Holt-Delhi Historical Society

Mr. Vernon Sheldon was the original owner of the Holt Dairy Company from the late 1930s through the mid-1940s. Mr. Sheldon did not sell the business, he simply went out of business. However, it soon re-launched with new ownership of local dairymen who united to open the second iteration of the Holt Dairy.

In 1946, the Holt Dairy was started up again by Bill Fudge, George Yonkers, Hastes Roggow, and Howard “Bud” Dart. The men had worked for the Sealtest Dairy in Lansing. Fudge, Yonkers, Roggow, and Dart left Sealtest and re-booted the Holt Dairy. When they first started they were located at 2165 North Cedar Street in Holt (at the corner of Cedar Street and North Street).

The new Holt Dairy sold pasteurized milk and cream. In 1947, Arvid “Art” Rehkopf bought out Bud Dart. In 1948, Hastes Roggow was bought out; in 1949, George Yonkers was bought out and moved to Coldwater, Michigan where he started a dairy.

The Holt Dairy originally purchased milk from about thirty-five farmers in the area. By 1959, there had been a big push to change from the traditional way of getting milk from the farm in cans. The new method of getting milk was using tankers. At this point Bill Fudge and Art Rehkopf were the proprietors. The men could not afford the cost of using tankers so they became distributors of Borden’s Dairy Products.

In the 1960s, they were forced to purchase milk from Michigan Milk Producers. From 1959 to 1969 the Holt Dairy distributed for Borden. The arrangement with Borden’s Dairy Products lasted until 1969, at which time Fudge and Rehkopf dissolved the partnership and closed the Holt Dairy.

The Kahres Dairy Farm was established in 1906 in northern Delhi Township, just south of Miller Road, by Henry and Meline Lenz Kahres. Edgewood Blvd. passes through the original dairy farm and the original family home stood where Panera Bread now operates on Cedar Street. 

After I-96 passed through the farmland in 1960, the City of Lansing annexed the North District (including the Kahres Dairy), and increased urbanization surrounded the farm, the Kahres sold off their land north of I-96 and moved their primary operation to west Delhi Township. 

The Kahres operation developed over the years onto 6 different farms.