By Elizabeth Barrett

Photos Courtesy of the Gilroy Museum

Palmer Zottola

“ Andrew J . Myers shipped by rail from Gilroy to San Francisco 75 of the finest cheeses , each 30 lbs ., which will command 18-20 cents a pound . Mr . Myers owns an extensive dairy .”

Gilroy Advocate May 1,1869

“ The railroad company shipped , 2450 pounds of cheese this week .”

Gilroy Advocate , May 29 , 1869

56

G I L R O Y T O D A Y F A L L 2 0 1 4

Gilroy ’ s earliest dairymen , Oscar and Henry Reeve , started operating between 1855 and 1860 , followed by pioneer Rodney Eschenburg in 1858 . The Reeve brothers had 800 cows , employed 30 milkers and two cheese makers on 2,000 acres , also providing spring pasturing for the herds on their 12,000 acres in the Gavilan range . At one time , according to a local newspaper report , the Reeves ’ cheese stock on hand was valued at $ 30,000 with a cheese price of 13 cents a pound . The Reeves ’ private dairy business ended in 1870 when prices plummeted .

A dairymen ’ s alliance , the Gilroy

Cheese Factory Association , formed a partnership in September 1877 with W . N . Furlong as the director . With capital stock the men purchased an acre of ground from David Zuck to construct the factory , completed in 1878 . Many other dairymen produced butter and cheese on their own ranches .

Gilroy ’ s cheese industry peaked in the 1880s . The 1881 output alone was 86,148 pounds , valued at $ 12,000 , shipped from the railroad station . But by 1905 there was an 80 percent decline in the industry , due to new government regulations on moisture content . Dairy acreage soon turned over to row crops and orchards , by then considered a more profitable industry .

Still , by the time the local Live Oak Creamery opened in April 1908 , the Gilroy area ’ s dairy industry was second only to agriculture in Santa Clara County . Tracy Learnard , who had run a private creamery enterprise on his Solis district