USA 1930's - Ceylon Dairy
Ceylon, Minnesota

A Milk Bottle Top from Ceylon Dairy in Martin County, Minnesota. In 1912 Ole Tveidt began his delivery of milk in bottles, first by horse then by truck. The Ceylon Dairy was Founded in 1935 and was operated by Dagne and Frieda Tveidt following their marriage in 1937. The dairy continued operation until the mid 1940's. Ole Tveidt died in 1963. SPECIFICATIONS Alloy Paper Board Diameter 42.0 mm Thickness 1.1 mm Weight 1.08 gms Shape Round Edge Plain

Token Catalog #393421

Top : MILK at center with PHONE 76 below. Upper side of metal staple and cut around flip-up pull tab, inside two green and red plain circles between which CEYLON DAIRY on top and CEYLON. MINN. below. Outside along periphery FOR YOUR PROTECTION on top and WE USE SEALRIGHT SANITARY SERVICE below.
Back : Blank - Folded side of metal staple.

This is an unused Paper Insert Milk Cap from the 1930's. Just a little rust on staple that holds pop for pulling off milk jug, normal for age. Graffiti in ink on back reads - 1935 90qt 54pt m

Many dairys used to include it as the closure atop bottles of milk - some classical dairys still do! They were made of 2 layers of stiff board, with a flip-up pull tab, secured with a staple. It fit snugly in a groove on the inside of the bottle neck. The older milkcaps were waxed.

CEYLON DAIRY - OLE TVEIDT, PROP, Pure Milk and Cream - At Your Service

Jerry Rosenberg writes from Ceylon, MN I knew the second generation Farmer that run the Dairy at that time. Photo is of "Ole Tweidt" delivering milk with a Horse and wagon back probably even before the 30s The barn is still standing where they did the milking! There has not been a dairy in Ceylon for as long as I can remember. Tom Bents and his family live on the farm. He is son of Marlen Bents, President of the State Bank of Ceylon.

Two digit Phone Number is interesting. They now need 7-digits to call within the city of Ceylon MN, like much of USA. The major US cities with two overlaping area codes like Pittsburgh need 10 digits.
Jerry Rosenberg writes Regarding the two digit telephone numbers. I can only remember four digit when I was young and still home on the farm. We had the old crank up phone with one line, and about a dozen folks tied in together. Everyone had there own ring code - I remember ours was "long short long short".. Central in town did all the long distance. We would just ring up central and give her the number, and she would take it from there. We now use seven numbers locally - Ceylon - Fairmont - Welcome. .

The Milk bottle Top was scanned at 300 dpi and the images are displayed at 254 dpi. It was purchased on Ebay in 2004 February. I thank Gerald Rosenberg of Ceylon MN for information and images about the Ceylon Dairy.

See also the Ceylon MN token site for more stories.

Collecting antique milk bottle caps goes hand-in-hand with milk bottle collecting which has a national Association ( NAMBC ), with an annual Convention held in Hershey, Pennslyvania.