History of the P.E. Sharpless Company

P.E. Sharpless Co. plant in Concordville; photo courtesy of Concord Township Historical Society archives

CREAMERY BEGINNINGS

Pennock Edwards Sharpless began commercial dairying in 1873, manufacturing a high-grade "gilt-edge butter" and selling 50 lbs. weekly to private customers in Philadelphia. He initially used hand-skimming, a process of pouring milk into pans and removing the cream top by hand. 

He sold his butter directly from his wagon to circumvent market stall rent. He is considered the first Pennsylvanian to buy milk from farmers and manufacture butter commercially, and he began purchasing milk from a neighbor's dairy for 4 cents per quart. Pennock realized that owning the dairy cows was not a sound business choice, and instead opted to buy milk from local farms in his neighborhood. His operation quickly grew to sourcing milk from over 20 area dairies.

P.E. Sharpless Gilt Edge Butter Carriage photographs, date unknown. Emma Leuschner personal collection.

Advertisement in Atlantic City Gazette-Review on 24 July 1885 / Advertisement in Newport Daily News (Newport, RI) on 11 June 1890 / Advertisement in The Philadelphia Times on 10 January 1889

In 1876, Pennock established the first commercial creamery in Pennsylvania, in the town of Toughkenamon, and imported a centrifugal cream separator known as the "Danish-Weston," which was reportedly the first imported separator used in the United States. His butter became popular around the Philadelphia area, garnering noteworthy write-ups in newspapers such as The Philadelphia Times and The Lancaster Examiner, where journalists described Pennock's butter as a "golden morsel" that consumers would "never put tongue to anything so toothsome." 

Article in The Eureka Post (Eureka, SD) on 5 May 1910

The establishment and boom of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Concord Township during the 1870s prompted Pennock to move his plant to Concordville, PA, in the mid 1880s to ship his products faster and farther.

By the mid 1880s, Pennock purchased the Concordville plant in Ward Village from the Concord Dairy Association and began butter and cottage cheese production at this plant. At the time of purchase, the Concordville creamery had a capacity for processing 15,000 lbs. of milk. However, an arson attack in June 1900 destroyed the Concordville Creamery. 4,000 lbs. of butter and a total estimated loss of $15,000 (equivalent to $540,000 in 2023) were reported. However, the Concordville plant was immediately rebuilt.

Train pulling into Concordville Station, photo courtesy of Concord Township Historical Society archives / P.E. Sharpless Co. creamery in Concordville, photo courtesy of Concord Township Historical Society archives / Concordville Map c. 1900

ESTABLISHING A DAIRY EMPIRE

Pennock organized the P.E. Sharpless Company into a corporation in 1902. He rapidly expanded his reach, opening offices in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Philadelphia and operating seven branch creameries in Delaware and Chester Counties. The Lancaster Examiner reported in March 1902 that P.E. Sharpless Company butter was popular in large cities such as Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore, and in Washington, D.C., and even at the White House during the administrations of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. In January 1904, the P.E. Sharpless Company was granted a charter from the State, with a capital of $52,000 ($1.7 million in 2023).

Article in The Lancaster Examiner, 5 March 1902 / Article in The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, 7 January 1904

In October 1906, Pennock opened a milk condensery plant in Rising Sun, Maryland. Building plans show a 115 x 44 ft. one-story building made of stone and frame, situated along a stop on the Baltimore Central Railroad. The most milk handled in a single day at the Rising Sun condensery was 34,232 lbs. in 1908. Pennock installed a state-of-the-art electric filtering system at the Rising Sun plant to reduce pollution in a nearby creek. In 1912, the condensery specialized in a new form of unsweetened sterilized milk for household use, known as the "Acorn brand." Their marketing slogan was "Keep your cow in the pantry using Acorn brand of sanitary sterilized milk."

Pennsylvania State Pure Food inspectors noted in 1911 that the Rising Sun condensery was exceptionally clean and hygienic, and that the P.E. Sharpless Company was a leader in cleanliness among all inspected plants.

