20 



History and Development 



Fig 3. 



The first condensed milk factory In 

 America, Wolcottvllle, Conn. 



densed milk as a commodity become 

 fully recognized. During the Civil 

 War there was a great demand for 

 this product and from that time on 

 the industry grew with great rapid- 

 ity. 



The first factory was operated 

 by Gail Borden in Wolcottvllle, 

 Litchfield county, Connecticut, in 

 the summer of 1856, but disap- 

 pointed in not obtaining means, 

 nothing was accomplished. A sec- 

 ond attempt was made at Burrville, 

 five miles distant, in 1857, by a company consisting of the owners of 

 the patent. A small quantity of milk was here successfully con- 

 densed and its introduction into New York began. Although 

 admitted by all to be superior to any before made, it was. slow in 

 meeting with sales proportional in magnitude to the expenses in- 

 curred. Yielding to the monetary revulsion of that year the company 

 suspended operations, leaving Mr. Borden liable for bills drawn, on 

 which he was sued. 



It was not until February, 1858, when Mr. Borden (with the 

 other owners of the patent) associated himself with Jeremiah Mil- 

 bank, Esq., who advanced money to revive the business, that he 

 could be said to enjoy adequate means to develop his invention and 

 at which time the New York Condensed Milk Company was formed. 

 Abandoning Burrville, the new company established work on a more 

 extensive scale in Wassaic, Duchess county, New York, in 1860. 

 In 1865, extensive works were erected at Elgin, Illinois. Borden's 

 Condensed Milk factories today number upwards of fifty, extending 

 from Maine to Washington State as well as into Canada. The 

 New York Condensed Milk Company was incorporated in New 

 Jersey in 1860 and in New York in 1870. This company was 

 succeeded by Borden's Condensed Milk Company which was incor- 

 porated in New Jersey in 1899. 



In the sixties of the last century, the Anglo-Swiss Condensed 

 Milk Company was organized in Switzerland under the leadership 

 of Charles A. Page, then United States Consul at Zurich, Switzer- 

 land, and his brother George H. Page, and with the assistance of 



