# Another California Milk



## CALDIGR2 (Jan 21, 2009)

Since someone brought this up in another post, I thought that this one should be shared with y'all, too. I am not a milk collector, but this dandy recently showed up in a local 1880s to mid '90s privy. Washed, but not cleaned, this is how it came out of the ground. It is a tin top type bottle and probably dates circa 1890-95.

 John Meister arrived in Sacramento in 1853 and established a dairy near Sutter's Fort. By 1860, he had purchased a large tract of land north of the city, along the American River, where his cows were kept in the dry months. A few years later, he built another dairy facility at the corner of 16th and D Strs, where he kept his cows during the wet months. Shortly, he expanded this facility and moved his operations to this location, where he remained until retiring from the business in 1900. His son, Albert, assumed operation of the dairy and remained at that site until 1924. By the next year, they had moved the dairy to 13th & S Strs, where it continued until 1935, when it was sold to the Borden Co. and became Borden's Capital Dairy. Borden operated the dairy until 1970, then selling to the Knudsen Corp. Knudsen stayed there for two years, and in 1972 sold the property to the State Of California and moved to another Sacramento location. All vestiges of the dairy were gone 3 months later. Extensive digging by myself, and others, only turned up later glass and some early bottles that were dumped there prior to Meister moving to the site.


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## CALDIGR2 (Jan 21, 2009)

I have no idea why this forum only allows one photo per post, but this is the top of the Meister bottle. It has the flat lip for the tin top that was secured by a wire bale. All rusted vestiges of the top and wire were removed by a quick bath in Muriatic.


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## bottlediger (Jan 21, 2009)

Mike, Milks arent my thing either but if your gona dig a milk, you can beat pulling out a beauty like that! Got to be worth some big bucks, and to dig one that clean is just amazing. Ive dug some pre 1900 milks but they were all pretty lame no embossing, the earliest milk I dug that was embossed was circa 1919 or 1917

 Digger Ry


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## Lordbud (Jan 21, 2009)

I've only ever dug one milk bottle from a privy embossed "Hazelwood" -- found in Santa Clara.
 A 1900 - 1930s ranch dump along a creek bank produced about a dozen nice milk bottles all from the 1930s, most of them marked Illinois - Pacific Glass Company, hailing from as far north as Millbrae and south to San Jose although the majority were from Palo Alto dairies.


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## caldigs (Jan 27, 2009)

Nice milk ! I've dug a few 1880s and 1890s San Francisco milks but all of them have had some issues.


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## Meister Girl (Feb 10, 2010)

Hi CALDIGR2 - I'm not a bottle collector per se but since I live on the old Meister Dairy property I've gotten interested in the Meister Dairy.  I love that Capital Dairy bottle you found!  Very cool!  But, I've been doing quite a bit of research about the Meisters and the Capital Dairy, and so far everything I've read says that the first milk bottles weren't introduced in Sacramento until 1912.  Is it possible that your bottle isn't pre-1900?   I've also come across a bottle that says "Meister's Dairy, Reg. Meridian, Cal."  Meridian is about 40 miles from Sacramento, so I don't know if that's the same Meister famiy or not.   It seems unlikely that there'd be two different Meister families running dairies near Sacramento.  Do you by any chance have any info about that? -- Meister Girl


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## CALDIGR2 (Feb 10, 2010)

That bottle was sold to an early milk bottle collector several months ago. John Meister retired from the dairy business in 1899, which indicates that this milk dates at least to this date, and probably older. My guess is the mid 1890s, as indicated by the other bottles associated with it in the privy.

 The bottle was embossed on the base Whiteman/B/144 Chambers St/3/N.Y.
 A.V. Whiteman patented a jar with a dome type tin lid in 1884. His name and address are found on the base of his milk bottles. 

 I have a complete timeline for the Meister family in Sacramento from 1856 to 1935, including their various locations and family ties.


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## Meister Girl (Feb 10, 2010)

Hi Mike - would you be willing to share your Meister info with me?  I've been spending a lot of time on it and maybe you can save me some work.  And do you know anything about the Meister's Dairy in Meridian, Ca?  Is it related to the Meister's Dairy in Sacramento?  Thanks for any info you might have.  Molly


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## CALDIGR2 (Feb 11, 2010)

Molly, I have no idea of the Meister Dairy in Meridian being related to the family in Sactown, but will look into it.


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## Meister Girl (Feb 15, 2010)

Hi Mike - I have scoured the county (and the internet) for the past few weeks looking for Meister and Capital Dairy bottles.  I got a couple at first, and thought they were going to be easy to find, but now I realize that the ones I bought are probably all that's out there - at least for right now.   I've also been to the Central Library and on the internet researching the ancestry of the Meister family.  Interestingly enough, some of the info I got came right off the title report for our house, since the Meisters used to own this property.  Our home inspector was the first person who told us that this used to be a dairy -- the earth underneath the house has been pulverized by the hooves of the herd tromping on it for so many years.  Workmen that have had to crawl under the house come up coated in a fine brown powder, and the whole time they're under the house I can hear them coughing and spitting!  It's awful under there!  Anyway, for all the detail I've gotten about the Meisters you'd think I was related to them, but I'm not done yet -- I have at least one more place to check for history on the Meister's dairy business and hopefully I'll get to it this week.    Question -- do you think the person you sold the Meister bottle to might be interested in selling it (at a profit of course).  I have no idea what it's worth so don't even know if I can afford it but I thought I'd ask.   I have a friend who owns a huge antique mall in Monterey, and he told me once that he considers himself a "catch and release" collector -- that he collects things for the thrill of the hunt and once he gets them holds onto them for a little while and then lets them go again.  I'm hoping the owner of that bottle might be one too.  I hope it's not rude of me to ask -- but I thought it might be worth a try.  Thanks.


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