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Photo postcard of De Laval Separator promotion at the H. F. Davis General Store, Boyero, CO, ca. 1910.

Photo postcard of De Laval Separator promotion at the H. F. Davis General Store, Boyero, CO, ca. 1910

Harry Francis Davis was born in Minnesota in 1873.  In 1904 he married Louise Wilhelmina Wilfert, and by 1908 he, Louise and their children were living in Boyero.  (Boyero, in Lincoln County, sits about 34 miles southeast of Limon.)   Davis served for a period of time as the Boyero postmaster, and It is in Boyero that Harry opened his general merchandise store to serve the needs of homesteaders. 

Over the years, Harry’s general store offerings branched out to include hay, coal, lumber, car parts, buggy tongues, corsets, tobacco cutters and, as you can see from the photo, Star Brand shoes, Mountain and Plain paint and De Laval centrifugal cream separators.   You’ll note from the caption at the bottom that it’s “De Laval Separator Day” at Harry’s store.  The separators must have been indoors, as I don’t see any in the picture. 

Harry was the Boyero area sales agent for the De Laval machines.  He ran newspapers ads inviting customers to “let us set up a machine for you on your place and have you try it out for yourself.…just phone or drop us a postal…”   Another ad stated, “With a De Laval cream separator you could get 20 to 35% more, and much better, cream, and besides have warm sweet milk to feed your calves and pigs.”  

The De Laval cream separator was Invented in 1877 by Carl Gustaf Patrik De Laval,  a Swedish scientist, engineer and inventor.  His invention was originally intended to be operated using a hand crank, but his company also offered electric motors to power their machines.   Their largest separator, the “Improved No. 22,” separated 675 quarts per hour, and their smallest, the “Improved No. 19,” 340 quarts per hour. The  DeLaval corporation is still in business.    

(Here’s a current YouTube link showing operation of a De Laval separator:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br0H1HfQu98). Note the bell that rings each time the operator completes one turn of the handle.  The fact that it’s ringing means that the machine hasn’t been brought up to the proper speed.    At proper speed, the bell goes silent.

Harry’s business eventually suffered, due to two events outside of his control.  One was the building in 1926 of Highway 40, which by-passed Boyero.  The second was the Great Depression.   Harry managed to hold out until 1937, when he closed the store.  Although he may have been down, he wasn’t out, as the 1940 Census for Boyero lists his occupation, at age 65, as that of merchant. 

Harry died in Boyero in 1951 at age 76, and Louise died in 1975 in the small Lincoln County town of Arriba at age 92.    Both are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Hugo, CO.

REFERENCES:

  • Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971 (www.ancestry.com)
  • U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Swedish American Church Records, 1800-1946 for Harry F. Davis (www.ancestry.com )
  • U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 (www.ancestry.com )
  • U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 for Harry Francis Davis (ref. www.ancestry.com )

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