Join Alex Prizgintas as he uncovers Orange County, New York’s role in the American consumer use of fluid milk. Where many may speculate that these dairy products were solely popular due to the region’s superior agricultural landscape, history has instead shown that Orange County stood at the forefront of transporting and marketing fluid milk in the nineteenth century. Individuals instrumental in this creamy saga, from Erie Railroad station agent Thaddeus Selleck who first shipped milk by rail in 1842 to milk can pioneer Jacob Vail and the early milk bottle user Alexander Campbell all either were situated or had close connections to Orange County. The results of their efforts gave birth to the golden age of Orange County’s agriculture--one that fueled over 4,000 farms of all kinds by 1884 and kept dairy farms prospering into the mid-twentieth century. Alex tells this story through both historical research as well as his collection of over 700 milk bottles--a portion of which he brings to his lectures.
Alex Prizgintas is a graduate of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY where he studied Hudson River Valley History. A life-long resident of Orange County, he has given more than thirty programs over the past eight years in the tri-state area on various genres of local industrial history. Additionally, Alex has been published in peer-reviewed journals on topics covering Orange County’s dairy industry, local railroad lines, and the Ellenville Glass Works.