Amanuensis Monday: Melvin Vanevery's Cheese Creamery 1914-1915

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

This week I look at several reports in industry journals about my great grandfather's creamery business in Berclair, Texas - and a possible second location in Beeville.

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Manufactured Milk Products Journal, Vol 5, 1914, p. 310

Berclair, Tex. – What perhaps is the only institution of the kind in Texas began operations here this week. Mr. M. E. Vanevery, one of the most extensive apiarists in the state, has completed the erection of a creamery for the manufacture of cheese and the product turned out compares favorably with that shipped in from the North. The plant is equipped with silos and the ensilage has proven a success as a milk producer. The plant is located about two miles from town and is attracting much attention.

The Milk Dealer, Volume 4, 1914, p. 47.

Berclair, Tex. – Mr. M. E. Vanevery has in view the erection of an ice cream factory in connection with his cheese factory.

The National Provisioner, Volume 52, April 17, 1915, p. 20

The erection of a cheese factory at Beeville, Tex., is planned by M.E. Vanevery, of Berclair, Tex.



Texas Trade Review and Industrial Record, Volume 20, April 15, 1915, p. 114

Beeville, Tex – M.E. Vanevery, Berclair, Tex., plans removing his creamery plant to this city and greatly enlarging it.

The American Produce Review, Volume 40, April 21, 1915, p. 25

Beeville, Texas – M.E. Vanevery, of Berclair, who is an experienced cheese manufacturer and who is now making and selling a first-class product in his small factory at Berclair, wants to locate in Beeville.

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Notes:

1. I found these clippings in a Google Books Search. The clipping from Manufactured Milk Products Journal is identical to what appeared in The Galveston Daily News on Nov 29, 1914. The other clippings concerning a second location in Beeville are a new discovery. It is unclear whether the plans came to fruition. My great-grandfather still had a beekeeping business in Berclair in 1916. They moved across the state to Fabens, Texas, near El Paso,  in 1917, where he had a job as County Apiary Inspector.