Milk and its related dairy products hold a nostalgic place in many of our hearts, yet there was a time where pure, healthy milk was a rare commodity. That all changed a little over one hundred and fifty years ago when a combination of powerful ideas and persistent conflicts ignited a lucrative market in New York State’s Hudson Valley. Join Alex Prizgintas at the Mahwah Public Library on Thursday, September 12th at 7:00 PM as he uncovers Orange County, New York’s role in the consumer use of fluid milk. Individuals instrumental in this creamy saga, from Erie Railroad station agent Thaddeus Selleck who first shipped milk by rail in 1842 to milk can pioneer Jacob Vail and the early milk bottle user Alexander Campbell all had close connections to Orange County. The results of their efforts gave birth to the golden age of local agriculture that fueled over 4,000 farms of all kinds by 1884 and kept dairy farms prospering into the mid-twentieth century. Alex will also showcase some of the dairy farms that once populated the town and city of Newburgh—in addition to bringing a collection of Newburgh milk bottles from the Orange County Milk Bottle Museum. A Marist College graduate student studying public administration, Alex is a life-long resident of Orange County and serves as president of the Woodbury Historical Society. With ten years of lecturing experience across the tri-state region, his work has been published in the Hudson River Valley Review, Orange County Historical Society Journal, and the New York Archives Magazine.
