Oliver C. Ritchey founded Ritchey's Dairy on August 3, 1940, in the rural town of Martinsburg, PA. A farmer for most of his life, his dream was to operate a dairy. He realized this dream on his farm with 46 milking cows and a 36' by 40' processing building.

The business began with two home delivery routes and a dairy store. Golden Guernsey milk, cottage cheese, ice cream and other milk products were packaged in the early years.

In 1943 his son, Paul Ritchey took over as general manager of the dairy. Over time, the dairy grew larger, expanding its delivery routes to cover the Altoona area in the early 1950's. The dairy stopped processing cottage cheese in the middle part of that decade to concentrate on the growing market of ice cream.

In 1962, the dairy bought its first cardboard container packaging equipment. The first machine did not seal the tops of the milk carton, so the tops were stapled shut!

On the occasion of our 25th anniversary in 1965, we celebrated with our first and only four-sided glass milk bottle. The dairy continued to process milk in glass bottles until 1968.

Paul turned to his son Reid to lead the dairy in 1973. Reid had been a delivery driver for the dairy, and had started the Altoona routes. Reid reformulated all the recipes for the ice cream, and continued to expand the business. In 1987, the plant was enlarged to separate the ice cream production from the milk processing part of the plant. Extra refrigeration and warehousing rooms were also added.

The dairy celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1990 with various specials and an extra treat - 5 cent ice cream cones for the first weekend of August.

Over the past ten years, the changes have been numerous. Our fleet of trucks have been converted from gasoline to diesel power. We also added extra warehousing space in 1995, as well as a new cooler warehouse in the summer of 2000.  We remodeled the salesroom in 2002. The processing plant was remodeled  in 2003 and new machinery was added.  We also introduced new light blocking white plastic jugs in 2003.

In 2010, we added a new dry storage area and increased our freezer storage by 100%.  We also remodeled the salesroom, offices, and restrooms.  We added new tables and umbrellas outside for people to enjoy their Ritchey's products.

Having now passed the 70 year milestone, we want to thank both our employees and our customers for the loyalty you have shown to us. We have been proud to serve all of you, and to get to know your communities over these many years.


Ritchey's Dairy picture gallery
(click on pictures to see larger version of them)

Andrew and Tammy at W.S. Lee show