The "Big Cheese"
The "Big Cheese"
The tale of Ingersoll's "Big Cheese" that travelled overseas.
By Liz Dommasch, Archivist
On July 10, 1957, a historic plaque was unveiled by the Ontario Department of Public Records and Archives, on Highway 19, just south of Ingersoll. This plaque commemorates not only the history of the cheese in Ingersoll, and the surrounding area, but also the famous “Big Cheese”.
The history of the Ingersoll and District cheese industry dates back to the original settlers of the area, who discovered that the cleared lands made excellent grazing pastures for herds of cows and, in turn, led to an abundance of milk that could be used to manufacture cheese. In fact, by the early 1840s families in the Ingersoll area were manufacturing cheese and shipping it to markets in London and Hamilton. By the 1860s, a number of cheese factories were prominent in and around Ingersoll.
In 1865, an organization known as the Ingersoll Cheese Manufacturing Company of Oxford County was formed for the purpose of making and exhibiting one huge cheese in England as a way for Oxford County cheese to gain entrance to the huge English market (which was at the time dominated by American cheese). The company consisted of businessmen: Charles E. Chadwick, James Noxon, Daniel Phelan, and Adam Oliver (also Mayor of Ingersoll), as well as cheesemakers: Hiram Ranney, James Harris and George Galloway.
The production of the cheese began in early June 1866, when the three cheese factories made cheese on the same day, pressing it for 48 hours in 60 pound lots. Once made, the cheese was taken to the James Harris Cheese Factory where it was placed in an immense steel hoop that was prepared by the Noxon Manufacturing Company. The cheese was then kept under pressure for a further 8 days. Once completed the cheese was 6’10” in diameter, 3’ height, and weighed 7,300 lbs. It is said that thirty-five tons of milk was used in the process!
The cheese was aged and cured for three months until August 23rd when it was placed on a specially constructed wagon and paraded through the streets of Ingersoll to the Great Western Railway Station. From there it was shipped to the New York State Fair, at Saratoga, before being shipped to England where it was exhibited and tasted and ultimately considered to be of superior quality. It would eventually be sold to a wholesale cheese merchant in Liverpool.
However, success often brings out the critics and stories circulated at the time that the cheese began to emit a pungent order when loaded on the ship headed to England. In fact, the story goes so far as to state that the ship captain claimed that sharks followed in the ship’s wake in hopes that the cheese would be thrown overboard and that the Mayor of Liverpool refused to have it unloaded in his city.
In reality, it is believed that such rumours were started by a few American cheese shippers who didn’t want competition in the English market. However, following the marketing scheme of the “big cheese”, Canadian cheese became quite popular in England and led to a change in agricultural practices in eastern Canada.
Ingersoll’s own cheese poet, James McIntyre, commemorated the event in his “Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 pounds”, in 1884:
We have seen the Queen of cheese,
Laying quietly at your ease,
Gently fanned by evening breeze –
Thy fair form no flies dare seize.
All gaily dressed so you’ll go
To the great Provincial Show,
To be admired by many a beau
In the city of Toronto.
Cows numerous as a swarm of bees –
Or as the leaves upon the trees –
It did require to make thee please,
And stand unrivalled Queen of Cheese.
May you not received a scare as
We have heard that Mr. Harris
Intends to send you off as far as
The great World’s show at Paris.
Of the youth – beware of these –
For some of them might rudely squeeze
And bite your check; then songs or glees
We could not sing ‘Queen of Cheese.
We’re thou suspended from balloon,
You’d caste a shade, even at noon;
Folks would think it was the moon
About to fall and crush them soon.
Image credit: Mammoth Cheese in Saratoga, New York courtesy of the Ingersoll Public Library.