Domser Family

[dave]

Bobbbiez mentioned her dentist's name is Domser, and that was a familiar name to me, having grown up in Utica.

I remember a Domser's Dairy (I thought) and also a Domser Road somewhere off of Trenton Road when I was a kid. Google maps shows that today there is a dead end/cul de sac of what's left of Domser Road that now leads off of Mulaney Rd. where Trenton Road crosses over Horatio Street. (There are also Domser Roads in Boonville and in Constableville, two areas where the Domser family immigrated to from German before 1850.)

John Domser was responsible for the organization of the first telephone company in the Boonville-Lowville area. Also, Adolph Domser ran a hotel in West Leyden in the 1800's.

Here are the genealogical entries:





Coming down closer to our time, we have Ira F(rancis) Domser, who evidently ran the Domser Creamery when I was a kid.





Ira involved himself in politics. He ran and won the 42nd District Assembly seat in 1948 and was labeled as the Assemblyman from Deerfield in a 1950 OD article regarding Junior Drivers Licenses.

Not all of Ira's constituents were happy with him, however. For one thing, he voted for his own interests regarding the tax on oleo and colorings. Here's a letter to the editor of the Observer Displatch in 1950.
(Click once or twice to enlarge.)



In any event, he became the victim of snarling Fred Rath of Utica. (I don't really know if Rath snarled, but he was a friend of my uncle, who did snarl, and besides, I like the name.) He was not a customer of mine, but each day on my paper route I would walk by Senator (as we called him) Rath's house on the corner of Sherman Street and and Sunset Avenue, just a couple of blocks north of Faxton Hospital.

Fred Rath trounced his competition, including Ira, thus:

42nd District:
1954 Nov 2: Fred J. Rath (Rep), elected; Ira F. Domser (Dem & Liberal), defeated.
1956 Nov 6: Fred J. Rath (Rep), elected; G. Carl Morse (Dem & Liberal), defeated.
1958 Nov 4: Fred J. Rath (Rep), elected; Joseph G. Herbst (Dem & Liberal), defeated.


Ira F. Domser kept active in politics and was well known politically within his party.





Ira ran once more, this time for State Senator, in 1962. He gave it one more shot.





He lost.

42nd District:
1962 Nov 6: Fred J. Rath (Rep), elected; Ira F. Domser (Dem & Liberal), defeated; Clarence Malone (Independent Conservative), defeated.

And that's why we always called Fred Rath "the Senator."

I don't know if the dentist(s) are Ira's sons or nephews, or if they're from a more distant arm of the family.

I'm sure Clipper remembers Domser's Creamery, and probably much more about the family, since he grew up in that area. And others of you, too. What say?

[Clipper]

I am not sure what relationship exists between Ira from the Creamery and Ira the dentists, father and son. I went to school in the 7th grade with the Ira that is a dentist now. His dad worked on my teeth back in the 50's, and lived across the lake from me when I lived on Kayuta Lake.

[bobbbiez]

Nov 15, 2012 22:26:02 GMT -5 Clipper said:

I am not sure what relationship exists between Ira from the Creamery and Ira the dentists, father and son. I went to school in the 7th grade with the Ira that is a dentist now. His dad worked on my teeth back in the 50's, and lived across the lake from me when I lived on Kayuta Lake.

Clip, don't think you went to school with Ira. He's much older then me as far as I know. His son, Mark, has been running the office for quite a few years now. Don't remember what year his father, Ira, retired but do remember Mark did my oral surgery back in 1987.

I have an appointment with Mark on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day and will ask him about his family's history. If not sooner cause I usually see him in church on Sundays.

[dave]

Well, Ira F., the NYS Asemblyman and owner of the creamery, was born in 1890. He could have fathered an Ira junior by 1910 to 1915. That would probably be too early for Ira the dentist, but Ira F. could have fathered Ira the dentist much later.

[Clipper]

Mark is the one that I went to school with. I don't think he was in my grade. I think that Mark is younger than I am also. His dad was still practicing though when I was a teen on Keyes Road and he was our dentist. Ira is the one that is elderly now and had the summer home across the lake from us on Kayuta. Is the office still in the white house kitty corner from Byrne Dairy, just East of the old St Peter's?

[bobbbiez]

Clip, yep it is for 52 years that I know of. Was suppose to have an appointment tomorrow but they call to cancel because when they scheduled me they forgot it was a holiday weekend for most. Good thing cause I have a sinus infection and I would have canceled the appointment anyways.

[Clipper]

I remember how I used to find it weird that they would require a parent to pick you up from Seymour School for a dental appointment, when all I had to do was walk across the street, and walk back after my appointment. My mom used to have to take time off from work to come and get me out of school. I used to tell her to just go back to work, and that I did not need her to hold my hand while it got a simple filling. She would go back to work and when I was finished at Domser's office I would walk across the side street and go back to school.

Dave, I don't remember where Domser's Creamery was located. Does anyone know? I remember Muller's Dairy, Flanigan's Dairy, Hameline's, Sunset Dairy, Holland Farms, and Belvedere, but I can't envision where Domser's was located, or picture their plant in my mind.

[dave]

Clipper, I don't remember where any of the dairies you mentioned were. I only remember the Graffenberg Dairy, because across the street from it was a sort of a pit that formed a hill we would slide down in winter. The Dairy was roughly across from McGuirls, or what I presume today we would call the old McGuirl's.

