At one time there were over 800 dairies in Harris County Texas,in the fifties there were more cattle in Harris county than any other county in the state of Texas,predominantly dairy cattle.It’s all gone now as we are the last dairy in the county.
There is a Tomball museum and historical center that is very organized and they are interviewing people to gather oral history recordings first hand.
I’ve been asked to do a recording to give information about the dairy business and it’s impact on the Tomball area.There is a Facebook page that is basically devoted to the Tomball area history and I posted this story back in March about my memory of riding the milk route with my uncle Jimmy.
I follow old WITitanII on his tictoc and yesterday he got to talking about how all the dairies are gone from the area he grew up in,only difference is most of his area it went to corn and beans and around here it went to houses but either way the dairies are gone and when he was describing the old dairies it reminded me of driving around here and remembering who’s place it was and what all they did.
I decided I would share the post I put on the Tomball history page about the milk route because I’m sure there are people that will read on here that can relate,the names of the roads or the names of the dairy farmers won’t be recognized by many but I’m sure you could replace the street names and dairy farmers names with ones from your area.
Copied and pasted from here

 The milk route

I was recently asked if I would be willing to talk with someone from the Tomball museum and do a recorded interview discussing the local history that revolved around the dairy industry.He said they’d like to get some recorded oral history before it’s gone,I thought man I’m not that old but I do have a granddaughter so I guess I’m easing into the old folks category.

I’ve thought about posting a few stories on this page about things pertaining to the dairy business on the north side of Houston since so many people on this group have some roots in the dairy business.

This story is going to be from the late seventies early eighties time frame, I was around 7-8 years old.

My family has a dairy farm east of Tomball,we’ve been milking cows here since around 1937, my dad , Charles Seber had an older brother named Jimmy who drove a milk truck for Liebham Milk transport,uncle Jimmy lived a little over a mile east of our dairy at that time and he didn’t have a place with enough room to park the 18 wheeler milk truck so he just parked it our place.There we’re several times in my early childhood that I would ride with uncle Jimmy on the milk route.

His day started at 3:00am,he would get up and my aunt Esther would make him breakfast and make his lunch that he carried with him.

He would leave our place around 4am,mom would have me ready to go when he got here,we would leave our place headed east on Hufsmith Kuykendahl with the tanker loaded from the previous days milk pickups and he would always blow the air horn when we went by his house,we then headed south on Kuykendahl and took 2920 to I45 on our way to the Borden milk bottling plant in down town Houston .

Once we got to Bordens they weighed the truck and had two bays that you could back in and they would pump the milk off the truck then weigh the truck empty,milk is bought and sold by the hundred weight not by the gallon.

While the truck was getting unloaded I remember walking through the milk plant and the milk jugs were going by on the conveyors after being filled,the guys that worked there would give me the little pints of Borden’s chocolate milk and it’s still my favorite.

After the truck was unloaded we would drive a short distance to a wash bay and a man would clean and sanitize the trailer.

After the trailer was cleaned out we would start the days route of picking up milk from the dairy farms.

Head out of Houston on 290 the first stop was Vernon Wymans dairy near Barker Cypress and Clay road,his driveway was always a muddy mess.

Then the next stop was Willie Felou on Robert’s road just north of 290,Mr Felou’s son continued to dairy there until about 2020.

After that we went north a little ways to Botkins road,Brian Lowe had a dairy on the south side of Botkins road between Roberts road and Becker road.

Then we got on 2920 headed east and turned left on Bauer rd,at the end of Bauer road Clarence Helfrich had dairy there until around 2010.

Leaving Bauer road going east several miles we came to Milton Helfrich’s dairy on the right.

After picking up Milton’s milk we took 2920 farther east to Cypress Rosehill rd and turned right and went around the S curve and turned right into E L Beckendorf and sons dairy(Elmer and sons Charles and Kenneth).

That dairy barn was a big deal to me as a little kid,it was made out of concrete blocks and most others including ours was built out of wood.Also their dairy barn had an office and a restroom and it also had three milk tanks,I don’t remember their capacity but I think maybe there was a 1500 a 1000 and 500 gallon tank and more importantly to me as a little kid that’s where uncle Jimmy took out his lunch box that aunt Esther made for him and I would get my sack lunch mom made and we would eat lunch,the times I rode with him we’d swipe some milk to drink with our lunch.

After pumping their milk we continue west on their private drive to Elmer’s brother Marvin’s dairy barn,it was maybe 1/4 mile down the driveway to Marvin’s house and dairy barn.

I remember once while we were pumping their milk I was outside and Marvin had tractor by the barn and I got up on it and his wife Veda came out of the house hollering at me to get off the tractor.

