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Former Milk Hauler Collects Dairy Signs
"I put signs up on the wall like other people put up wallpaper," says Richard Schwartz about his dairy producer farm sign collection. So far, he has 150 signs and has covered 40 ft. of interior wall space in his storage shed plus under a gable end of the building.
The Newton, Wis., resident hauled milk for 46 ye
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Former Milk Hauler Collects Dairy Signs AG WORLD 33-5-23 "I put signs up on the wall like other people put up wallpaper," says Richard Schwartz about his dairy producer farm sign collection. So far, he has 150 signs and has covered 40 ft. of interior wall space in his storage shed plus under a gable end of the building.
The Newton, Wis., resident hauled milk for 46 years, traveling a dozen different routes and delivering to six Eastern Wisconsin cheese plants. He picked up his first sign ù a Golden Guernsey Dairy sign ù in August 1987. The signs are the type found at the end of driveways with the farm's name as well as the name of the company, corporation or cooperative it sells to.
Schwartz notes that his collection has little monetary value. It's more about preserving a piece of dairy history. Schwartz has become an informal historian of local dairies and how they've merged, changed and have gone out of business over the years. He's only paid up to $20 - or a case of beer - for some signs, but most are given to him.
Some farmers want them for keepsakes, while others "can't get them out of the shed fast enough," Schwartz says. He's rescued some from a recycling center. One has holes where wheels were mounted to use the sign as a mechanic's creeper. One is scratched up from holding engine heads. Another was brand new, still wrapped in onionskin paper in the box it came in.
One farmer called Schwartz after seeing a photo of his sign in a local paper and wondered how he had gotten it. Turns out the farmer's name was spelled wrong - the cooperative gave Schwartz the incorrect version the farmer never saw.
The signs come in a variety of sizes and materials: metal, polyurethane, plywood, pressed board and aluminum. Schwartz uses roofing tacks to secure them to furring strips on his shed walls.
Schwartz invites people interested in his collection or adding to it to contact him.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Richard Schwartz, 13232 Point Creek Rd., Newton, Wis., 53063-9760 (ph 920 693-8686, wittmus@lakefield.net).
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