Merkle Dairy cars from Athearn / Roundhouse

I assume you already saw this:

Merkle Dairy? I

acquaintence from

the car. I

limited

of the owner.

was even born

my family

curiosity to learn

Dan,

Merkle Dairy Co. was having significant problems during the Great Depression. Then owner Frank Merkle sold out in 1938, and used the proceeds to go into the Juke Box business. Juke Boxes apparently did a lot better than the dairies at the time.

I haven't been able to find a lot on Merkle Dairy Co., but at this point it looks like the dairy farm was somewhere in or around Evanston, IL, and the bottling plant was in Chicago.

Len

Len spake thus:

Evanston? Are you sure?

I grew up there, and although it wasn't *that* long ago (I was there in the 60s), I can't think of any nearby places where there could have been a fully-functioning dairy farm. I remember taking school field trips to what was then the nearest dairy farm, Hawthorn(e) Melody Farms, in Libertyville, which is quite a ways from Evanston.

Turns out our neighbor used to be a chemist at a dairy (not farm) in River Forest, Bowman Dairy.

Merkle

as an

with a

dairy

she had

born and

in my

passing

Great

used

there in

have been

trips to

in

farm) in

This would have been in the 1920's through 1938, and I suspect Evanston wasn't quite as built up back then. It's also possible the dairy farm was further out, but using the Evanston post office as a mailing address. The info available, aside from Frank selling out in 1938 to get into Juke Boxes, is sketchy at best.

Len