If you need a bottle of milk, you head to the store.
Decades ago, you waited for milk to be delivered to your door. And if you lived in the Bradford area, there were many dairies scattered throughout the area.
Now, appreciation for milk bottles has grown once again after the Afterwords Club at Beefeaters on Congress Street in Bradford took in hundreds of the antiques within the last few weeks. The collection, formerly owned by James Edward O’Mara, who died at the age of 74 on Feb. 5, is being considered the largest collection of milk bottles in McKean County.
“It’s just neat for people to see the history behind it. To me, it’s all about the history,” said Todd Hennard, who owns Beefeaters and several other businesses around Bradford.
He said the display of bottles spans such towns as Bradford, Emporium and Wellsville, N.Y. He said he was surprised that Duke Center and Ormsby also had dairies.
“I really wanted to share his (Jim’s) collection. He loved his milk bottles,” said O’Mara’s wife, Kimberly Young, adding that she was happy and excited to put the milk bottles on public display.
She wanted to find a way to give back to the community, just like her late husband did, she explained.
O’Mara was a lifelong farmer as well as general manager and president at SunnyBrook Dairies Inc. and a general partner in McKean County Creamery, after the sale of these businesses in 1977 to Upstate Milk Cooperative of Leroy, N.Y. He was employed with the cooperative in numerous capacities, including Jamestown Division manager, director of distribution and sales and director of commercial sales. He retired from the dairy business in 1993.
O’Mara purchased Crosby Dairy Products in 1966 from Howard Crosby of Hinsdale, N.Y. He then started and operated Crosby Mini-Marts, later Crosby Marts, for 40 years. He was president and CEO of the store group which sold to Reid Petroleum in 1997.
Now O’Mara’s bottles are being displayed for all to see, something that Bradford City Mayor Tom Riel — himself a bottle collector — said that is a “preservation of local history.”
To his knowledge, Riel said that Hennard now has the largest collection of milk bottles in the county. Riel said he is happy that the collection is remaining together and that they hadn’t been sold off.
Bradford Township supervisor Gayle Bauer, who is an avid milk bottle collector and a former business partner of O’Mara’s, agreed with Riel.
“I’m glad it stayed together and that it stayed in Bradford,” Bauer said.
What is amazing is not the bottles themselves but the history behind them, Riel said.
Several people via Facebook have commented on the collection.
“Wow! This will be a really unique collection!” said Dominic Monti.
Judy Guichard Leblanc Champlin said, “Interesting subject one I know nothing about except the milk that used to be delivered to our door in bottles.”
Frances Runyan called the display amazing and that it is a fitting tribute to a “great guy.”
All told, Hennard has hundreds and hundreds of milk bottles. And Hennard said he has dozens more to go through.
Milk bottles aren’t the only blast from the past at the Afterwords Club. Hennard said he has tried to keep history alive by showcasing other local artifacts, such as from Kendall Oil. For many years the city library was also located at the present location of Beefeaters and the Afterwords Club.
