The Dairy - at Waverly and Doughoregan Manor

Gov. George Howard's (1789-1846) large stone dairy was built c1822 according to an early sketch of his "Waverly" buildings and payments to a stonemason. The second story window on the front has been changed into a door, but the side windows look like the sketch. His wife Prudence Ridgely Howard (1791-1847) had been raised at "Hampton" (north of Baltimore) which operated a large dairy operation making over 5,000 pounds of butter in 1822. Howard's neighbor Charles Carroll's lovely dairy at "Doughoregan" was much smaller. 

Dairy at Doughoregan
Charles Carroll of Carrollton's inventory, taken after his death in 1832, listed the contents of a two story dairy (one a 'cellar') at Doughoregan.  Although only labeled as an 'outbuilding' in the HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey) report, the following photo shows a charming building with small high windows under a protective overhang roof, and when possible buried in the cooler ground.  All are common features of a dairy.  

In 1832 the Doughoregan dairy contained

  Butter prints & cloths  .25

  2 barrel churns @ 2   $4

  2 hand churns @ .50 ea   $1

  Pr of scales & weights  .25

  3 butter boxes   .50

  16 lg stone butter pots @ .75 ea  10.50

  27 stone milk pots  @ 20   5.40

  6 earthen pots  .36

  A lot of barrels & firkins in the cellar  .50

  Lot of wooden ware     1.

  1 pair of steel yards  1.

Some family dairies produced huge amounts of butter.  George Howard's father-in-law Charles Ridgely of "Hampton" sold over 4,300 pounds of butter, and consumed 860 in 1822 using 141 milk pots (compared with 27 at Doughoregan) and 6 barrel churns.  Next time I am at the State Archives I will check out the Howard inventory and include it's dairy contents in this post.

January 1848 Howard inventory included 26 milch cows, 76 earthen pots, 12 stone [pots], pair of scales, 3 milk Buckets, milk pail, 2 milk tubs, churn & stand [barrel churn] and 2 butter boxes.  

Dairies
The long thin or smaller window would let in less heat from the sun, and high enough for the heat to rise from the body-temperature milk.  The windows could also be covered with gauze or other material to keep the flies out. As the milk cooled, the cream rose to the top in the shallow wide bowls and was skimmed out.

The cream was put in a churn and made into butter.  Period paintings and photos on the lengthy butter making process HERE

More on Waverly HERE
More on Doughoregan HERE

©2016 Patricia Bixler Reber
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