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Wood Butter Churns Page 3
This butter churn could easily have gone on the metal butter churn page. The actual churning vessel is made of tin. The wood frame supports the tin. One of the first things you notice on this churn is the thermometer mounted on the front of the churn and that there is a drain hole on each end. However only one of the drains is open to the cream tub. On closer inspection one realizes that there is a double tin wall to form a jacket around the cream tub so that warm or cold water could be added to raise or lower the temperature of the cream. The second drain hole drained this water jacket. One of the biggest variables in butter making is the temperature that the cream is churned at. The maker of this butter churn obviously understood that and accounted for it in his design. For this churn the ideal temperature was marked at 62 degrees.
We would date this butter churn to about 1850-1880. It measures out to about 9 gallons. We have no information on who manufactured this churn or where it was made. However it was advertised in an 1855 Buffalo, New York business directory in sizes of 4.5, 6, 9,10.5, 14.5 and 28 gallons and was referred to as Osborne's Improved Thermometer Churn. The No. 3 or 9 gallon size like the one pictured here cost $4.50. An 1875 hardware catalog from Marcus C. Hawley & Company of San Francisco and Sacramento, California listed 8 sizes with the addition of a 2.5 and 20 gallon size. In this catalog they were only referred to as Thermometer Churns. By then the cost of the 9 gallon had risen to $7.50. All but the smallest size was advertised as having double zinc cylinders.
An 1861 journal article estimated that annually 12,000 of these churns were sold by a single supply house in the Boston area. The article estimated that there were between 30,000 and 40,000 of these churns in use in the Boston market. This would have made this a very popular churn for its time. It is surprising that not many have survived.
When researching thermometer churns we came across references to a patented Crowell's Thermometer Churn. The descriptions sounded very similar to this churn. Wm. and Allen Crowell of Salisbury, Connecticut patented a churn with two chambers, one for cream and one for water, on June 20, 1840. Although they did not show a thermometer in the patent drawings they did mention in the specifications that one could be mounted in the end wall of the churn. 
This is a Bent Wood Churn made by the M. Brown & Company of Wapakoneta, Ohio. This butter churn was patented on August 7, 1877 by Michael Brown, Francis McFarland and Joseph Brown also from Wapakoneta. The patent was for a new way of forming the churn box from only three pieces of wood, the two ends and a center section of wood bent into the shape of a U. The patent also covered a new packing that prevented leaks and metal corner braces that held the churns shape. The paddles shown in this patent however were not the ones commonly found on the churns. A second patent was granted to these same three men on June 13, 1882. This patent showed the four half circle paddles that were commonly found on these butter churns. These paddles were designed to pull the cream off the end walls of the churn and throw it towards the center of the churn box. This second patent also detailed using metal to from the U shaped portion of the churn instead of wood, however we have never seen this on one of these butter churns. The legs on each end of the churn were also made from a single piece of wood bent in an upside down U shape.
Not all of these churns were stenciled with a patent date but some will have the 1877 patent date and a few will be stenciled with the 1877 and 1882 patent dates. These butter churns came in 3, 4, 6, 9 and 12 gallon sizes. They will also be found with different decals on the sides. The butter churn pictured above has a decal of green foliage and is stenciled with the 1877 and 1882 patent dates. They are also found with a decal of a pink flower (click here for a picture, courtesy of Harry and Annie). Most rare is a decal of a milk maid using a Bent Wood Churn. Note that this churn is stenciled with only the 1877 patent date, possibly dating it prior to 1882 (picture). This rare churn belongs to Harry and Annie. Thanks for letting us show it here.
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This picture shows the five types of wood churns made by the Standard Churn Company of Wapakoneta, Ohio. The first style on the left is a wood dash churn. Standard Churn Co. made these in 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12 gallons sizes.
