Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1916 — History of Ice Cream. [ARTICLE]

History of Ice Cream.

Many persons think that Dolly Madison invented ice cream, but Thyra Samter Winslow, writing in the Illustrated World, declares that uOl 1 i* disPn was merely the first person to serve it in America. This was at a White House reception during the administration of President Madison. The guests liked ice cream so well that they asked how it was made, and from this small beginning ' the ice cream business has grown until, according to a creamery ex pert who has followed the development of the business in America, tii<American people last year consumed 250,000,000 gallons, which, figured at SO cents a gallon, means a business of $200,000,000. The first Ice cream was made by a London confectioner, name Gunton, and from him others learned to make it, and it was introduced to America by Dolly Madison. But his methods of freezing were crude and uncertain. It remained for Nancy Johnson, the wife of an American naval officer, to invent the ice cream freezer. Today the ice cream business has outgrown the small freezer. Vast quantities are frozen by special machinery. The industry has become so great that fortunes have been made out of it. And every’ year it increases. During the last 10 years the consumption of ice cream in the I nited States doubled. In the north eastern states there has been a steady growth for many years. The southern and western states like ice cream especially in the summer, but in the northeastern states it has become a winter as well as a summer dish, although, of course, much more is consumed in the summer. When Ice cream became the national dish, the manufacturers demanded better dairy products, and they have done much in the campaign for clean milk The rise of the industry also created a large demand for flavoring.:, soda fountain equipmeht, etc., and it introduced a new' and profitable feature into the drug business. It is es timated that the average consumption in the United States is 60 dishes a year for each person.—Exchange.