REMEMBER WHEN FROM THE PAST--UTAH POULTRY AND NELSON RICKS CREAMERY

REMEMBER WHEN
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Kenna Holm
  
CREAMERY AND POULTRY PLANT

     I’ve been thinking about Payson Main Street and really longing for the old days when we
could park in town and do all of our shopping. I’d much rather had that than all the big stores. It was
where you could pass anyone on the street and stop and visit because we knew everyone in town.
Remember the old creamery? It was on the corner of Main and First South where Finch’s
have their new business and where Daley’s Surveying and before that Olson’s Garden Shop.  I
remember going in there with my dad and I hated the smell of all that cream and milk. Yuk! I
remembered some things about it but I called Kenneth Shepherd and got a lot of information from
him since his dad managed the business.

     It seems at that time, everyone had cows and chickens and they would come into townandbringtheircream and eggs to get money to go shopping. They would take the eggs to the poultry and the cream into the creamery.
      The farmers would do the milking and bring the milk in to set and let the cream rise and
then skim the cream off. They then came into town and would drop off their buckets of cream. Ivan Shepherd (Ken’s dad) would then sample each container of cream and analyze it for the butter fat content.  The people would then get paid according to the butter fat that was in their cream. This was usually on a Saturday and the people would come to town all dressed up so they could get their money from the eggs and cream and go to Safeway’s Grocery Store across the street and do their grocery shopping. In those days, everyone dressed up to go into town.
     Ken said he remembers playing out to the west of the building  by the creek that runs behind it.  His brothers C.H. and Rex would come after school and help their dad. They would wash the milk cans and have them ready to give back to the farmers.
     I could remember the cement floor and the drain in it. Ken said that one corner of the building had burlap hanging and water running to keep the cream and milk cool. They would then send the milk to Salt Lake headquarters of Nelson Ricks Creamery which was Banquet Butter.
     They would send cream also to Spanish Fork and Aurora to be made into cheese. The cheese factory in Spanish Fork was West of the old World Drug Store.
     There was an old coal heater in the middle of the building and everyone would stand around and visit while Ivan tested and wrote everything down.
     Ken also mentioned that Eldon Tew had a shoe repair in the East side of the building in the 1940's and he sold pennycandy. Of course kids would always remember the candy. That was when you got your money’s worth for a penny. Right?
     The creamery was closed in the1950s and Ivan went to Spanish Fork and worked for a while and he also went to Aurora. He took a small trailer down and would stay in it during the week and then come home on the weekend. He did that until he retired.
     I tried to find a picture of the old creamery but none was to be found.
     The Payson Poultry was behind where the Huish Theatre building is now. It was about on the parking lots of the One Man Band and the bank. There was a house (that s just been torn down in the last few years ) that sat right next to the show house on the north and the Snyder Apartments that set where the One Man Band is now. There was a little lane that turned in between those two buildings and you could drive right up to the poultry. I remember going into town with my dad and he would back up to the loading place and they would place the sacks of whatever he had bought into the trunk of the car.
     Everyone would take their cleaned eggs into the poultry and get paid for them. The workers then took the eggs down stairs and candled them and got them ready to send out.  They were shipped to various stores all over the state and even outside the state. You could also order baby chickens through them. Nearly everyone raised a few chickens.
    
They later changed the name to Intermountain Farmers. They then tore it down and they built a new building where Best Deal Springs is now. It was then called IFA. It finally closed and moved to the Spanish Fork IFA. Fun to remember when isn t it?

Floyd Harmer (former mayor of Payson for many years) was the manager. The men that worked there that I remember were Bud Harmer (Helen Walker’s dad), Spence Mendenhall (Linda Carter’s dad), Ted McBeth (husband of Rhea), Jr. Lundell (JoAnn Bryan’s dad) and I’m sure there are others I can t remember. Bud took over after Floyd died and then Spence Mendenhall went on to be manager.