# My Grandfather's Milk Bottles



## Goofproofer (Jun 11, 2019)

Hello, I hope this is the right place to post. Some nice folks on Reddit sent me this way.
I have been looking into my great-great-grandfather's dairy farm which was located in Worcester, MA around 1914 and moved to Holden, MA where it was active between 1915-1922. I don't know if the farm had a name. I've heard that some milk bottles survive, with his name embossed (S. Aronoff).
How would I go about finding collectors who have the bottles? I would like to buy one someday but a photograph would be wonderful too.

TIA!


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## CanadianBottles (Jun 11, 2019)

Specific milk bottles are hard to find, we get people looking for their ancestor's milk bottles on here pretty regularly, and they almost never have any luck.  I'm not sure if we have anyone on here who collects Worcester bottles, if not your best bet is probably to post an ad on the Worcester Craigslist.  Unfortunately due to the short operating time and the fact that it was in operation 100 years ago, the bottles will likely be fairly rare.


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## Goofproofer (Jun 11, 2019)

CanadianBottles said:


> Specific milk bottles are hard to find, we get people looking for their ancestor's milk bottles on here pretty regularly, and they almost never have any luck.  I'm not sure if we have anyone on here who collects Worcester bottles, if not your best bet is probably to post an ad on the Worcester Craigslist.  Unfortunately due to the short operating time and the fact that it was in operation 100 years ago, the bottles will likely be fairly rare.


Fair enough, thanks for the advice.


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## nhpharm (Jun 12, 2019)

If you have a chance to attend one of the bottle shows in the New England area, ask one of the milk bottle dealers to look for you.  I have had the best luck getting rare milks I was looking for that way.  1915-1922 is on the early end of when small dairies were having their milk bottles embossed, and with a herd of at most 28 cows, the distribution of those bottles was probably pretty limited to near the dairy itself.  It's always surprised me how many dairies had embossed milk bottles of which only one example is now known...good luck with the hunt!


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## boostnma (Jun 12, 2019)

I collect milk bottles from Worcester, MA and this is a rare bottle. The book I have shows:
ARONOFF, S - Samuel Aronoff ; Ararat St Worcester (1914). Moved to Holden.
I have a friend who has been collecting bottles for much longer than I. I will check to see if he has this bottle(s), and if so, take some pictures.

Do you know where on Ararat st the dairy was located? do you have any pictures of the dairy?


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## Vinmarsh (Apr 17, 2021)

Does anyone know anything about Worcester Milk and Cream Co. out of Worcester MA such as when were they in business and where they were located?


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## Csa (Apr 17, 2021)

Agree with the experts here on chances in the open purchase markets. My take on this is that your best bet may be (assuming you are near Worcester or Holden) to go in search of a bottle dump around those areas. I found many local milks from the 20s - quarts all the way to gills (1/4 pt) in a bottle dump in my home town. Typically the milk bottles in a town dump are from within 5-10 miles since ice and freshness were at a premium. Good luck, I’ll keep an eye out for Aronoff bottles on the web.


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## Csa (Apr 17, 2021)

I’m Assuming you have this link too. Pretty nice description of the dairies in Holden Ma. Your ancestors operation seems relatively small so may be even tougher to find them, but you’ll be all the more happy when you do. Here’s a few of mine I dug. 



			Holden Historical Society : Holden History : The Dairy Industry in Holden, Massachusetts


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