Have you ever had to stop while driving on the road to wait for cows to cross? Until a few decades ago, this was a regular occurrence in the state of North Carolina and other locations throughout the country, as well as in our own hometown.
Phil Proctor remembers having to stop his vehicle on Sunset Lake Road and watching the dairy cows pass by on their way to and from their milking barn and pasture on Ballentine Farm. He lived near the farm, on the opposite side of Terrible Creek, which flows nearby. The cows crossed the road two times a day, temporarily backing up traffic.
Until commercial dairies became commonplace in the early years of the twentieth century, milking dairy cows was a daily chore on many North Carolina farms, providing families with fresh milk, cream, and butter. Established in 1906, the Ballentine Dairy was the first private dairy in NC. As it states on the National Endowment for the Humanities’ webpage on ‘Agricultural Literature and Rural Life,’ it is easy to forget in our urban culture that, as recently as 1870, more than 70 percent of Americans worked the land on family farms. Agricultural activity has “spurred land ownership, maintained state and local economies, motivated pioneers and family farmers, and produced our ‘amber waves of grain’.”
The Ballentine Dairy operation was established by Lillian Parker Yates Ballentine (1868-1954) after the death of her husband, “Professor” James Erastus Ballentine. Lillian was the daughter of Phares Yates (the owner of the water mill located further north towards Raleigh, on Steephill Creek) and his wife, Roxanna Cornelia Penny. After Lillian’s death, her daughter, Lillian ‘Mabel’ Ballentine, ran the dairy in partnership with her brother, Lynton Yates ‘Stag’ Ballentine.
Ginger Shearon Bergstrom shared that Mabel’s “entrepreneurship” has been an inspiration to her in stewarding conservation and educational uses of the Jones-Johnson land south of Terrible Creek west of Sunset Lake Road. She noted that the dairy held the contract with Campbell University supplying all of its milk and milk products. Today, NC State Forestry students conduct labs and research on the property. Mabel was an educator prior to taking over the Dairy operation and never married. Mabel was first cousin and neighbor to Ms. Bergstrom’s grandmother, Vivian. Ms. Bergstrom’s Granddaddy Hubert Shearon Sr. made regular repairs on-call for Mabel at the dairy as they were so close. He was an electrician and very mechanically inclined.
Ballentine Dairy was established on land that had been granted to Etheldred Jones in 1779 from the first Lord Caswell, according to Ms. Ruth Johnson. Etheldred received 500 acres for service with Joel Lane, surveyor. Etheldred married Joel’s niece, Mary Jane Lane (called ‘Jean’), and they lived in a cabin built around 1770 on the settlement overlooking Terrible Creek. He received another grant of 640 acres for his Revolutionary War service. Over his lifetime, Etheldred Jones continued to add to his holdings, eventually amassing more than 8,000 acres by 1839. Fun Fact: The sight of the mineral spring was sold by Jones to William Fuquay.
The descendants of Etheldred and Jean Jones are very much a part of Wake County and Fuquay-Varina history. The youngest son, Barnabas, inherited some 3,300 acres (a small portion of Etheldred’s estate) including the homeplace, which is still standing and had many restorations on the property of the Jones-Johnson homeplace. Today it shares the site with the “Standard Homes Company” operated by Gales Johnson’s descendants.
Barnabas married Polly Rowland in 1835 and died at the age of 64 in 1843. Barnabas and Polly had three daughters—the “Three Jones Girls.” The oldest, Mary Jane Lane Jones, inherited 1,400 acres off Old Stage Road and the post office that was known as the “Old Shop.” The middle daughter, Betsy Ann Jones (who married William Marshall Ballentine in 1856), received 800 acres of virgin timberland; while the youngest daughter, Rhoda Ann Mayberry Jones (who married William Wesley Johnson, also in 1856), was heir to the homeplace and 1,100 acres. The homeplace was used by Rhoda’s mother, Polly, in her widowhood—she lived there until 1856 when the girls married. When William Wesley died in 1896, Polly took over management of his properties and church duties. She would also open a small dairy operation before she died in 1900.
