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The Early Years
No one knows what made John and Peter Schmid borrow $300 from a neighbor to buy a dairy that first day of 1909. Whatever the reason, the two sons of a Swiss immigrant took the money and purchased two horses, two wagons, an assortment of milk bottles, cans, dippers, and a hand-crank ice cream freezer. Thus, Smith Dairy was born.
The brothers set out each day that first year delivering about 60 gallons of milk to nearly 200 Orrville homes. Large cans of milk were packed on ice in the wagons to keep the milk cold and fresh during delivery. The Schmids stopped at each home, drew milk from a pail, and poured it into the pitchers each customer brought to them. The horses knew the route well enough that they could proceed to the next home without direction from  John or Peter.
It was not long before regular customers began to call John and Peter, "the Smith brothers", because that was easier to pronounce than Schmid. Thus, the name Smith Dairy was fittingly supplied by the customers who have made the business what it is.
The Schmid brothers set up their first headquarters in the basement of the Congdon Building on West Market Street in Orrville. They soon tired of hauling the heavy milk pails up and down the stairs and moved the business to street level at the corner of Vine and Market Streets. During the next few years, the Dairy was forced to move several times because it kept outgrowing its space. In 1924 they moved to North Vine Street, into the production facility that remains today. Since 1909, many expansions and remodeling projects have dramatically changed the building from its original design.
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