Administrative/Biographical History
A major business enterprise in McHenry County and other portions of northern Illinois since the 1860’s and 1870’s has been that of dairy farming. It remains so today. In 1967 the production of milk was the largest single cash farm crop in the county. In addition to 1,000 dairy farms, there were also three large commercial dairy processing plants, including a Borden’s plant in Woodstock and two Dean Company facilities in Harvard and Huntley.
The Russel Putnam family farm, located in McHenry County in Harvard, Illinois, is one important representative of the dairy industry. In the 1940’s, the period for which we have records, it was active in a variety of dairy and breeding concerns. It was also in the 1940’s that Harvard, “Milk Center of the World”, began its annual Harvard Milk Festival held each June to honor its dairy farmers. A distinctive feature of the Putnam farm, which is no longer operational, was its breeding of Jersey, rather than Holstein or Hereford, cattle.
