The original Central Dairy Co. was founded by Dot Sappington and Clyde Shepard in 1920 about a half hour away, in the heart of Columbia, Missouri. Initially, items were produced in Columbia and sold there and in Jefferson City, but in 1932, Sappington sold his share of the Columbia business to his son and moved to Jefferson City to start a new Central Dairy at 610 Madison St. in 1933. The now-famous ice cream parlor was installed in the front of the building, with the production facility in the rear. Although both outposts used the same, now-iconic red-and-white logo and had many other similarities, they operated as separate companies. Phone-book records even indicate a third branch for a “home-owned” Central Dairy in Fulton, Missouri, throughout the 1940s, which might have been started by another Sappington. Central Dairy was one of the most prominent dairies in the area in the first half of the 20th century, even throughout the Depression. The Columbia facility continued to house Central Dairy’s sales and processing operations until 1959, when the business was sold to the Meadow Gold Dairy Co. Now home to an appliance store, a restaurant and lofts, the Columbia building remains on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1927, Central Dairy moved its dairy operations into the building at 1104 E. Broadway, and the words “Central Dairy” still appear in the terra cotta band above the main entranceway. In the early 1950s, longtime employees Leo and Tulah Hackman bought the Jefferson City branch of Central Dairy from Sappington. Tulah had started working in the dairy’s office in 1936, with Leo joining shortly after as a route driver. The Hackman family has been involved with the business ever since – Leo and Tulah’s son Gale ran the company for several years before passing it down to his son Chris. Gale says it was rewarding to work with his parents – Tulah even continued working at Central Dairy until a few months before she passed away at age 91. “Her dedication to her work – and to the company – was an inspiration to me, as well as all the employees,” Gale says. “Many employees started working here straight out of high school and stayed till they retired. When jobs opened up, many times there would be a line of prospective employees out the door and down the block.” Gale continued to work with his son at Central Dairy until 2010, when he retired, and he says he’s proud of the way Chris has moved the company forward. “When Christopher was in about the fourth grade, he had to write a report on what he wanted to be when he grew up,” Gale says. “He reported that he wanted to work with his dad at Central Dairy and be the president of the company ‘when his dad said he could.’” Central Dairy was acquired by Prairie Farms Dairy, based in Carlinville, Illinois, in 2007, but Chris stayed on as general manager (a title he also holds for the mid-Missouri division of Prairie Farms). He insists that not much changed after the takeover. “Instead of being a small, regional player, now we’re part of a multibillion-dollar company,” Chris says. “It’s allowed us to expand distribution and add more jobs while still maintaining the same formula and the same process that we’ve always had.”
P H oT
To this day, Central Dairy continues to use the same ingredients and formulas as it has for the past 80 years. This January, Central Dairy ceased operations on its longtime home-delivery service, but its range of products – milk, ice cream, sherbet, orange juice, Chip ‘n’ Dip, cottage cheese and sour cream – are still available in grocery stores throughout mid-Missouri.
oS C o u RT E Sy CENT RAL
Central Dairy mainly sources from the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative, which supplies the business with fresh milk from local dairy farms within a 60-mile radius of the Jefferson City plant. Milk is Central Dairy’s highest-volume product, and the company produces five varieties: 1 percent,
DA I R y