A Neighborhood Cow -- A Co-Op for Quality Milk in early 1900's Chicago Suburbs

Neighborhood Cow? Surprisingly, 103 years ago the population in the suburbs of Chicago was already quite culturally distant from the rural lifestyle. The co-oping of a cow by a couple of neighbors was major news, and warranted a write-up in Good Housekeeping as a novel concept in securing fresh and healthy milk - or 'raw milk' as it is much referred to today.

Government regulation of the consumption of raw milk makes it necessary today for exactly the sort of co-op described in this 103 year old article, but for different reasons. It is illegal to sell milk from your cows, due to the possibility of contracting disease or illness, but you can drink all you want if you own the cow. Thus the last several years have seen the growth of co-ops selling "cow shares" in live milk cows. Unlike the two neighbors in suburban Chicago who sold their healthy milk to neighbors in need, today it is illegal without a mountain of government certifications to do that good deed.

It is also very interesting to hear that the local doctor in Evanston, Illinois considered the fresh milk a factor in a few neighborhood children recovering well from illness. Today, there are actually factions that claim drinking milk, raw or otherwise, is not good for us humans, even downright deadly. That is a bit of nonsense that no doubt 103 years from now will be found laughable. As the complete opposite of this silly notion -- there has been much attention given in recent years to the medicinal effects of drinking fresh milk from pastured cows.

It's clear that the 'Neighborhood Cow' in Evanston was kept on pasture during the growing season, and only given supplemental hay and grain during the winter. Much is being debated about grassfed beef vs. feedlot beef in the public arena, but the issue of the milk from grass fed cows not so much.

Organic milk can be found these days on the shelves of small town grocers, but organic and pastured are not the same. Granted, organic is a definite step up from industrial dairy milk, but just about anything can be grown organically and fed to a dairy cow or for that matter to a fattening steer. Milk and beef from primarily pasture reared animals will always have a different, and many consider superior, nutritional profile. Visit raw-milk-facts.com for more information.

The text of "A Neighborhood Cow" follows:

"The unsatisfactory condition of the milk supply in Evanston, one of the leading suburbs of Chicago, so weighed upon one of the residents, in whose family were two babies, that he joined forces with a neighbor and they took matters into their own hands. The neighborhood cow was the result. The experiment has now been tried for a year, and it has been so successful that neither of the joint owners of the cow would for an instant think of going back to their old source of supply, with its large possibilities of contamination. The owners of this cow are both business men of Chicago, who have neither time nor inclination to bother with the care of a cow; they have hired all necessary work, and secured a bountiful supply of milk at actually less cost than the regular supply they were previously receiving from the dairies.

They have shared expenses equally, dividing the milk between the two families. Both men are renters, but one happens to have an unused bam, and in this the cow is stabled. During the summer months the cow is daily driven to pasture one mile distant. This pasture is supplied with running water. There has been no difficulty in securing the services of a small boy to take the cow to and fro at one dollar per week. A . . . man who has four or five cows to look after does the stable work and milks, receiving five dollars per month.

. . .A small yard in which the cow can get exercise during the winter was fenced off, and the cow was duly established in her new quarters. One of the two families consists of father, mother, four children, and two maids; the other totals seven. Thus fifteen people are supplied with pure milk all the time, and some of the time this number is increased from the fact that other neighbors having sickness in their families have besought the joint owners of the neighborhood cow to come to their relief.

Writing of their experience, one of the owners says, "Our cow is giving a splendid quality of milk. In fact, I would just as soon have a glass of our skimmed milk as a glass of the milk regularly delivered by our dairies. The children of my neighbor's family, and there are four, and all my own children, and the children of the families who have appealed for help, have thrived. I may add that two of the doctors in Evanston have said that the ability of two little ones to pull through serious illness last fall could be laid directly to the pure fresh milk.

. . .The selling of this milk shortened our supply at times, but we were only too glad to help out any family who had a sick baby. Our buying the cow was due to the fact that we were all dissatisfied with the quality of the milk and cream which we were buying, and it seemed to be somewhat of a punishment for our children to drink all the milk which we felt that they ought. We did not expect to save any money; in fact, we should have been perfectly satisfied to have our bills larger providing we had all the milk and cream we desired."

. . . Thus his milk and cream actually cost less money, his family had more milk, and the quality was absolutely of the best. The cow is part Jersey and part Holstein. Her original cost was $65, pasturage cost $3 a month. The cow is taken off pasturage October 1, and of course the feed bills for the winter materially increase the price during these months.

. . . This experiment is one which could be duplicated in many sections. Wherever a pasture is available within a mile or two, and a barn for stabling, this co operative milk supply is possible.^"(1)

If you have an interest in finding raw milk in your area, visit realmilk.com. It is absolutely spooky to see the warning on the home page of the government having located their site and producer listings, and to post their offerings with caution.

It seems we have very little progressed these past 103 years; instead, as consumers, and as a country, we have likely gone two steps backwards.

(1)Good Housekeeping, January 1907, Volume 44, P. 526, "A Neighborhood Cow", By TB Waldo

Copyright © 2010, Jimmie Lynn West