Lambert: The Sennitt’s Curious Dairy Barn

The Inquiry 

A Plainfield Patch reader inquired, “What are those small buildings that were recently painted white near the Plainfield Historical Society’s depot at Lockport and Wood Farm Road?”

The Facts

Acquired for preservation by the Plainfield Historical Society, the two concrete structures that stand today are remnants of a local family’s tenacity and innovation in the wake of a weakened economy and scientific advancement.

The unassuming buildings are remnants of the small dairy complex operated by Charles Sennitt and his sister, May, for three decades in the early 20th Century.  Originally, the Sennitt’s dairy operation included a dairy barn, milkhouse, corncrib and silo adjacent to a fenced-in pasture.  The original farm buildings were constructed of wood. 

The Sennitt Family of Plainfield

In 1851, John Sennitt, Jr. (1830-1905) came to the United States from England.  After working as a farm laborer in Ohio for one year, Sennitt enrolled at Hiram College. After graduation, Sennitt moved to Plainfield, finding employment as a clerk in the local post office by 1860.  Nine years later, he was named Plainfield Postmaster.  Here, John Sennitt met a young schoolteacher, Emma Drew. 

Emma Drew (1839-1922) was the daughter of a pioneer family that settled at Plainfield in the mid-1840s. Born in Canada, Emma spent her early childhood in Vermont before moving to Illinois.  After attending the local Plainfield schools, she continued her education at Oberlin College in Ohio.  Upon her return to Plainfield, Emma taught school for nearly a dozen years.

John Sennitt and Emma Drew were married in April 1871 and raised four children: May (1873-1970); Carolyn “Carrie” (1876-1959); Grace (1879-1946); and Charles (1882-1959).  Emma stressed the importance of education to her children. May Sennitt was a member of the first graduating class of Plainfield High School in 1891. Following her local education, Carrie Sennitt continued her collegiate studies in Chicago.

John Sennitt served as Plainfield postmaster for three separate terms (1869-1886, 1889-1894 and 1898-1901). His postal career spanned 50 years, serving 40 consecutive years as either postmaster or deputy postmaster.  Sennitt was postmaster in February 1898, when fire broke out in the Opera House building.   With the aid of his daughter, May, and neighbor Mr. Beggs, Postmaster Sennitt saved stamps, account books and mail bags from the blaze.  For months afterward, Sennitt operated the post office out of the parlor of the Sennitt home on Ottawa Street. 

In addition to managing the local post office, John Sennitt established a small dairy farm around 1885.  The 10-acre Sennitt pasture occupied the west bank of the DuPage River until 1903, when it was purchased for the creation of Electric Park. At that time, 73 year old John Sennitt reduced his dairying operation and relocated it along present-day Wood Farm Road.  

Prior to their father’s death, Grace Sennitt had married Wheatland Township farmer Thomas Clow in 1902. Carrie Sennitt had married Plainfield Township farmer Joshua Wales Munroe in 1904.  May, a music teacher, and Charles “Charlie” Sennitt continued to live in the family home with their mother.

After serving as a railway clerk, Charlie Sennitt assumed operation of his father’s modest dairy operation in 1905. Occupying just a few acres west of the DuPage River, the Sennitt Dairy supported Charlie, May and their elderly mother. The family’s business continued through a turbulent time. 

Milk in the Early Twentieth Century

For generations, a fairly common illness among people of all ages was “milksick,” which was attributed to milk kept in unsanitary conditions. Also, raw milk fed to infants caused gastro-intestinal diseases that, often, led to death.  

In the days before gallon containers and convenience stores, milk peddlers delivered fresh or “raw” milk to non-farm households across America. Milk peddlers were an independent lot. They milked in the darkness of early morning and, afterward, travelled from house to house, selling their milk daily. 

Through the 1920s, men and women delivered milk on foot, by horse-drawn wagon and—like Charlie Sennitt—by bicycle.  Residents would provide their own pan or jug to the curb or alley, where peddlers ladled the milk from open milk cans or pails into the residents’ containers.  Often the milk was unrefrigerated.  In a time when sanitation was becoming more understood, milk peddlers’ hands were, typically, unwashed. Most often, neither the peddlers’ nor the residents’ containers were sterilized.

Some unscrupulous peddlers “adulterated” milk with chalk or gypsum so it appeared “more white.”  Other peddlers were accused of watering down their milk to realize a larger profit.  Some milk was kept “fresher” with the addition of formaldehyde, marketed as “milksweet” and “freezine.”

