Dad: Milk and Frisco

Dad worked for the Okino Dairy at the time of my birth. I had never known anything about the dairy or even if that was the correct spelling so I sent an email to The Ozarks Mountaineer and asked if they knew anything about the dairy. They sent my request to the Springfield-Greene County Library and I received a mailing from them giving a bit of history. I should have known to ask them for an answer in the first place!

The Okino Dairy was started in the early 1900s and went out of business about 1960. Mr. Okino was of Japanese descent and did have problems at the beginning of World War II when people boycotted the dairy. It was a very prosperous dairy and delivered milk door to door. Dad hand delivered milk from a truck down in the Branson, Forsyth area for 10 cents a quart. During one of his routes he fell and cut his hand quite badly on the broken glass. It was a bit misshapen but did not hinder him from his activities. The Okino Farm was located on the old Danforth Farm 5-6 miles east of Springfield near the old Danforth Cemetary. The two story brick home, (the oldest in Greene County) was built by Mr. Danforth in 1849. The place was called the Danforth Plantation and was farmed with slave labor. During the war Union soldiers camped there and burned the slave quarter for firewood. After a skirmish in which several Union soldiers were killed, the bodies were buried in the cellar of the home and as far as anyone knows are still there today. We lived in a little house on the dairy farm and Mom used to tell how drafty and cold it was. We moved then into Springfield when Dad started work for the Frisco not long after I was born. Dad worked for the Frisco Railway until 1963 when he retired with a medical disability.

I asked, too, if anyone could find a bottle from the dairy and got word today that there are some available. I have since collected two of the bottles, well used.

My oldest son convinced me to try my hand at recording some family stories --