Rising Sun, MD, condensary plan, photo courtesy of Cecil County History Facebook page / Sharpless Acorn Brand Milk label, photo courtesy of eBay / Article in The Philadelphia Inquirer on 17 May 1906

By December 1908, the P.E. Sharpless Company purchased five buildings in Philadelphia on Eleventh and Reno Streets. The Sharpless Company subsequently purchased the former S.G. England creamery in Zion, Delaware. In 1910, the Sharpless Company acquired the former William W. Sharpless plant in Toughkenamon, Pennsylvania, which was outfitted with modernized condensers.

At the Concordville plant, the company began construction of a 75-by-25-foot brick building for cheese manufacturing and storage. John B. Fassler, a German-born master cheesemaker, was hired in 1910 to oversee the production of Neuchâtel and Philadelphia cream cheese at the Concordville plant in Ward Village. Fassler had a decade of cream cheese-making experience and taught cheesemaking in Switzerland for a period. At the time of Fassler's hiring, the Concordville plant reported daily milk use of 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. for cheese and butter production. A year later, the Concordville plant reported using 11,000 lbs. of milk daily.

Article in The Midland Journal (Rising Sun, MD) on 4 February 1910 / Article in the New York Produce Review and American Creamery, 1907 / Article in the New York Produce Review and American Creamery, 1910

FOOD AND DRUG ACT VIOLATIONS, LAWSUITS

Despite widespread commercial success, the P.E. Sharpless Company was found to have committed several violations of the Food and Drug Act in the 1910s. In 1910, the P.E. Sharpless Company pleaded guilty to mislabeling cheese shipped into New Jersey as "Neuchâtel" when the cheese was, in fact, not Neuchâtel. In 1911, the U.S. government seized 55 barrels of condensed milk at Camden Station in Baltimore because the milk had been skimmed and butterfat removed without disclosure on the label. In 1913, the United States District Court found the P.E. Sharpless Company guilty in 3 cases in which the percentage of butter fat in its evaporated milk products was below 8% (the P.E. Sharpless Company was only ringing in at 5.5% butter fat). The P.E. Sharpless Company was fined $20 for each case ($600 per case in 2023). The United States Department of Agriculture also published notices of judgment against the P.E. Sharpless Company for mislabeling and adulterating its evaporated milk products shipped to New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia. The Department of Agriculture found that the Sharpless Company labeled their cans as "Evaporated Blended Milk" when the product was only evaporated skimmed milk. The P.E. Sharpless Company was found guilty in those 3 cases and fined $20 per case ($600 per case in 2023).

Article in The Philadelphia Inquirer on 19 March 1910 / Article in The Southwest Farmer (Wichita, KS) on 7 October 1910 /Article in The Baltimore Sun on 17 January 1911

The P.E. Sharpless Company also filed a heated trademark lawsuit with the William A. Lawrence & Son Company in 1913. The William A. Lawrence & Son Company is credited as the first to produce cream cheese in the United States and sold a trademarked cream cheese product featuring a cow on a tinfoil label under the moniker "Philadelphia Cream Cheese," despite being in New York state. William A. Lawrence brought the lawsuit against the P.E. Sharpless Company for trademark infringement on the use of the cow on their cream cheese label. The P.E. Sharpless Company lost the suit but won a later appeal.

Advertisement in The Evening Star (Washington DC) on 10 December 1915) / Lawrence et. al. v. P.E. Sharpless Co. / William A. Lawrence, photo courtesy of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation

GROWTH THROUGH WORLD WAR I

1914 was a turning point for the P.E. Sharpless Company, as they now operated five plants: Rising Sun, MD; Concordville, Toughkenamon, Bradford, and Troy, PA.

