Collins dairyman Egburt Farner purchased the Peters Dairy on Seneca Street in Gowanda in 1944, and took in Warren Parker as a partner. In time, they bought out the Flogaus & Ehret, Gutekunst, and Strickland milk plants in and near Gowanda, as well as Dash’s in Springville.

     The building in this photograph was built at 271 Buffalo Street in 1947. The business featured a restaurant with a long lunch counter and booths, and a jukebox that always carried the latest hit tunes. The checkered tile floor was almost hypnotic. The dairy drew people from near and far to sample its many varieties of ice cream, including colorful flavors like Blue Moon and Orange Pineapple. Someone with a hearty appetite could feast on their Pig’s Dinner, a four-scoop sundae with bananas, chopped nuts, marshmallow sauce and cherries, served in a wooden trough. If you could finish one, you earned a white and red pin-backed button that declared, 1 Was A Pig At Farner & Parker’s Ice Cream Store.”

     The business was carried on until 1979, when it was sold to Jenny Lee Dairy of Arcade, which moved to 31 Jamestown Street in the early 1980s. Farner & Parker also had stores in Fredonia and Hamburg. Today the building is the Carrier Centre, home of Carrier Coach transportation and Movies & More video.

     These photos show the building and employees in 1951. Standing from left to right are: Delbert Ball, Bob Woodard, Warren Parker, Cecil Christ, Ceylon Berg, Bob Gilray, Egburt Farner, Jim Brown, Jim Lennertz and Walt Farner.    (Photos courtesy of the Gowanda Area Historical Society, with special thanks to Cecil Christ)