Hubert wouldn't have been involved in Dairylea until after the milk strikes and Capper Volstead. But he might have been involved in 1937 when,
"The League-sponsored Rogers-Allen Bill is approved by the New York State Legislature. The new law permits farmer co-ops to act together to bargain for higher milk prices. This led to the formation of the new Metropolitan Cooperative Milk Producers Bargaining Agency with 100 co-ops."
My father James L. Keenan Jr. would tell stories of Uncle Hubs farm on our many trips to up to camp (McCavanaugh Pond Club). Stories of going to the farm for the summer and playing with his cousins. One particular story involved a game of tag and adventurous boys running over a pile of cow manure the first one making it and the second one ending up up to their neck in the manure. I remember being a little boy and attending Hub's funeral. It was the first time I was able to go to camp during hunting season.
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