Jones Dairy Farm is an American, privately owned food company that produces a series of meat products, including

breakfast sausage Breakfast sausage (or country sausage) is a type of fresh pork sausage usually served at breakfast in the United States. In the United States, the predominant flavorings used for seasoning are black pepper or sage. There are also varieties seaso ...

ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term "ham ...

, Canadian bacon, breakfast bacon,

scrapple Scrapple, also known by the Pennsylvania Dutch name ''Pannhaas'' ("pan tenderloin" in English), is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and wheat flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is for ...

, and liver sausage. The company was established in 1889. The Jones family has owned and operated the business since its establishment by Milo C. Jones.

History

In 1832, Milo Jones, a government surveyor, moved from

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, with his wife and two children, to establish a traditional dairy farm. This small family farm produced primarily cheese, but also raised pigs for their own consumption. In 1849, Milo C. Jones was born and soon joined his family in working the farm. At the age of 35 the younger Jones developed

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are inv ...

and was unable to continue working on the farm, however in 1889, with the family facing financial difficulty, he decided to begin a sausage-making enterprise in the family's cheese room using his mother's traditional family recipe that had been brought from Vermont. Milo Jr.'s sausage production technique was unique at the time: instead of pork trimmings, he made his sausage using ham, loin, and shoulder cuts. Milo Jr. began selling his sausage to Wisconsin grocers, neighbors and friends, but quickly expanded into large markets, such as

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and began delivering product by rail. Unlike most sausage makers of the day, Milo advertised heavily. This advertising originated with

direct mail Advertising mail, also known as direct mail (by its senders), junk mail (by its recipients), mailshot or admail (North America), letterbox drop or letterboxing (Australia) is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The d ...

, and expanded to national magazines like

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

Literary Digest ''The Literary Digest'' was an influential American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, ''Public Opinion'' and '' Current ...

and

Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Hous ...

as early as 1903. Jones Dairy Farm established a number of industry firsts. In the 1920s Jones was the first meatpacking company to quick-freeze sausage, which allowed shipping throughout the United States and abroad without the need for chemical

preservative A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or b ...

s. The company was also the first to introduce a line of fully cooked

and one of the first to offer a “light” breakfast sausage product. Jones also became one of the first meatpacking companies to operate a modern bacteriological laboratory on-site to monitor and test

food safety Food safety (or food hygiene) is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from ...

. The company is one of a handful of companies (and the only privately owned company) that meets the standards of the

American Association for Laboratory Accreditation American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, a nonprofit public service dedicated to the formal recognition of testing laboratories, inspection bodies and proficiency testing. After Milo C. Jones Jr.'s death in 1919, he was succeeded as president by his daughter, Mary. She was followed by her nephew, Alan Jones, in 1960 and then by his brother Edward Jones in the 1970s. Alan's son, Milo C. Jones III became president in 1983. Edward C. Jones, Jr. (son of Edward) became the seventh president in 1995 and his son Philip Jones, the great-great grandson of company founder Milo C., became president and CEO in 2001.

Location

Jones Dairy Farm is set on and encompasses the factory, crop fields, and the original

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a social fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate chapters (formerly colonies) in the United State ...

where Milo Jones I settled in 1843. On December 27, 1978, the property, except for the modern plant, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. This includes the old post and beam barn built around 1839, a greenhouse built in the 1840s, and the horse barn built in the mid-19th century. Also included is the farmhouse begun in the 1840s and expanded in the 1860s, 1910, and 1922, the sausage kitchen added in 1907 (designed by D.I. Davis and Associates of Chicago), a

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

house built by one of the Jones sons in 1897, and another built in 1930. With

Products

In addition to the original breakfast sausage recipe, which has remained unchanged since 1889, Jones also produces hams, bacon, Canadian bacon, liver sausage and

for both retail and foodservice customers. These are sold both in traditional supermarkets and grocery stores, as well as by special order from the company's website. Jones Dairy Farm owns

producers

Habbersett Habbersett is a brand of meat products founded in 1863 known for its production of scrapple. The brand was founded in Middletown, Pennsylvania and moved to Bridgeville, Delaware. Habbersett is currently owned by Jones Dairy Farm. Products Habber ...

and Rapa.

Sponsorships

Jones offers a number of products certified

gluten Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in certain cereal grains. Although "gluten" often only refers to wheat proteins, in medical literature it refers to the combination of prolamin and glutelin proteins naturally occurring in all grai ...

-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization, a program of the Gluten Intolerance Group, of whom they are a sponsor. Jones also promotes awareness of

celiac disease Coeliac disease (British English) or celiac disease (American English) is a long-term autoimmune disorder, primarily affecting the small intestine, where individuals develop intolerance to gluten, present in foods such as wheat, rye and barle ...

by sponsoring the Celiac Disease Foundation and is a benefactor member of the

Celiac Sprue Association The Celiac Sprue Association (CSA) is the largest non-profit celiac disease support group in the United States, with over 125 chapters and 65 resource units across the country, and over 10,000 members worldwide. History The Midwestern Celiac S ...

. In 2015, Jones sponsored an annual scholarship for culinary students at

Pennsylvania College of Technology Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn College) is a public college in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It is affiliated with, but a self-governing entity of, Pennsylvania State University. As an applied technology college (known by the locals and ...

References

External links

* {{coord, 42, 55, 17.3, N, 88, 50, 41.7, W, type:landmark_region:US-WI, display=title Jefferson County, Wisconsin Meat processing in the United States American sausages Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin 1889 establishments in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Jefferson County, Wisconsin