The second churn is a wood box churn on legs (picture). Standard Churn Company made these in 5, 7 and 10 gallon sizes. We believe that in 1917 Sears contracted with Standard Churn Company to sell a version of this churn that would replace the Improved Union Churn in their catalog. The butter churn that Sears sold was advertised as having a power pulley on the large gear to make the churn adaptable to a power belt drive. They also advertised that the churn had four metal truss rods to reinforce the churn and the legs were not curved but rather a simpler straight design (picture). From 1917 to 1919 Sears advertised them in 5, 7, 10 and 12 gallon sizes. From 1920 to 1923 the catalog listed them in sizes of 9, 11, 13 and 15 gallons, although it is possible that the churns remained the same and only the reported capacities changed since the catalog numbers did not change. The prices in 1917 ranged from $5.95 to $7.45 for the smallest and largest sizes. In 1922 the range was $7.70 for the 9 gallon to $8.95 for the 15 gallon. We have seen this Sears churn with stenciling for the Standard Churn Company.
The third butter churn in the back is Standard Churn Company's barrel Churn. They made these in 3, 7 and 9 gallon sizes. The clamp for the lid on the Standard Churn Company barrel churn was different from most other companies that made barrel churns.
The small butter churn in the front was a Home Butter Maker (picture). These came in 5, 6, 7 and 8 quart sizes. These used a crank and gear system similar to the type used on glass jar churns however the container was made of wood.
The butter churn on the right is very rare. It is a keg or barrel on legs and is stenciled the OK churn (picture). This churn has paddles inside to churn the cream. It is a size No. 2 and is marked 7 gallons.
Again thanks to Harry and Annie for letting us picture their beautiful collection of butter churns. 
 This is an example of a Blanchard butter churn. It was made by Porter Blanchard's Sons Company. Porter Blanchard was a craftsman in Concord, New Hampshire who started in business in 1818. His sons, George and Charles, joined him in the business and then Porter passed away in 1871. George and Charles continued the company under the name Porter Blanchard's Sons. On June 4, 1878 George was granted a patent for this butter churn. The patent dealt with the design of the dasher blades. In addition to the fixed dasher blades there were also pivoting floats. When the churn was rotated one direction the floats helped churn the cream and when the rotation was in the opposite direction the floats would pivot to allow them to work the finished butter.
In the patent papers George said his patent was for an improvement in the well-known Blanchard churn. He implied that the Blanchard churn had already been available for sale and well accepted. In fact an 1876 catalog of the International Exhibition in Philadelphia had a claim that the celebrated Blanchard churn had been proved for over a quarter of a century and over 100,000 were in successful operation. An 1880 New Hampshire magazine claimed that the company had been making butter churns for over 50 years and the Blanchard churn had been made for over 25 years. It also said the these butter churns were being used in Russia, South America, Germany, Australia and Japan, in addition to every state in the U.S. Whether there was another patent for the original churn design we are unsure.
The original churns had a flat lid. In 1880 they advertised an improved version with a curved lid that made the churn box a complete cylinder like the churn pictured here. They said that the flat lid allowed unchurned cream to collect in the upper corners which could streak the butter. By curving the lid and making the box a cylinder all the cream was churned. For a few years after they advertised both the round and square top churns at the same price. However eventually they settled on the curved top.
In 1890 there was a fire that destroyed the Concord shop and the business was relocated to Nashua, New Hampshire. These butter churns will be found stenciled with either city. The Nashua factory was sold in December of 1900. The butter churn pictured above was made in Nashua and is a later model. They were offered in five family sizes, with the No. 5 churning up to 8 gallons (actual capacity would be double that). They also made larger factory churns up to 150 gallons. The iron crank handle is embossed THE BLANCHARD CHURN, so even when the stenciling is faded the butter churns can be identified. They were advertised to be made of the finest kiln dried, Michigan pine lumber and had no gearing. The crank was direct drive to the dashers. Our observation is that the earlier churns will have the initial B on the side while the later butter churns will say THE BEST. The company often used the slogan "Get the Best". The company remained in business until the late 1890's. George Blanchard was also granted patents for a butter worker on July 29, 1879 and February 21, 1882.
This was called a Lightning Churn. It is a size No. 2 and measures out to about 6 gallons. The exterior is very similar to a Blanchard butter churn but the paddles inside are different. There is a stencil of a cow on the back of the churn. We have seen one of these Lightning Churns that has stenciling indicating that it was made by Porter Blanchard's Sons Company. This explains the similarities to the larger Blanchard butter churn. The town listed on that churn was Nashua, New Hampshire so that would date that particular churn to sometime after 1890. We have seen this Lightning Churn advertised for sale in an 1897 Joseph Breck & Sons catalog from Boston, Massachusetts.
