Mehring milker: Alive and well at 66 years
BY LAURA ENGLAND
LEBANON Imagine for a
moment that you’re a dairy farmer
in the early 1900’s. You’ve got a
herd of 20 cows - a large herd in
those days - and must milk them by
hand every day, twice a day. It
takes about two hours to finish the
sometimes tedious chore.
Now imagine that the year is
1918. Technology is on the upswing
and more and more equipment is
being developed to ease the
back-breaking labor. One ot
those developments is a foot
powered milking machine
equipped with two milking units.
Imagine, milking two cows at once
and in half the time!
For 79-year-old Vema Deck of
Lebanon, all this “imagining”
became reality when she con
vinced her father, Aaron Bicksler,
to buy one of those new milking
machines. That was in 1918 when
she was 13 years old and the
milking chore was done by her and
her sister, Amy.
As Vema explained, the two
hour milking chore was handed
down to her and Amy while the
men of the family, her father and
two brothers, tended to field work.
“The men didn’t like to do the
milking,” Vema laughed, “so we
did it.”
That was OK with Verna, as she
attested to the fact that women are
known to be better cow milkers. At
the same time, however, she felt a
need for up-dated equipment to
make the job easier and more
efficient. That is when she saw an
advertisement in a magazine for a
Mehring Milking Machine.
“I saw the ad in a magazine,”
Verna recalled, “and I asked my
father if we could buy one. He said
yes but ‘only if you can take care of
it.”’
That would be no problem Verna
convinced her father, so the
Bickslers got their first milking
machine in 1918. It was the
Mehring model, introduced during
the early 1890’s, that Verna saw in
the magazine, and that was the one
she wanted.
The Mehring milker, which was
placed in the stall between two
cows, cut the milking chore in half.
It was powered by foot which
created a vacuum, drawing the
milk from the cow’s udder,
through the machine and into a
bucket.
Verna said she was more than
pleased with the milker. And
taking care of it? “During the
winter I brought it into the kitchen
so it wouldn’t freeze,” she ad
mitted lightheartedly.
Verna and Amy used the
Mehring milker for the next five
Harry Ressor, Lebanon, and his dog, Heidi, get ready to “churn butter" in this old
fashioned, dog-powered butter churner.
years, at which time the farm was
sold and the family moved to
Harrisburg. She attended Central
Pa. Business College and became a
secretary. With the farming bug
still in her, Vema became a far
mer’s wife when she married
Emanuel Deck in 1926.
With her marriage 58 years ago,
Vema started a new chapter in her
life. She and her husband lived in
Churchtown for six years and
bought their farm in 1931. They
farmed until 1955 when they sold
the dairy operation to their son,
Clyde.
As a farmer’s wife, Vema ex
plained, she was no longer
responsible for milking but took
care of the farm records. “When
we were married,” she said with a
chuckle, “my husband said ‘you’ll
be my secretary now. ’ ’ ’
From that point on and the time
the Bicksler family sold their 113-
acre farm near Fredericksburg,
Vema had a new role and was no
longer a “milkmaid.” But she
carried fond memories of her days
milking with the Mehring machine
and had a delightful surprise last
fall when she was reunited with the
same milker she used 66 years ago.
The story of how Verna was
reunited with her Mehring milker
reads almost like a fairy tale,
explained Harry Ressor, Lebanon,
who was one of the men respon
sible for the reunion. The milker
had been donated to the Alexander
Schaeffer Farm Museum in
Schaefferstown by George Crall,
and it was there that Ressor
realized he had seen a similar
milker before.
“I used to play with one when I
was a kid,” Ressor recalled, “and I
(Turn to Page A3B)
Verna (Bicksler) Deck, pictured at 18 years, convinced her
father to buy a Mehring milking unit in 1918.
With the help of Harry Ressor, left, and Peter Horst, Verna Deck, center, shows off her
Mehring milking machine, complete with two milking units and its own dumping station
the bucket held by Horst.
- I
Reunited with her Mehring milking machine, Verna Deck
demonstrates how she once milked cows.
A close up of the milker shows the individual teat cups,
each equipped with a vacuum shut-off valve.