06/06/2019
The Hines Family is featured this month at the Mooseum.
Wilbur and Vada Hines bought an historic farm in Montgomery County (MD) from members of their extended family in 1946. The 73-acre farmstead was located off rural Strawberry Knoll Road north of Gaithersburg, and provided their growing family with a comfortable and memorable livelihood for the next two decades. The family farm was one of the county’s nearly 450 dairy farms that shipped milk and dairy products throughout the area and to the Nation’s Capital.
The Hines family milked their cows by hand, using a cream separator to get fresh cream, and selling it to the nearby creamery near Bowman’s Mill. They also formed a market route, selling cream, butter, and eggs throughout the Gaithersburg area. Fresh vegetables went to the local grocery store. Crops of corn, wheat, oats, and hay went to support the dairy herd. Tractors finally replaced the two Belgium draft horses.
A special family gathering will take place on Sunday afternoon, June 23, at the unique King Barn Dairy MOOseum near Germantown to tell their story of farming with horses, raising crops and hogs, and milking cows in the suburban Maryland county. They’ll meet the public from 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM.
A Hines family exhibit has also been established at the MOOseum’s 1930’s dairy barn in the South Germantown Regional Park, off I-270 and Md. Rt. #118. Family members will be on hand to discuss their dairy farming heritage that has seen Montgomery County’s dairy farm industry dwindle to only two dairy farms still operating in the county. The MOOseum opened for the season on May 4 and is open on Saturdays from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM through October.
The Hines family farm is posted prominently on the MOOseum’s unique electronic map board of Montgomery County dairy farms. Educational exhibits at the MOOseum have been designed to be of interest for all ages, and include a restored century-old milk wagon, a 1919 Model T milk truck, model trains representing rail transportation of milk, life-size models of dairy cows and Astronaut the famed Holstein bull. Samples of dairy equipment used in the county for the past 100 years are displayed and explained. Admission is free, although contributions are welcome. Come meet the Wilbur and Vada Hines family.