We have also seen a Lightning Churn like this with stenciling that says it was manufactured by Samuel Cupples & Company of St. Louis, Missouri. Samuel Cupples & Company was a large woodenware manufacturer based in St. Louis that was formed in 1871 or 1872. The company was later incorporated as the Samuel Cupples Wooden Ware Company in 1882 or 1883. It appears that both of these companies made similar churns. We have never located a patent for this style of churn so there was nothing to stop two competitors from manufacturing it. 
These butter churns were called Fayway Butter Separators. The manufacturer embossed on the churn is The Fayway Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. We have seen a publication from 1913 that listed The Blanton & McKay Company of Cincinnati, Ohio as the manufacturers. The containers on these butter churns are of wood stave construction like a barrel. The crank mechanism to turn the dasher is similar to a glass jar churn however the actual dasher is unique. The dasher is a flat disc rather than paddles. Also since the container is round they use two brake strips to keep the cream from just spinning in a circle. They are held to the insides of the container by spring clips. Click here for a picture of the dasher and brake strips.
The butter churn on the left measures out to around 8 gallons and the one on the right is around 3 gallons. The butter churn on the right is shown in the patent drawings of a May 16, 1916 patent. This patent was issued to Ambrose Blanton, also from Cincinnati, Ohio. The butter churn on the left is similar in many respects however the metal gear frame is different. We don't know if this was just a larger model or whether it is an earlier version. The two metal loops at the bottom of the churn container were used to fix it to the floor to keep it steady while churning. Two hinges with slots in them (similar to a hasp for a pad lock) were bolted to the floor. The other half of the hinge was folded up so the loop on the churn passed through the slots in the hinge. Then a wedge or bolt was passed through the loop and over the hinge to hold the churn down.
A 1915 advertisement for the Fayway Butter Separator claimed that it could make more butter from the same amount of cream than any other butter churn, it could churn butter in less than half the time of any other churn and the butter it produced could be sold for 5 to 10 cents per pound more than regular butter. The Fayway Company advertised that it was the only butter churn with bronze ball bearings, making it the easiest to operate. We would not call them ball bearings but rather bronze bushings to guide the shafts. They company also advertised that this churn worked on a different principle than other churns. They claimed that a hollow shaft forced air into the cream and blew the butterfat to the top where it then formed butter granules. This was supposed to be superior to churns with paddles that beat the butter fat globules, resulting in greasy butter. The company offered a 30 day free, on farm trial of their butter churns without any down payment. Another advertisement boasted of a five year guarantee on the churn. The company also offered a Correspondence Course in Farm Buttermaking that was given free to anyone purchasing a Fayway Butter Separator. With all these enticements one wonders why you don't see more of these butter churns.
We feel that this butter separator is somehow linked to Alpheus Fay. Fay was granted at least 27 patents for butter churns, butter separators, butter making methods and "apparatus for operating on composite substances" as he called it. He was especially active in his patent writing between 1911 and early 1917. His first churn patent was February 2, 1892 for a rocking chair powered churn. On this patent he lists his home town as Cincinnati, Ohio; the same town the Fayway Butter Separator was manufactured in. His later patents placed him in Louisville, Kentucky. His churns primarily used a flat dasher similar to the Fayway Butter Separator and he often used the term butter separator in his patents which was somewhat unique. Blanton actually mentioned Alpheus Fay in his patent for the Fayway Butter Separator. Lastly it is hard not to see the connection between the names Alpheus Fay and the Fayway Butter Separator. 
The only marking on the butter churn pictured above is a July 31, 1866 patent date embossed on the large gear however we have seen this butter churn advertised as The Prize Churn. This 1866 patent was granted to Alvin Mason of Springfield, Vermont. The patent dealt with the gearing that drove the dashers for the churn. Mason devised a system of gears that made it easy to change the speed of the dashers. The handle was connected to two concentric gears. The large gear had teeth on the inside and the smaller gear had teeth on the outside. When one started churning the cream and required a faster speed, the larger gear would engage the gear at the end of the dashers. This meant that for one revolution of the crank the dashers would rotate many times. As the cream thickened and butter started to form a slower speed was needed. The crank gears could be lowered and the large gear would disengage and the smaller gear would engage the gear on the end of the dashers. Now one revolution of the crank would only revolve the dashers one time.