The P.E. Sharpless Company won a government contract from the Navy Bureau of Supplies and Accounts to produce 390,000 lbs. of evaporated milk for Navy soldiers serving in France during World War 1. This contract was valued at $23,972 ($730,000 in 2023). This contract continued through 1917, with many carloads of evaporated milk being shipped to New York City and overseas. The P.E. Sharpless Company sent a company motor truck filled with camping supplies for US Marines from League Island to West Chester in 1915 in support of the war effort.

Evaporated milk advertisement in the Delaware County Daily Times on 22 March 1912 / Article in the Midland Journal (Rising Sun, MD) 9 October 1914 / Article in the Midland Journal (Rising Sun, MD) 16 April 1915

The P.E. Sharpless Company continued to grow into the 1920s and secured a lease for the Perkiomen Dairy in Skippack, PA, to produce cheese. In 1919, the company purchased the former Supplee Milk Company's creamery in Cochranville, PA. The Cochranville Creamery was destroyed by a fire in 1923, with damages estimated at $12,000 ($212,000 in 2023). The P.E. Sharpless Company received a United States Patent for their process of making soft cheese in 1918 (Patent # 1,258, 438), a patent for their method of packaging and sealing perishables in 1921 (Patent # 1, 399, 270), and a patent for coating metal foil with paraffin in 1923 (Patent # 1, 466, 380).

Article in The Daily News (Lebanon, PA) on 24 December 1917 / Article in The News-Journal (Lancaster, PA) on 8 June 1923 / United States Patent #1,258,438

RISING SUN CLOSURE AND THE BEGINNING OF THE MILK WARS

After the rapid decline in demand for condensed and evaporated milk due to the end of World War I, the P.E. Sharpless Company's Rising Sun condensery closed temporarily in 1920. The plant eventually transitioned to a milk-separating station, separating the cream and sending the milk to the Concordville plant for processing. However, the Rising Sun plant was plagued by payment disagreements between the milk suppliers and the P.E. Sharpless Company. The Interstate Milk Producers Association of Philadelphia sued the P.E. Sharpless Company for $20,000 in 1924 ($350,000 in 2023) for breach of agreement in payment for milk to the Rising Sun milk producers. Several months later, the P.E. Sharpless Company sold the plant to Sheffield Farms of New York.

Article in The Baltimore Sun on 18 September 1920 / Article in The Baltimore Sun on 1 September 1924 / Article in The Midland Journal (Rising Sun, MD) on 24 October 1924

BREYER-SHARPLESS MILK ASSOCIATION

The Breyer-Sharpless Milk Association was formed in Philadelphia in 1921 by the P.E. Sharpless Company and the Breyer Ice Cream Company to handle fluid milk sales. The association was valued at $500,000 ($8.4 million in 2023), and it purchased a lot in Philadelphia for the construction of a milk-processing store. The Breyer-Sharpless Milk Association purchased a large, three-story manufacturing building in Philadelphia for $70,000 in 1922. However, the Breyer-Sharpless Milk Association slashed milk prices from 13 to 12 cents a quart in Philadelphia in 1923, causing rival milk suppliers difficulty making a profit. Dairymen across the region accused the Breyer-Sharpless Milk Association of undercutting the milk prices and refused to provide milk to the association. Because of this "milk war," the Breyer-Sharpless Milk Association filed for dissolution in December 1923.

Advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer 1923 / Breyer-Sharpless Milk Can from personal collection / Article in The Morning News (Wilmington, DE) on 31 October 1923

SHARPLESS-HENDLER ICE CREAM

The Sharpless-Hendler Ice Cream Company began in 1919 in Wilmington, Delaware, and later established a manufacturing plant in Baltimore, Maryland. It started in an old city garage in Wilmington, but later purchased a $200,000 ($3.5 mil in 2023) 4-story building as its plant. Pennock served as a company director, but his son Caspar Sharpless was the long-standing president. The company was sold to Borden's Dairy in the early 1940s.

