Roselawn Dairy, located northeast of Menasha on Manitowoc Road, like many others in the community was eventually a victim of the large milk producers who could undercut the price points of smaller concerns and "bring the savings home" to consumers. But at what cost? The same mentality that Wal-Mart and big box grocers later used to drive smaller competitors out of business was at work here.
The protective caps shown above are products of a by-gone era, when milk came in bottles that were reused again and again. The four digit phone number dates these caps to the late 1940s.
June 5, 1961 Appleton Post-Crescent
You can see from the letter above, that Roselawn was one of the victims of this 1954 "milk war." By 1967, Gear and Marten's would be gone too.
Rosé lawn was one of last to offer un homogenized milk. When temp was below freezing the cream at the top would pop from the bottle and be cut off with a knife by my father. I expect every family taste tested the outsider milk and found no difference. So much for local merchant loyalty even in the 50s. Ask the Menasha merchants who saw their business go to College Ave. in Appleton if they were surprised.
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