05/15/2026
From Humble Roots to State of the Art: The McConnell Milk Receiving Plant
Part 5
When Kraft Foods Company took over the Miller Creamery, Everett Miller was tasked with a much larger project for McConnell.
The company was already heavily invested in the area with cheese and food plants in local communities, but they were intrigued by McConnell's central location of their farmers who supplied milk to them.
Kraft Foods wanted a milk cooling station to be built in McConnell and Everett Miller was tasked with the project in 1946.
He chose land adjacent to the west of the creamery as a good location for the plant.
A house on the lots, owned by Wells Shippee and his sister, former McConnell postmistress, Ida Shippee, needed to be removed before the project could begin.
Kraft had the house moved north onto a lot at the east end of Maple Street, where it remains to this day.
With the lots cleared, excavation work began and the final construction details of the factory were set.
The plant was built of concrete blocks, red brick, poured concrete roof, glazed tile interior for intake, tank, and compressor rooms.
Other rooms in the plant were a boiler room, laboratory, office, receiving with overhead awning with intake conveyor, and modern shower and changing room.
The plant was equipped with a 35,000 pound holding tank and space for a similar additional cooling unit.
Once the milk plant was finished, the McConnell station was considered one of the most modern, state of the art facilities in the nation.
Kraft could receive milk from 80,000 to 90,000 pounds daily by milk haulers on their local routes.
When the milk trucks arrived at the plant, the milk was tested, weighed, and cooled immediately then allocated to the local Kraft Cheese Factories.
On December 16, 1947 Kraft announced that they had transferred ownership of the McConnell milk plant to the J.D. Roszell Company (Sealtest) from Peoria, IL. Both Kraft and Roszell's were subsidiaries of National Dairy Products Corporation.
Everett Miller was retained as the manager of the McConnell plant.
The Roszell Company wanted to use the Grade A milk received at the plant to fill expanded demands for fluid milk, cream, and ice cream. Uninspected milk was then sent to other dairies.
The partnership with Roszell's allowed the local farmers to have a much broader market for their milk output.
Several local trucking companies purchased milk trucks to haul the larger volumes.
Some of these companies were Ulan Schultz Trucking, Kleckler & Anderson Trucking, Ralph Heid Trucking, John Holmes Trucking, and others.
Daily routes from the McConnell plant to the Roszell Sealtest plant in Peoria were established for many years.
Everett Miller stepped down as McConnell Milk Plant manager in 1949 when he moved to Brodhead, WI and Harold Alley took his position.
That same year the J.D. Roszell Company Trophy was created for the Stephenson County Fair Grand Champion, Dairy- Female, Jr. dept. and this trophy was used for decades for the fair winners.
In the 1950's the old creamery next door was remodeled into a garage for trucks.
The milk plant buzzed with activity for many years until the local dairy industry slowed, and by the early 1970's changing industry standards and modernization deemed to McConnell milk plant as no longer useful.
Roszell's was also struggling financially, and it was announced that the plant would be closed on October 4, 1972.
The building sat idle for about a year when the Gary Pontnack family purchased it for a poultry processing plant beginning in 1974.