Sharpless Ice Cream plant in Wilmington, DE in 1919, photo from personal collection / Advertisement in The News Journal (Wilmington, DE) on 24 September 1931 / Advertisement courtesy of OldWilmington.net

SALE TO KRAFT CHEESE COMPANY

The P.E. Sharpless Company sold its entire stock to Kraft Cheese Company of Chicago, Illinois, in 1924. Pennock's son, Caspar Sharpless, remained general manager of the P.E. Sharpless Company after the sale. At this time, cream cheese was commercially produced by only five companies in the United States: Phenix, Kraft, F.X. Baumert, Blue Label Cream Cheese Company, and the P.E. Sharpless Company. Kraft's purpose in buying the P.E. Sharpless Company was to acquire distribution facilities in the Philadelphia area. Kraft continued to buy cream cheese companies, merging with the Phenix company in February of 1928. Kraft registered the "Philadelphia Brand" trademark for its cream cheese product on June 18, 1941.

Excerpt from Kraft Foods Co v. Comm'r Internal Revenue, 1954 / Article from The Chester Times (Chester, PA) on 8 January 1926 /

SALE TO JUNE DAIRY PRODUCTS COMPANY FOR DISTRIBUTION

On November 3, 1928, the June Dairy Products Company Inc. of New York purchased the P.E. Sharpless Company but continued to operate under the Sharpless name. June Dairy Products was a butter and cheese distribution company established in Newark, NJ, and Miami, FL, with reported annual sales of $7 million in 1928 ($124.5 million in 2023). The Sharpless family ultimately divested any offices related to the P.E. Sharpless Company following this sale.

Article in The Evening Journal (Wilmington, DE) on 13 November 1928 /

LEGACY OF THE P.E. SHARPLESS COMPANY

The P.E. Sharpless Company had a tremendous impact on the southeastern Pennsylvania dairy industry as it grew into the 20th century. The Sharpless company was an essential leader in solidifying Philadelphia and the surrounding regions as a dairy powerhouse and bolstering the reputation of southeastern P.A. dairy products through its mass distribution along the East Coast via the railroad system. It was one of only 5 commercial creameries in the United States to produce and sell cream cheese in the 1920s, and the only one of those 5 located in Pennsylvania. The high reputation of Sharpless cream cheese and dairy products, along with their "Philadelphia" packaging labels, led to widespread recognition of Philadelphia as a center of quality dairy products. This is also evident after the sale of P.E. Sharpless Company to Kraft Cheese Company and Kraft's ultimate trademark of "Philadelphia Brand" cream cheese in 1941.

The P.E. Sharpless Company also set essential precedents in trademark law through the Lawrence v. Sharpless lawsuit over food packaging and the P.E. Sharpless Co. v. Crawford Farms lawsuit over a cream cheese patent infringement.

P.E. Sharpless Co. ephemera, courtesy of the Concord Township Historical Society archives

Today, only scant buildings remain that were once the powerhouses of the P.E. Sharpless Company empire. The Concordville plant was repurposed for a time as a cold storage food facility known as the Concord Food Bank before being used briefly as a facility for the Royal Mushroom Company. The buildings were entirely demolished in the latter half of the 20th century, and all that remains is a concrete foundation block and a small bridge over Ward Creek connecting the two stream banks. The land is now owned by the Newlin Grist Mill.

Miniature of the Royal Mushroom Cannery in the former P.E. Sharpless Co. creamery in Concordville, photo courtesy of Concord Township Historical Society archives / Concord Food Bank in the former P.E. Sharpless Co. creamery in Concordville, photo courtesy of Concord Township Historical Society archives

The P.E. Sharpless House is the only pristine local reminder of the Sharpless Dairy empire and is being recognized as such in recent years. The P.E. Sharpless House won the 2023 Preservation Award for Site Preservation from the Heritage Commission of Delaware County. The P.E. Sharpless House also received a Determination of Eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places from the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office in 2023 for both its Queen Anne Victorian architecture and for the historic significance of P.E. Sharpless. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 9, 2024. This house is a private residence and not open to the public.

P.E Sharpless House in Concordville, photo courtesy of the Concord Township Historical Society archives