RE: (erielack) Milk Traffic

[James Sponholz <jsponholz_@_hotmail.com>]

The subject of milk traffic can't pass without the following excerpt from the September 20, 1885 edition of The New York Times (available online in The Time's internet archive).  Daniel "Buttermilk" Kenyon was a pioneer engineer on the Erie, spending most of his career hauling passengers between Jersey City and Paterson.  In 1852 he was assigned to run the Otisville milk train:

"At that time the track was about as smooth as the face of a currycomb. For a train to make schedule time under such circumstances was not always an easy matter. Leaving Otisville several minutes late one night Mr. Kenyon determined to put the train into Piermont on time, if possible, so as to avoid detention to the steamboat Erie, which brought milk to New York. The attempt was successful. He came in on time. The next day word reached Piermont that upon its arrival in the city almost the entire cargo was found to be worthless. The explanation of the phenomenon that it was entirely due to the churning process it received on the railroad was very generally accepted as true. When, therefore, one of the boys in the roundhouse, in referring to the circumstance, facetiously applied to the name of Daniel Kenyon the sobriquet of "Buttermilk," it sounded so strikingly appropriate that its adoption soon became universal. Indeed, some of the commuters and not a few employes of the road have become so accustomed to the expression as to forget his Christian name."

Jim

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