Brownsville "Canadian Milk Products"

The history of powdered milk in Brownsville, Ontario.

By Liz Dommasch, Archivist

In the south portion of the County lies the village of Brownsville, named after its founder Brinton Paine Brown. Established in 1854, by 1881, the community contained a number of general stores, a carriage and wagon shop, a large sawmill, an extensive brick and tile yard, three churches, a temperance hall, two hotels, a cheese factory, as well as a large brick schoolhouse.

A bird's eye view of Brownsville, Ontario - J. Gruszka PC 0022

In 1903, B.A. Gould acquired the sole rights to produced powdered milk in Canada using a new method known as the “just process”. Soon after, he established his plant at Brownsville, with the head office in Toronto. The new business was operated under the name of “Canadian Milk Products” and was operated out of the former Brownsville Cheese Factory* that Mr. Gould purchased from Ebenezer Agur (Mr. Agur was later hired to take care of the manufacturing of powdered milk at the plant).

By 1908 the company was incorporated under the name Canadian Milk Products Ltd.” which by then had acquired the rights to the “Merrell-Soule”** process for making powdered milk by a new spray process. In Canada, the first milk powder produced using this new spray process was produced in Brownsville a year later, in 1909.

Brownsville, Ontario dairy factory - J. Gruszka PC 0024

As popularity for their product grew, by 1912, it became apparent that the Brownsville Plant was insufficient to meet demands and a second plant was erected in Belmont, Ontario. With the outbreak of WWI, the demand for powered milk was greatly increased, as it was sent to soldiers overseas, and another plant was opened in Burford, in 1916, and in Hickson, in 1917.

In 1928, the Borden Company bought the Canadian Milk Products Branch at Brownsville, and manufacturing was ultimately terminated there. It continued to operate as a feeder station for Borden’s Tillsonburg and Belmont plants, until 1953 when it finally closed its doors for good.

*The Brownsville Cheese Manufacturing Company obtained its charter from the government in 1867 and began operations the following year. By 1876, the company was considered the largest in the province with an annual production of 247 tons of cheese from 1320 cows. It also claimed to be the first “joint-stock” cheese company in Canada.

**Merrill-Soule was a Syracuse, New York company formed by G. Lewis Merrell and Oscar F. Soule in 1868 for canning fruit and vegetables. In 1885, the company began making its famous None Such condensed mincemeat that became an instant hit with dessert and pie makers. By the turn of the century, they developed a method for drying milk and began creating Klim (milk spelled backward) powdered milk which would eventually be sold worldwide. Merrell-Soule would be eventually bought out by the Borden Company in 1928.