Cheese War
| Timeline | ||
| 1965 | ||
| Event Date | Event | Source (See key below.) |
| 4-12-1965 to 4-16-1965 | County Creamery filed a $10 million antitrust suit against Cheese & Dairy, along with a $10 million antitrust suit against Red Clover. Earlier, Cheese & Dairy and Red Clover asked for a combined $8.4 million in their antitrust filings against County Creamery. Taken together, the four suits sought $28.4 million in damages which is “almost $1 million more than the total assessed valuation of the entire county of Tillamook,” noted the Headlight-Herald. | H-H, 2-16-1965 |
| 3-30-1965 | Joe Larson, manager of Tillamook Cheese & Dairy, said cheese making at its plant near Tillamook has halted. The cooperative is processing fluid milk, said Hans Leuthold, president of Cheese & Dairy. He predicted the cheese factory would re-open in a few weeks. Leuthold said the cooperative mortgaged its plant to about 140 milk producers—current members and former members. Membership in Cheese & Dairy has slipped from about 300 members to about 95 members, with many shippers switching to County Creamery. | Oregonian, 3-31-1965 |
| 4-7-1965 | In turning back County Creamery’s appeal of the trademark decision, a panel of three judges in a federal appeals court affirmed Cheese & Dairy’s ownership of the “Tillamook” trademark. | Oregonian, 4-8-1965 |
| 4-19-1965 | A temporary restraining order against Cheese & Dairy was issued in response to petitions filed by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. At issue is the two-month period in which Cheese & Dairy did not pay its producers. During that period, County Creamery did not pass through the money it received as the marketing agent for Cheese & Dairy. | H-H, 4-30-1965 |
| 4-29-1965 | Judge Avery Combs lifted a temporary restraining order against Cheese & Dairy. Combs set an order of payment for Cheese & Dairy to pay its producers. He ordered Cheese & Dairy to set aside a contingency fund of about $125,000 to cover a possible judgment in a suit filed by the Oregon Department of Agriculture concerning payments to producers for August and September of 1963. | H-H, 4-30-1965 |
| 5-17-1965 | Cheese & Dairy filed an accounting suit against County Creamery in Multnomah County (Portland). Cheese and Dairy asserted that County Creamery manipulated its accounting records prior to September 1963, and that County Creamery failed to give an accounting to Cheese & Dairy. Cheese & Dairy stated that County Creamery controlled assets of $1,782,655 which belonged to Cheese & Dairy; that County Creamery owes Cheese & Dairy $237,818 from cheese held and sold by County Creamery after Cheese & Dairy withdrew from County Creamery, and that County Creamery owes Cheese & Dairy $285,563 from a 1963 debt. | Oregonian, 5-18-1965 |
| 5-20-1965 | The federal appeals court in San Francisco denied a request by County Creamery for a re-hearing and a request for a re-hearing by the full appeals panel of the decision Judge William East handed down ruling that Cheese & Dairy owned the trademark “Tillamook.” | Oregonian, 5-21-1965 |
| 5-1965 | Hans Leuthold, president of Cheese & Dairy, announced that A. J. Swett was hired as general manager of the cooperative. Swett, a former mayor of Tillamook, owns two dairy farms in Tillamook County. | H-H, 7-25-1965 |
| 9-25-1965 | Foremost Dairies of San Francisco signed an agreement to buy, age, and market all cheese produced by both Cheese & Dairy and Red Clover. | H-H, 9-25-1965 |
| 11-8-1965 | County Creamery’s final appeal of the federal court ruling that Cheese & Dairy owned the trademark “Tillamook” reached the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. | H-H, 9-14-1965 |
| Key to sources: H-H: Headlight-Herald, a weekly newspaper published in Tillamook, Oregon. Northwest Dairy News: a farm newspaper published twice a month in Seattle, Washington by Northwest Farm News, Inc. Journal: Oregon Journal, a daily newspaper published in Portland, Oregon. Oregonian: a daily newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, Portland Reporter: a daily newspaper published in Portland, Oregon from 1960 to 1964. Satterfield: The Tillamook Way: A History of the Tillamook County Creamery Association, a Farmer-owned Cooperative; written by Archie Satterfield; published by Tillamook County Creamery Association; Tillamook, Oregon; 2000. Shopping Smiles: Shopping Smiles, a sister newspaper to the Headlight-Herald, was published weekly in Tillamook, Oregon. |