The middle daughter, Betsy Ann, and her husband, William Marshall Ballentine, had four sons and two daughters. Their eldest son was “Professor” James Erastus Ballentine, who married Lillian Parker Yates in 1890. They built a home on the Ballentine land which still exists today, and the dairy operation opened a few years later in 1906.
As it states on the www.ncpedia.org/dairy-industry webpage: After 1900, “in areas of North Carolina where farms were changing from row crops to livestock (primarily the Piedmont and western regions), some farmers with milk surpluses started regular dairy routes. These routes gave farmers ready cash each month rather than forcing them to wait for the annual row crop harvest. Small dairies, or creameries, usually served nearby geographic areas, selling fresh milk, butter, and ice cream to local families. By the early 1940s, such creameries were delivering milk to homes and grocery stores daily. These creameries often developed their own brand names in direct competition with some of the larger processors such as Pet and Sealtest.”
Ballentine’s Dairy was known as the “home of the Jersey cow.” First known as ‘Alderney Cattle,’ Jerseys are one of the oldest breeds of cattle and one of the most climate-adaptable. Originating from the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel off of the coast of France, they were brought to England in the 1740s and to the United States in the 1850s.
Descended from wild aurochs, Jersey cows are noted for their brown-fawn coloration, black muzzle, and their white or black tongue and ‘switch’ (the hair at the very end of the tail). They are a small-bodied breed, reaching about 1,000 pounds in weight (comparatively, Holsteins and Brown Swiss weigh about 1,400 pounds). Although the volume of milk produced by Jersey cows is less than the larger-bodied breeds, Jersey milk contains very high butterfat and protein.
After several years in the butter and buttermilk business, Lillian Ballentine expanded the farm off Sunset Lake Road to a full dairy operation and opened up a “creamery,” the building for which is still on the farm property (although, according to Shirley Simmons with the Museums of Fuquay-Varina, a plan had been put forward in recent decades to move it downtown to the Museums property at Ashworth Park).
The Ballentine dairy began bottle and fluid milk sales in 1922. The milk bottle labels included the words “Dairy Products Supreme,” mentioned the Jersey cows, and “raw milk, grade A.” An invoice on display at the Museums of Fuquay-Varina includes other farm products such as sweet and chocolate milk, lactic milk, buttermilk, and double cream.
“The year 1938 marked the beginning of a growth trend in North Carolina dairy herds and an improvement in the overall quality of milk in the state. In 1944, for the first time in North Carolina’s history, the state produced enough milk for both home consumption and export to other states. North Carolina continued to appropriate funds specifically for dairy industry support in the annual budget from that time to the present. Dairy farmers were able to get more milk from each cow through better nutrition, care, and facilities. Eventually this success resulted in overproduction, and some dairy herds were sold off.” (www.ncpedia.org/dairy-industry)
After her mother’s death in 1954, Mabel Ballentine ran the dairy farm while her brother L.Y. helped to secure dairy contracts. According to the Museums of Fuquay-Varina, L. Y. was able to assist with getting contracts to sell milk to Campbell College, Meredith College and the Sir Walter Hotel as well as local customers and a route to Dunn. L.Y. served as a Wake County Commissioner for eight years and as a state commissioner of agriculture from 1949 until his death in 1964. L.Y. was known to have a “down to earth philosophy and quiet leadership” and he “prepared the foundation for some of the state’s most fundamental and important agricultural programs.”
Valeria Shearon Vinson, Ms. Bergstrom’s aunt and a descendant of William Wesley Johnson’s line, grew up about a half mile away from the dairy. She fondly remembers getting pints of chocolate milk from there when she was young (even though they had their own cows, about 8-10 of them, along with chickens and guineas). She noted that Mabel Ballentine was “one of a kind” and that she worked around the farm wearing memorable big black boots.
