Kruger Dairy

For fifty years the Kruger Dairy served as one of the leading dairies in Carlisle, delivering milk to thousands of homes in Cumberland County. This local business operated out of the Kruger family’s home at 420 Franklin Street, selling milk, cottage cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and many other products. Operating from 1919 to 1969, the Kruger Dairy offered not only milk, but also jobs and a sense of community to the people of Carlisle.¹

John Norton Kruger, the founder of Kruger Dairy, worked at the Cumberland Valley Railroad sometime between 1907 and 1912.² However, an injury forced him to quit and seek employment elsewhere, which left his family in need of additional income. During this time, his wife, Romaine Kruger, began selling milk in her neighborhood to provide the family with a second income. Around 1916 or 1917, she went into business with a local farmer, peddling his milk in a wagon and serving it directly to customers in whatever containers they provided for her. The family’s prospects improved during World War I when railroad workers were conscripted to haul equipment to seaports. The subsequent labor shortage allowed Kruger to return to the railroad, but he lost his position again when the workers returned after the war. As he and his family weighed their options, Romaine suggested that they pursue the dairy business. Taking her advice, Kruger bought a horse and wagon and began delivering milk.³ He officially founded the Kruger Dairy on March 7, 1919.⁴

In the early days of the business, the Kruger family employed rudimentary yet effective methods of milk processing. J. N. Kruger obtained the milk through daily visits to a local farm after the cows had been milked twice. He then cooled the milk by stirring it in an ice bath, extending its shelf life by slowing the growth of bacteria.⁵ By the early 1940s, the dairy had modernized with equipment to cool the milk, pasteurize it, and pour it into bottles.⁶ The Krugers took advantage of every opportunity to improve their products, such as one instance when a local glass company made an error on a set of amber bottles. Not only did the dairy purchase them at a low price, but the dark color also helped shield the milk from sunlight, allowing it to stay fresher even after sitting out on the doorstep.⁷

Once the milk was bottled and ready, it was up to the milkmen to deliver it to the customers’ doorsteps every day. For the first twenty years, the Kruger Dairy used horse-drawn wagons to deliver milk, providing milkmen with the unique challenge of training the horses to stop at customers’ houses on two routes. Their job became easier in 1939 when the business replaced the wagons with trucks, specifically the Diamond T Pak-Age Car.⁸ The Kruger Dairy also expanded its delivery service to include twelve routes, stretching east to Mechanicsburg and west to Newville. With more customers came more job opportunities, and delivering milk and making ice cream at the Kruger Dairy became common part-time jobs for high school students in Carlisle. The business was known for its family atmosphere, and Romaine Kruger regularly made breakfast for the employees.⁹

J. N. Kruger passed the family business on to his sons Vernon and Richard.¹⁰ They operated the business after their father’s death in 1943 and welcomed their brother, Charles, into the business in 1955.¹¹ In 1967, Kruger Dairy merged with Irwin’s Dairy in Camp Hill, which merged with Wengert Dairy in Lebanon two years later. Kruger Dairy finally closed its doors in 1969. Its memory lives on, however, in Kruger Dairy Avenue, an alley named in 2003 for its role in shipping the milk that had arrived on Carlisle doorsteps for half a century.¹²