Kiest Dairy

Kiest Dairy

Kiest Dairy was located at the NE corner of State and Taft Street in Paxton. It was started about 1938 by Walter Kiest who was also working for Wright Ice Cream Company. They were both operated out of the same building. The business was taken over by his son, Robert, who eventually sold the building to Leo and Ambrose Freehill to start a salami company, Rihill Salami, in 1958. 
Image may contain: outdoor

The Freehills operated Lincoln Land Foods from this building making Teen Rite pizza. Robert built a new building at the corner of Ottowa and Rt. 45 for Kiest Dairy operations and a locker service. (Now Just Hamburgers.) A recent newspaper article stated that the former Kiest Dairy building at State and Taft is a company that makes jerky. They have been making a variety of food products at that location for a very long time.

Image may contain: drink

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Perilous Journey of the Johan Jonasson Family

Image
We sometimes hear stories of the difficult journey of our immigrant ancestors. They faced many perils and obstacles. Previous to the beginning of air travel all of our ancestors came to the United States via ship.   The exception being those who were already here, the native Americans. Whether it was on a wooden 17the century ship like the Mayflower or a steel ship of the 20th century like the Queen Mary, most of our ancestors crossed the Atlantic Ocean to get here.   Some had a quick journey in modern times of less than a week.   And for some unfortunate passengers, it took many weeks or months on a voyage filled with danger and death. Such is the extraordinary journey of the sailing ship Sagadahoc of Bath, Maine.   In June of 1853 it would load 221 immigrant passengers in Gothenburg, Sweden bound for Boston, Massachusetts.   Eight of these passengers were Johan Jonasson, his wife Johanna Andersdotter and their six sons; Carl, Fredrick, Adolph, Anders, Jonas an...
Read more

Sid Mercer: An all but forgotten Paxton celebrity

Image
James Sidney (Sid) Mercer was born to James H. and Laura Ann Search Mercer on August 4, 1880 in Kerr Township, Champaign County, Illinois where his father farmed.  He would become an American sports writer who covered mostly boxing and baseball in St. Louis, Missouri and New York City.  His knowledge of sports led him to become known as the Dean of Sport Writers. As he grew up he attended school in nearby Paxton, Illinois.  In his late teens he moved away and ended up in St. Louis where he began his career in newspapers as a printer's apprentice with the St. Louis Republic.  He later wrote for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, before the St. Louis Browns hired him as their road secretary in 1906. The following year, Mercer was hired at the New York Evening Globe. He later wrote for the New York Evening Journal and Hearst's American (later known as the New York Journal American).  He quickly became a name in sports writing in New York City.  When the Baseball Wri...
Read more