[dave]

Ira F. Domser was the "Assemblyman from Deerfield," and something else I came across pointed to that area as the location of his Creamery. That could be anywhere from the N.Utica or Deerfield corners up Trenton Road for some distance. He probably had a farm to serve the creamery, but in those days they were close by. I remember an old farm on the left going up Trenton Rd. from the Corner BEFORE you even got to where the firehouse is today. And as I mentioned before, there is a Domser Drive that runs off Mullaney up on top of the "first hill" that looks like it was cut off when the new route 12 was put in during the 1960's.

[dave]

I've seen a number of Domser Creamery's ads in my search of old newspaper, but none of them ever had an address. It leads me to suspect they may not have had a retail location, but sold their butter through grocery stores. So we won't find a store and with a creamery operation out back. There are various mentions of one "Domser Farm" or another in the Boonville Herald and Rome Sentinel, but they're in locations like West Leyden to Fish Creek. Ira could have bought the milk, rather than had his own cows. He might have bought from his relatives or any farmer, for that matter.

[Clipper]

I had forgotten about Graffenburg Dairy Dave.

Let me refresh your memory as to the location of some of the dairies as I remember them in the 50's and 60's. You may remember some others in addition to Graffenburg Dairy that I have forgotten.

Hameline's Dairy, Whitesboro St. on the highlands, just West of the point with Court St. approximately where the convenience store stands now.

Sunshine Dairy, Court Street just East of Sunset Ave.

Belvedere, Eagle Street near either Hammond Ave or Kossuth

Muller's Dairy, Waterbury Ave, just of Westmoreland St at the top of the hill.

Holland Farms, Cider Street in Oriskany

Flanagan's Dairy, River Road in Marcy, corner of Maynard Drive.

North Utica Dairy, North Genessee Street, next to the Thruway overpass.

Dari-del, Lower Broad Street at Dyke Road.

And last but not least, your Graffenburg Dairy, on Eagle Street between Mohawk and St Vincent St.

Now that we have wander far from Ira Domser the politician, I still am in a quandary as to where the creamery was located.

Russell (Tiny) Williams lived on Trenton Road, just above the present day firehouse, on the right hand side going North. He operated North Utica Dairy. My memory is foggy as to whether he started that dairy plant in a long building behind what was his home at the time, before moving it to the bottling plant, store and lunch counter on North Genessee Street. ( the building later became the Diplomat Restaurant) I am wondering if that was not originally the Domser Creamery before Williams bottled milk there.

In your article about Ira Domser, you noted that he sponsored a tax on oleo and coloring. I remember my grandmother buying oleo in a pouch with a color bead inside the pouch. She always let me squeeze the bag and massage the color through the bag of oleo. I can still envision the small Fiesta Ware dish with a cover, that she used for a 'butter dish" at the time.

I don't remember any creameries around the area that didn't sell other dairy products. Domser's may have been before my time, or my family simply didn't use their butter. We were an "oleo family" when I was growing up. Blue Bonnet was our brand and I remember it being much better tasting than the stuff they sell now.

My first experience with a creamery was when I visited my French Canadian cousins for two weeks each summer in Buckingham, Quebec. They milked about 50 cows and shipped just the cream. There was a cream separator in the barn, and when the cream was separated from the whole milk it went into a short cream can, while the skim milk ran into a full sized milk can or pail. The milk was fed to the calves, cats, dogs, and pigs. the cream went to the creamery, where in their case it was made into butter and ice cream. There was never a better tasting ice cream than the Canadian, real cream, ice cream that they made there. They had a neighbor that also came by and took some of the milk to feed his hogs. Having worked on US farms, it amazed me that the major portion of the milk produced ended up in a hog trough.

I apologize for going so far away from the politics of Ira, but you have a way of awakening memories of my childhood and I love to reminisce about the days when our generation enjoyed the vibrant and booming City of Utica.

I feel a certain sadness for the latest generation growing up there and not knowing any of the great places we enjoyed. I feel badly that many of them will remember nothing more than drinking on Varick Street and shopping in New Hartford. Netflix can never take the place of the Saturday Matinee at the Avon or Olympic.

[dave]

We certainly don't want to prevent ourselves from going off topic for the sake of some dead politician!
Especially since politicians are noted for that same habit.

"We were an "oleo family" when I was growing up. Blue Bonnet was our brand and I remember it being much better tasting than the stuff they sell now."

That reminded me: If a food product didn't come from the A&P, we would not have heard of it. My father did the weekly shopping, He just enjoyed shopping for food, had always volunteered to do it for his shift when he was a UFD fireman, and my mother considered herself lucky to have one less chore each week. Dad bought EVERYTHING at the A&P, except for what might be needed during the week from Walter's, down the street. And milk delivered, of course, from Graffenberg, I think. Whoever delivered, it was via horse drawn milk wagon, that I remember well. Can you believe it? Right up through 1952. And the reason was at the outbreak of WW II, many delivery services went back to horses to save rubber and gasoline. At the end of the war in '47, they weren't about to buy an entire new fleet of new trucks all at once and shoot the horses, so they gradually switched back over to gas power.

[chris]

You forgot Tolpas Dairy. When we lived there my mom had the milk delivered to our door. (and he left cheese and eggs too if ordered) I think they were in West Utica over by Sunset someplace.

[dave]

Nov 24, 2012 12:15:50 GMT -5 chris said:

You forgot Tolpas Dairy. When we lived there my mom had the milk delivered to our door. (and he left cheese and eggs too if ordered) I think they were in West Utica over by Sunset someplace.

Oh, yeah! And I can remember riding by Tolpas on my bike, but for the life of me I can't place it. Lincoln Ave?

[dave]

We're getting closer to Domser's location. Just found this from 1958.

Click to read, twice if using Firefox.