Hungry Toledo Cheese Days parade-goers line up to receive a free cheese sandwich in July 2018.
A century ago, workers in Toledo put the finishing touches on a new cheese factory that opened in May 1919, launching the Cowlitz Valley Cheese Association. By mid-May, the plant turned out 800 pounds of cheese a day.
The farmer milk shippers and directors of the new cooperative planned a celebration June 15, 1919, to mark the formal opening, according to a May 10, 1919, piece in the Oregon Daily Journal. That’s also the day they gathered to collect their first checks. In preparation for the event, the wives of the shippers and directors used product from the new plant to make cheese sandwiches, which they distributed to the people who gathered. They also served coffee.
Everyone had such a grand time they decided to make Cheese Day an annual event.
But it wasn’t Toledo’s first big celebration. In 1853, speakers and pioneers gathered at Cowlitz Landing for the Fourth of July celebration in the newly created Washington Territory.
On July 4, 1884, the town hosted a grand celebration featuring a procession in the public square and a march to the grove (behind the present-day Toledo Middle School). The program featured music by the glee club, a chaplain’s prayer by the Rev. Thomas Brouillette, reading of the Declaration of Independence by T.B. Mitchell, music, an oration by M. Yoder, and a basket picnic dinner, according to a 1978 Cheese Day program dug up by Michelle Whitten, Toledo’s city clerk/treasurer. After-dinner amusements included a “race by the two fattest men,” a sack race, and a grand ball in the evening, according to the original program found in the attic of one of the community’s oldest homes and reproduced in the 1978 booklet.
But Cheese Day began with the opening of the Cowlitz Valley Cheese Association’s plant in 1919. In 1920, farmers, residents, and others arrived in Toledo for the second Cheese Day in buggies, buckboards, boats, on horseback and even in the newfangled automobiles. At Day’s Grove picnic area, workers had erected a dance platform. The event featured speakers, a baseball game, and, of course, cheese sandwiches and coffee.
The Oregon Daily Journal reported in April 1921 that the cheese factory’s directors “decided to make the third annual celebration of that industry the biggest carnival ever held in Toledo.”
The following year, the Cheese Day celebration conflicted with the Holstein picnic, but showing a fraternal spirit, the Cowlitz Valley Cheese Association sent over a big chunk of cheese for their lunch, according to the June 30, 1922, edition of the Chehalis Bee-Nugget.
Despite the scheduling conflict, Cheese Day proved to be a grand party — some might say a bit too much.
When the Cowlitz Valley Cheese Association met in early 1923, the board decided to hold the Cheese Day carnival again but with a few changes.
“This year gambling games and games of chance will be eliminated and the committee promises nothing but clean amusements and drastic measures to prevent drunkenness,” the newspaper reported.
The association elected board members and discussed issues at the factory, such as “why some members started selling cream instead of patronizing the cheese factory,” according to a Feb. 23, 1923, article in the Chehalis Bee-Nugget. During 1922, the association paid $26,144 for milk (an amount equal to nearly $400,000 in today’s dollars).
By May 1923, the cheese factory had installed a new 30-horsepower boiler and received about 7,000 pounds of milk daily.
Early Cheese Day celebrations featured speeches, sports, music, and dancing at what they described as a large farmers’ picnic. At every event, organizers gave away free cheese sandwiches and coffee, although sometimes they asked people to bring their own cups.
In 1923, a merry-go-round ran during the day. The afternoon baseball game pitting the Toledo Cheesemakers against the State Training School in Chehalis went into 11 innings, but Toledo won 11 to 9. People danced at an outdoor ball that evening.
The cheese produced in Toledo was described as excellent. It was so good, in fact, that buyers offered to buy the cheese factory. In April 1926, the Bee-Nugget reported that the association’s directors were considering an offer from H.A. Karlen of Oakville over other propositions because his purchase would ensure steady operation of the plant, which it did, until 1945.
Next week I’ll write about the days when Cheese Days died.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
