This week our series on Clear Lake dairies continues. Farmer Co-op Dairy was one of the five dairies to serve Clear Lake. First a little background on the concept of cooperatives in Iowa. Co-ops in Iowa began as early as the late 19th century, Farmer’s Cooperative of Marcus in Cherokee County was the first, beginning operations in December of 1887. All of the cooperatives were primarily grain-focused as the co-ops provided a way for farmers to bypass middlemen when shipping their grain thereby gaining them better prices for their goods.
In the early 20th century, the cooperatives increased their services to farmers and rural areas. During the 1930s and 1940s Rural Electric Cooperatives became a part of the Iowa cooperative operations. This component of the cooperatives was key in providing electricity to rural areas when larger companies would not provide service. Besides providing services for shipping grain and electricity, the cooperatives also assisted in importing coal and lumber for rural areas. By late 1940s there were 710 cooperatives operating in Iowa with the Clear Lake Farmer’s Co-op being one of them. To date, there are 42 cooperatives still in operation in Iowa.
Farmer’s Co-op Dairy was organized on February 11, 1946, and was part of the Clear Lake Farmer’s Co-op Company established in 1921. Lester Bisgrove was the president of the dairy. August “Gus” Folkmann whose dairy we featured in a previous post served the new dairy as its route manager and Virgil Evenson was the overall manager. Initially the new Farmer’s Co-op Dairy rented the Miller Dairy facilities until the cooperative was able to construct their building on South 4th Street. The dairy was still in operation at the time of the Clear Lake Centennial celebration in 1951, closing some time after 1958.