John Maki
Buttermaker: Skamokawa Creamery
(Submitted by Leroy
Maki)
My father,
John I. Maki (Jim) was a buttermaker for the Skamokawa Creamery for a number of
years and won awards for the butter he made. In 1928, he received a gold medal
(first place for the best butter of the show) in the Pacific Slope Dairy Show.
He was competing with buttermakers representing 14 Western States which
included Washington, Oregon,
California, Hawaii,
Idaho, etc.
He got a silver medal in 1928, 1929, and 1931 for the best butter in the State
of Washington.
He developed health problems and quit the butter making business in 1937 and
bought a dairy farm in Middle
Valley from the Frank
Koblitz family. I have written a family history of my family, mostly my
biography, and in it I have included a biography that was dictated to my
brother, Leonard. In it, Dad tells of his experiences in butter making. Right
after he was married in 1924, he worked first for a dairy farm and later began
working in the creamery at Grays
River. When the
buttermaker in Grays River quit, Dad applied for the position of
buttermaker in the creamery in Grays
River but was turned
down. Here is what he wrote:
“The local creamery [in Grays
River] merged with the Co-Op in Astoria. The
creamery put in a cold storage plant and a generator and furnished electricity
for the town. Now that I was married, I needed more money, and I asked
for a raise. The Manager of the Association turned me down, and said if I
wanted more money that I had to get a buttermaker's job. So, I quit, and
we moved in with Dad and Mother. We fixed up a small house in which to
live.
I
heard that there was a vacancy for a buttermaker in Skamokawa, so I went over
to interview for the job. They took me on trial, and if I made good, I
would receive $200 a month, which was good pay in those times. I left the
family at Grays River and boarded with some people in
Skamokawa. That fall [1928] I won a gold medal and two silver medals at
the Pacific Dairy Exposition. My job was secure. After the Christmas and
New Year's holidays, I moved the family to Skamokawa and rented a furnished
cottage.”
Dad worked for the Skamokawa
creamery for nine years, from 1928 until he purchased the Koblitz farm in 1937.
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