We have seen later Prize Churns that were stenciled with an October 8, 1867 and a March 18, 1873 patent date. The 1867 patent was granted to A. H. Brown of Springfield, Vermont. This patent dealt with improvements in the two speed gearing and also the design of the dasher. The 1873 patent was issued to William Lewis, also from Springfield, and dealt with further improvements to the two speed gearing of the churn utilizing a clutch mechanism.
Thanks Ray for letting us picture your churn. 
The churn pictured above was called a combined churn and butter worker. Just as the name implies it was able to churn the cream into butter and then work the buttermilk out of the butter while working the salt in. This was a great benefit to large creameries as it saved the cost of buying two machines, saved on the floor space needed in the creamery and saved on the labor needed to move the butter by hand from the churn to the working table. Also since the butter was never exposed to the air between churning and working it kept foreign matter (including flies) out of the butter. These were large churns and were either driven by an attached electric motor or belt driven from an external power source
Although there were many patents for combined churns and butter workers they all worked on similar principles. Since the barrel rotated on its long axis the inside of the barrel needed paddles or something similar to lift the cream to the top of the barrel where it would then fall back to the bottom to be lifted again. If there were no paddles the cream would just sit at the bottom of the spinning barrel. This process resulted in the churning of the cream. To work the butter the gears on the churn were shifted. This lowered the speed of the barrel and engaged the working rollers. These rollers were usually lobed and located in the center of the barrel. Various patents used one to four rollers. The rollers rotated towards each other to pull the butter between them. As the barrel rotated the butter was lifted to the top by the paddles. At the top it fell towards the bottom but now it would be caught by the lobed rollers in the center of the barrel. As the butter was worked between the rotating rollers the buttermilk was pressed out and could be drained out of the bottom of the barrel. This motion also quickly worked in the salt. Click here for a cutaway picture of a combined churn and butter worker.
One of the first patents for a combined churn and butter worker was issued to Rueben Disbrow of Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 17, 1893. After that many inventors improved upon the device and were granted patents. Owatonna, Minnesota was the home to many of these later inventors.
Prior to 1910 many companies sold various models of the combined churns and butter workers. Some of the early manufacturers and their churns included:
Cornish, Curtis & Greene of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin sold the National and
the Wizard churns.
Creamery Package Manufacturing Co. of Chicago, Illinois sold the Owen, the
Winner and the Victor.
D. H. Burrell & Company of Little Falls, New York sold the Simplex.
Disbrow Manufacturing Company of Owatonna, Minnesota sold the Disbrow.
E. T. Winship of Owatonna, Minnesota sold the Disbrow.
F. B. Fargo & Company of Lake Mills, Wisconsin sold the Fargo and the Victor.
J. G. Cherry Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa sold the Perfection.
Oakes & Burger of Cattaraugus, New York sold the Chautauqua.
Owatonna Manufacturing Company of Owatonna, Minnesota sold the Disbrow.
The history of the combined churn and butter worker however was a little like a soap opera. There were many accusations of patent infringement, unfair competition and obstruction to fair trade. Some of the patents were determined to be invalid since they did not add to the invention. This all finally ended up in the Supreme Court where a decision was handed down in 1913. Eventually the Creamery Package Manufacturing Company gained control of much of the market. They bought Cornish, Curtis and Greene as well as F. B Fargo & Company. They also gained control of the Disbrow combined churn and butter worker when they became the selling agents for the Owatonna Manufacturing Company.
The combined churn and butter worker pictured above was made by the Creamery Package Manufacturing Company and was their Victor model. These churns came in sizes from 325 to 640 gallons and could make 475 to 1000 pounds of butter.
There were smaller, home versions of the combined churn and butter worker. Four of the most common home churns and their manufacturers were:
The Minnetonna Home Creamery made by the Minnetonna Company of
Owatonna, Minnesota.
The Owatonna Home Creamery made by the Home Creamery Manufacturing
Company of Owatonna, Minnesota.
The Perfection Jr. sold by the J. G. Cherry Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The Victor Jr. made by the Creamery Package Manufacturing Company of
Chicago, Illinois.
These small combined churns were often power driven although hand cranked versions were available in the smallest sizes.
Click here to go to the page with conventional butter workers.
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