After pumping the Beckendorf milk we went back to 2920 and headed east to Telge road,we took Telge road to Spring Cypress road and turned left.It seems like there was a dairy on the north side of Spring Cypress a good ways from 149(now 249) but I can’t remember who it was.We continued east on Spring Cypress passing Herman Ulrich’s dairy where Klein Cain high school is today, I don’t remember pumping milk at Ulrichs but in the late eighties my parents bought Ulrichs feed tank and I remember taking it down and hauling it home. When we got to Stuebner Airline road we turned left and went a short distance and turned left into Thornwell Klebs dairy.

Two things I remember about his dairy,he had an electric fence and that was the first time I ever got shocked by an electric fence.

The other thing I remember about him is he called my mom and told her that when I was there picking up the milk and he talked to me I was dipping Skoal,she was mad as hell at me and whipped my ass for dipping Skoal.I always held that against him for ratting me out,uncle Jimmy didn’t care if I was dipping and that’s the way any good uncle would be.

Thornwell’s brother Wayne had a dairy barn  just a little west of his but I don’t remember ever pumping his milk.

After we left Klebs we got back on Spring Cypress and headed east just a few hundred yards and turned left into the Doerre Dairy that was rented at that time by Alton or his son Danny Hildebrant.

After pumping that milk we continued east on Spring Cypress to Arthur Lee and Shirley Benfer’s dairy,it was near  where current day TC Jester goes south off Spring Cypress.

When we left the Benfer dairy we took Spring Cypress to Kuykendahl and headed north,on the north east corner of Kuykendahl and 2920 Elmer Schoessow had a dairy farm,currently there is a Walmart and lots of restaurants there.

As we were facing north on Kuykendahl uncle Jimmy would have to back into the driveway from his blindside because there wasn’t enough room to pull the 18 wheeler in and turn around,sometimes we would have to wait for several cars to pass before he could back in and he would be aggravated at the traffic,that dairy barn sat in the exact spot where a Whataburger was built and anytime I ate at that Whataburger I’d look around at all the traffic and think man if uncle Jimmy could  see it now.

When we finished pumping that milk we headed north on Kuykendahl then west on Hufsmith Kuykendahl and back to our dairy where we started,if it was our pick up day he would pump our milk then too.

Health department rules are that milk can not be stored on the farm over 48 hours so the milk is picked up every other day,it was challenge for the milk hauler to schedule his trucks around the dairyman’s milking schedule and fluctuating milk production,in cooler winter months and spring time milk production increases and the tanker can only hold so much so the routes had to be adjusted occasionally to get everyone’s milk hauled from the farm.

The responsibility of the milk truck driver was a whole lot more than just driving the truck,he has to take several samples of each tank of milk and label it for testing,he reads a measuring stick on each tank and writes it down on his bill of lading,this is what the dairyman gets paid from.

After the tanks are empty he rinses it out and hooks up the tank washer/sanitizer to clean the tank for the next milking.

Like milking cows is a seven day a week job so is hauling the milk,when the milk truck pulls in the driveway on Christmas morning you have to appreciate their commitment to the job to work holidays regardless of weather conditions or whatever else might be going on.

Johnny Leibham  hauled the milk from our dairy for as long as I can remember,when uncle Jimmy was parking the truck at our dairy I remember Johnny coming to do tire repair and work on the truck and his son Danny would be with him,there was a time when I think he had 6 milk trucks picking up milk at dairies all over southeast Texas,Johnny and Danny did all the maintenance and repairs and it was a lot to keep up with when there were so many dairies with different milking times and production levels trying to keep it all balanced where his trucks would be as full as possible yet still have the capacity to get all the milk from each dairy without overflowing his truck.

There were a couple other milk haulers in the area years ago,Wayne Nichols hauled bulk milk and there was a Bonds that hauled milk but I’m not sure if he hauled bulk milk or canned milk.

I know there were more dairies in the area,there are two old dairy barns just west of the Beckendorf dairies,the Gabriel dairy and the Shouer dairy’s were at the end of rose hill church road,I don’t remember ever picking up milk there but do remember delivering feed to the Gabriel dairy when I was riding in the bulk feed delivery truck with Milton who worked for my grandpa at Hieden Feed.

Junior Lewis had a dairy on Hufsmith Kohrville,The Rhobars had a dairy on Hufsmith Conroe,I don’t remember picking their milk up the times I rode with uncle Jimmy,they must’ve been on his other route.

These are from my own memories and could be a little off but it has been around 42 or 43 years ago and was 8 years old.

My uncle Jimmy made his living driving a milk truck and he had a grandson who Frank Wills that drove a milk truck for  Leibham also.

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