These reports made life difficult for many small-town, independent milk peddlers who were largely unregulated.  Increasing numbers of Americans began purchasing their milk only from larger dairies. While most milk peddlers were hard working and honest, larger cities resorted to hiring milk inspectors to track down dishonest peddlers.  

In response to government inspection, milk peddlers in larger cities unionized in 1903.  As many cities passed ordinances to limit peddler activities, the unionized peddlers fought back. Among their many initiatives, unionized peddlers fought to end Sunday deliveries.  Within a decade, milk peddlers were required to distribute their milk only in labeled cans or bottles. By 1916, Michigan was first state to require that all milk be pasteurized. About that time, milk peddlers became known as “milkmen.” By the mid-1920s, the consumption of “raw” or non-pasteurized milk was virtually prohibited across the United States.  

The Great Depression and Milk Strikes 

Shortly after milk pasteurization became common practice, the American economy spiraled downward.  As the Great Depression loomed ever larger, milk prices collapsed.  The cost of production often exceeded the price paid to farmers. In an effort to raise prices, many dairy farmers frequently went “out on strike” during the 1930s.  Undercompensated dairymen refused to deliver milk to larger milk processing corporations. They dumped their fresh milk on the ground rather than sell it at a loss.  

The milk dumping, which at times was subsidized by the government, became so pervasive that the phrase “don’t cry over spilled milk” became popular.   

However, many independent dairymen refused to go along with the “milk strikes” because they needed the income derived from their small operations to support their families.  

Between 1930 and 1939, many Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin independent dairy farmers were ruthlessly “burned out” in an attempt to force compliance. Their wood-framed dairy barns were burned to the ground, resulting in the loss of both equipment and livestock.  Some independent dairymen quit; others became more resolute.

A Suspicious Fire 

Charlie Sennitt did not join the milk strikes.  The income from the small dairy supported not only Charlie, a bachelor, but his spinster sister, May, as well.  Additionally, the income paid for the gas to operate the delivery truck that Sennitt now used for local deliveries. 

Charlie and May Sennitt bottled their milk in their home on Chicago Street.  There, May washed, boiled and sterilized the re-usable, one pint glass bottles that bore the embossed “Chas. Sennitt Pure Milk Plainfield, Ill.” label.

On a Monday night in 1932, a Lincoln Highway traveler reported a fire at Charlie Sennitt’s dairy barn, just north of the roadway.  The wooden barn and silo were destroyed along with the Sennitt’s “dairy implements, cooling vats, feed, straw and supplies.”  However, a dozen cows were saved.  The total loss was estimated at $3,000; however, the Sennitts carried only $1,000 of insurance coverage.

Innovation Out of Adversity

Vowing not to be burned out again, Charlie Sennitt rebuilt his dairy barns, utilizing concrete for the floors, walls and roof. In addition to the main dairy barn, Sennitt erected a concrete stave silo, a small corncrib and a separate, concrete milkhouse where cold, spring water cooled the fresh milk.

The new concrete barn and milkhouse were considered to be fireproof, preserving the Sennitt Dairy from additional heavy-handed coercion.  More importantly, the structures were models of sanitary dairying in their time.  Sennitt installed an innovative “dairy parlor” arrangement within his barn. The recently-developed dairy parlor concept assured a more sanitary method of milking and a more comfortable milking environment.  Separated from the barn, the milkhouse resulted in more sanitary handling of cow’s milk. 

Small dairying operations, such as that of Plainfield’s Sennitt family, were not uncommon across America.  However, as the Great Depression wore on, larger dairies bought out the smaller dairies.  With increased competition and aggressive marketing by large bottling companies, many independent dairies—including the Sennitt Dairy—closed as they became increasingly less profitable.

Today, only two buildings remain of the Sennitt Dairy farm: the Dairy Barn and Milkhouse. The concrete foundations of the corncrib were buried when landscaping of the LifeSpring Church property was completed in 2011. The concrete-stave silo collapsed years ago when the property was the site of a junkyard.  Although no longer fenced, the one-time cow pasture occupied the area east and north of the remaining structures.  The long-range plans of the Plainfield Historical Society include the restoration and interpretation of these intriguing buildings.

Next Column:  Plainfield’s Universalist Society

Have a question about Plainfield’s history?  Send your inquiries to Michael Lambert via Plainfield Patch. 

© 2012 Michael A. Lambert.  All Rights Reserved