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Posted: 01 Jan 2024

Taken: 31 Dec 2023

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One-Minute Churn, L. H. Chambers, Cumberland, Maryland

One-Minute Churn, L. H. Chambers, Cumberland, Maryland
A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of pick your own (post a photo depicting your favorite theme from the past year).

As my favorite of the year, I'm choosing the theme of pick a particular format (daguerreotype, cabinet card, CDV, real photo postcard, cyanotype, slide, Polaroid, or what have you?). And among those formats, I'm selecting real photo postcard, as I did previously in March (see Foursome Flying over Long Beach, California, 1914).

I took a quick look at my postings to the Vintage Photos Theme Park during 2023, and I discovered to my surprise that the majority of my weekly contributions -- more than thirty! -- were real photo postcards.

This photo postcard, captioned "One Minute Churn, L. H. Chambers, Cumberland, Md.," shows Lorenzo Hazell Chambers (1877-1958) standing next to a mechanical butter churn. He has a wide grin on his face, and he's resting his left hand on top of the churn.

Perhaps Chambers intended to use this card as an advertisement for selling churns (the One-Minute Churn Company solicited sales agents -- see the company's ad below), even though the photo quality is poor and the image seems quite cloudy.

This real photo postcard is unused, without any address, message, stamp, or postmark. The Kruxo stamp box design on the other side suggests a possible date that may be as early as 1908 to 1910. Also printed on the verso: "The C. C. Bickert Post Card Co., Hagerstown, Md."

The following advertisement for the patented One-Minute Churn appeared in Hardware magazine, April 10, 1905, p. 11.

Butter in One Minute

The only perfect milk and cream aerator churn in the world, making the best granular butter from sour or sweet cream in a minute -- which we guarantee -- is the One Minute Churn. Protected by 57 patents.

Its construction is perfect in every detail. All parts interchangeable and carried in stock. Easy to run, holding 1 quart to 13 gallons.

For farm and family use.

Our Catalogue tells all. Mention Hardware.

Agents wanted. Cable address: "Minute" or "Murphite" New York.

I. M. Murphy, president.

The One Minute Churn Co., Inc., 9 Old Slip, New York, U.S.A.

Nouchetdu38, John FitzGerald, Deborah Lundbech, Smiley Derleth have particularly liked this photo

Comments
 Deborah Lundbech
Deborah Lundbech club
Wonderful slice of history, Alan. Dairy farms in Vermont were forever changed in the 50s when the milk churns were discarded as not profitable enough by the delivery companies, and bulk tanks took their place. if the farmer could afford them.
Not sure of the impact of the one minute butter churn, though.
How did you find out that Mr. Chambers was the Lorenzo Hazell of the findagrave entry?
10 months ago.
 Alan Mays
Alan Mays club
Thanks, Deborah! My mother's parents were dairy farmers in western Pennsylvania, and they had a milk cooling tank. I'm not sure if they ever used any kind of churn.

I don't have any direct concrete evidence that proves that the "L. H. Chambers" in the photo is the same person as the "Lorenzo Hazell Chambers" listed in Find A Grave. But after searching through many years of the city directories for Cumberland, Maryland, and checking many other sources, I'm convinced that no one else fits the bill.

This Chambers often used the initials "L. R." or was cited as “Lorenzo H." During the time when he had his picture taken for this photo postcard (circa 1910), he was either a traveling salesman or an insurance agent, which makes me think that selling something else, like One-Minute Churns, may not have been that different for him. He continued as an insurance agent until at least 1920, and then he was listed as a candy company salesman in 1925 and 1927. After that, he became a policeman in Cumberland from around 1930 through at least 1949. His name appears in directories with no occupation indicated from 1952 to 1957, and he passed away in 1958.

Of course, it’s possible that I have the wrong L. H. Chambers, and there may have been another reason for the photo other than as a potential advertisement. But it’s interesting to try to figure out why a photo like this exists and what it was used for.
10 months ago.

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