Archer (Archie) Bedell started his dairy farm in Brentwood NY circa 1915. It was in existence until 1946 when health laws were enacted requiring milk to be pasteurized. Until that time, raw milk, milk directly from the cow, was bottled and sold to customers.

   Archer Bedell owned three large tracts of land in Brentwood. He used one tract for his home, and dairy farm. This land was located on the Northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Candlewood Road. It was here that Archie had his farmhouse, two barns, a very large chicken coop, a piggery and a facility to bottle milk. The dairy was surrounded with many acres of pasture to graze the cattle.

Archer’s niece, Kathleen Baldwin Frost, and her husband Henry Frost Senior moved to Brentwood in 1920. The Frosts and Archer’s nephew, Jerry Baldwin, ran the dairy business with him. There were extensive fields on the second tract of land on the Southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Candlewood Road where grass was planted for hay and sugar beets were grown to feed the cattle in the winter. Potatoes were also grown here as a cash crop. The third tract of land was on the corner of Brentwood Road and Candlewood Road. This land was used to grow feed corn and hay. Archie bought 3 pigs at the Mineola fair each year and fattened them up with the feed corn. These pigs were slaughtered in the winter for family and friends to eat. The dairy farm had a large barn with enough stanchions for 20 cows and a stall for one bull. Another barn housed two horses. Archie used the horses for plowing the land and for pulling his wagon in the fields and on the dirt road (later paved and named Candlewood Road) between his tracts of land. There was a very large chicken coop to house the seventy-five hens and 200 capons. Capon chicks were bought in the spring and fattened up to sell. The hens provided eggs to sell to the customers in addition to the capons, potatoes and milk.

Archie, Henry and Jerry did the farming and tended the animals. They milked the cows twice a day. Kathleen took care of the dairy. She washed the bottles, bottled the milk and put it in the ice cooler overnight to keep it fresh before she and Henry delivered milk to customers. The milk route was in Brentwood, Bay Shore and Brightwaters, NY.

The Bedell Dairy Farm existed for about 30 years before it went out of business.

Information obtained from an oral history interview with Henry Frost Junior on 3/24/09.

-A. Bennett. History Newsletter May 2009.