The N.C. Department of Agriculture reported (www.ncpedia.org/dairy-industry) that in 1947, there were “350,000 dairy cows on North Carolina farms; that year these cows produced 175 million gallons of milk. Milk output per dairy cow continued to improve over the next half century, although the number of dairy cows in the state dropped drastically. By 1995 the average output per cow had increased to 1,894 gallons of milk. There were more than 400 commercial dairies in North Carolina at the start of the twenty-first century, maintaining approximately 69,000 dairy cows. Few of the small and medium-size creameries remained. A handful of specialty ice cream companies were exceptions and continued successful operations, such as Mooresville Ice Cream Company in the town of Mooresville…
By 1953 more than 300 dairies existed in Iredell County, which has been the leading dairy county in North Carolina since records were officially kept. (Randolph, Alleghany, Alexander, and Rowan Counties have also maintained substantial numbers of dairy cows.) The state’s dairy farmers sold their Grade A milk (a designation that signifies wholesomeness, not quality) to major processors in their region and across the state. Lower-grade milk went to Carnation in Statesville, along with surplus Grade A milk. As grocery chains grew larger they developed their own in-store brands, which were often sold at a lower price. This forced many dairies to merge with larger companies such as Dairymen Cooperative, which processed the dairy products for major grocery chains.”
Ballentine Dairy was the first private dairy in NC, but it was also one of the last. It merged with Long Meadow Farms in 1965 and later was bought out by the federal government (to address overproduction issues). It ceased operation in 1987. Today, what remains is a complex of long-time family land and a few historic buildings that have been inherited, stewarded and improved over centuries, and well cared for by different generations of the Jones, Johnson, and Ballentine families, among others. Descendants hope to keep the family lands intact, although development in the area and road construction are continuing threats.
According to the USDA, these days in North Carolina, “the dairy industry is small and personal. Ranking 28th in the country for milk production, the majority of N.C. dairy farms are family-owned and operated. Family farms remain a key part of U.S. agriculture, making up 98% of all farms and providing 88% of production. Most farms are small family farms, and they operate almost half of U.S. farmland, while generating 21% of production. Midsize and large-scale family farms account for about 66% of production; and non-family farms represent the remaining 2.1% of farms and 12% of production.” (www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/01/23/look-americas-family-farms)
NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Science noted online that the “N.C. dairy industry faces many challenges—volatile milk prices, issues with waste management, labor training and retaining a workforce, a rapidly urbanizing state, and a farm that operates 365 days a year. High quality feed is essential for high milk yields, and it is the number one cost. Dairy farmers need forage crops that have reliably high yields under local conditions and that are highly nutritious to keep the cows healthy and productive.” (https://cals.ncsu.edu/psi/news/partner-profile-north-carolina-dairy-producers-association/)
The number of U.S. dairy farms is reported to have fallen by half since 2006. “Over that period, milk production has increased 24%, and milk per cow has grown 20%. The United States lost 6% of its dairy farms in 2021 and now has fewer than 30,000.” (www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news)
“Major year-over-year trends in U.S. cows’ farm milk production include (1) a fairly steady increase in milk production and (2) a consistent decline in the number of dairy operations matched by a continual rise in the number of cows per operation… In the United States, the decision to produce milk is largely made by individuals or families with dairy farm operations. Many of these farmers belong to producer-owned cooperatives. The cooperatives assemble members’ milk and move it to processors and manufacturers. Some of these dairy farm cooperatives have a high vertical integration, operating their own processing and manufacturing plants. Although originally local, many current dairy cooperatives are national with members across the country.” (www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/dairy/background/)
Do you know where your milk is coming from? Unless you buy directly from a local farm or farmers’ market, or from NC State University’s “Howling Cows,” you probably don’t. Gone are the days of local milk deliveries brought right to your door, although there are a few national companies that have resumed door-to-door deliveries.
We’ve lost so much local agriculture already and, with so much development taking place in our area, we are likely to lose a lot more in terms of land, farm, and lifestyle. The NC-55 and Judd Parkway extension could impact the Jones-Johnson-Ballentine family farmlands (still over 300 original acres). On a related note, some folks in town have proposed that the associated bridge (yet to be built) be named after Mabel Ballentine and the multiple generations of women farmers that sustained the dairy operation for approximately 80 years.
One wonders what Lillian Parker Yates Ballentine, her daughter Mabel, and her other dairy-supporting descendants would think about all of this.
Want to know more about the NC-55 road plan? Details are available—and public comments are being received—on the NC Department of Transportation webpage: www.ncdot.gov/projects/nc-55-extension-fuquay-varina/Pages/default.aspx).
Special thanks to Ginger Bergstrom and Shirley Simmons for their assistance with providing historical details, making community connections, and pulling this article together.
