Summer in southwest Minnesota has a different meaning for everyone, but most people this summer will consume ice cream, which is especially tasty on hot summer days. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. He recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by over 90% of the nation’s population. According to the International Dairy Foods Association, about 10.3% of all the milk produced by U.S. dairy farmers is used to produce ice cream.

The history of ice cream dates back to around 1800. Until 1800, ice cream remained a rare and exotic dessert enjoyed mostly by the elite. Around 1800, insulated ice houses were invented. Manufacturing ice cream soon became an industry in America, pioneered in 1851 by a Baltimore milk dealer named Jacob Fussell. In 1874, the American soda fountain shop and the profession of the “soda jerk” emerged with the invention of the ice cream soda.

Before the development of modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury reserved for special occasions. Making ice cream was quite laborious; ice was cut from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored in holes in the ground, or in wood-frame or brick ice houses, insulated by straw. Ice cream is made from cream, with added flavors and sweeteners. This mixture is quickly frozen while it is stirred, so that large ice crystals do not form.

Like other American industries, ice cream production increased because of technological innovations, including steam power, mechanical refrigeration, the homogenizer, electric power and motors, packing machines, and new freezing processes and equipment.

In the 1940s through the 1970s, ice cream production was relatively constant in the United States. As more prepackaged ice cream was sold through supermarkets, traditional ice cream parlors and soda fountains started to disappear. Ice cream became popular throughout the world in the second half of the 20th century after cheap refrigeration became common.

It was during the time of refrigeration that the Schwan Food Company started and grew in Marshall. The story of Schwan’s begins with Paul Schwan and his time working at the Marshall Ice Cream Company.

Matt Neisen and Matt Langenfeld started their business in 1919 as the Marshall Creamery Company. They sold the building and butter making business to the Producers Co-op in 1924. In 1924, Neisen and Langenfeld focused on making ice cream and started the Marshall Ice Cream Company. The name of their ice cream was called “Perfection.”

Paul Schwan, served in the German army during WWI and immigrated to Marshall in 1921. He worked for the railroad first and then started working at the Marshall Creamery Company. In 1924, he married Alma Slelter and they later had three sons, Alfred, Marvin, and Robert. In 1926, Paul became the foreman of the Marshall Ice Cream Company.

In 1927, 85,000 gallons of ice cream is produced and the company is growing. In 1940, Paul and his partner Matt Neisen buy Jeff’s Dairy, which had been owned by Earl Jefferson. With this purchase, the company added milk bottling to the operation. The milk bottling production was called Neisen and Schwan Dairy. In 1946, Paul bought out Neisen’s half of the dairy, and in 1948, begins operating it as Schwan’s Dairy. The enterprise included a dairy store and café in front of the plant, Schwan’s Dairy & Lunch on S. 2nd Street (now West College Drive). Soon after purchasing Neisen’s half of the dairy, the Schwan family started producing ice cream.

After Matt Langenfeld’s death in 1949, the Langenfeld heirs purchased the Neisen heirs’ interest in the Marshall Ice Cream Company. The ice cream was then labeled Langenfeld’s Perfection ice cream. In the early 1960s, the family consolidated the ice cream manufacturing from their Marshall and Watertown, SD plants to their Mitchell, S.D. plant. The Langenfeld’s Ice Cream company closed its doors in 1966.

Businesses were hit hard in 1951, when the federal government initiated a price freeze to help curb inflation. For Schwan’s, the price freeze meant the company had to sell its finished products for less than the cost of the ingredients. Paul’s son, Marvin, was determined to pull the company back from the brink by thinking of ways to find a more cost-effective way of selling the ice cream.

Marvin realized that the statewide price freeze on dairy products did not apply uniformly across the counties. The price allowed for ice cream in counties north of Marshall was 14 cents a gallon higher than allowed in Lyon County. Marvin realized that rather than selling the ice cream wholesale to retail stores, take the ice cream directly to the farmers who had home freezers.

Marvin drafted his ideas and plans on paper, and on March 18, 1952, he loaded the truck he bought with 14 gallons of ice cream and headed north of Marshall. He sold every gallon, and the customers appreciated the home delivery service. The farmers were eager to buy ice cream because it saved them a trip to town and eliminated the problem of getting the product home from the store before it melted. Thus, was born the home delivery service of Schwan’s ice cream.

The photograph featured this week from the Lyon County Museum’s collection is a photograph of driver, Bill Kiel, behind the wheel of a Neisen and Schwan Dairy truck.

The Lyon County Historical Society (LCHS) is a non-profit, member-supported organization. LCHS operates the Lyon County Museum at 301 W Lyon St in Marshall. The Lyon County Museum is open year-round to visitors. To contact us, visit our website: www.lyoncomuseum.org, call: 507-537-6580, email: director@lyoncomuseum.org, or on our Facebook page.