Madigan, Frank

Frank Madigan came to Lowell in September of 1930 with a flash. He set up the Melody Farms Dairy, which included raising and milking cows, along with processing, bottling and delivering the milk. He made his presence known in an explosive way. Less than one year later he was the chairman of the Lowell Centennial parade committee and was the Grand Marshall of the parade.

Frank Madigan was born in 1890 and was a successful businessman, mostly within the oil and fuel industries. His accomplishments outside of Lowell included salesman for the Sinclair Refining Co, founder of the firm of Grimes & Madigan Inc, which became the firm of Frank A. Madigan Inc., distributor for the Phillips Petroleum Corp and owned four Grand Rapids area fuel stations.

Madigan was great at marketing, public relations, innovation and was an overall great businessman. He also understood the consumer and was able to deliver desired products. This was all very advantageous when he started Melody Farms in Lowell.

Madigan started Melody Farms on the 187-acre farm west of the village limits* on M-21.* At the time the village limit was the west side of today’s “The Pizza Shop”. He hired Winton Wilcox as his manager. The name came from the music played for cows.

When Frank Madigan came to Lowell, he didn’t just open a dairy, he started the largest, most technologically advanced dairy in the area. He bought out some smaller dairies and priced his products lower than the normal market cost. The local dairies lowered their prices in an attempt to retain their customers. That cut their profit margins and made it very difficult to stay in business. In a small village during the depression, many family run dairies struggled, with their whole livelihood and future at stake. Arie Leeman, a local dairy employee wrote a letter home to his parents and siblings stating, “was to Grand Rapids Saturday night just to get my hair cut. The barbers here take milk from the new man so sure don’t patronize them.”

Part of Madigan’s promotion of Melody Farms was their hands off approach. “Not touched by human hands.” Everything was electric, and the buildings and contents, everything was white. The workers were required to wear 100% white clothing.

As was Madigan’s strength, Melody Farms was great in public relations. The public was brought in to see the farm and cows. Schoolchildren were brought in on tours. As the centennial was being organized, the Madigans hosted a bridge party in the dairy barn as a fund raiser.

Madigan liked to be on the cutting edge of technology. He introduced a “pull tab” type of bottle cap. In an article on the innovation, it was stated to be welcomed by women who were used to wrestling with various items to remove the milk bottle caps, and the modest young man who is “trying to create an impression of strength and superiority for the benefit of his young bride.” Melody Farms worked with an extension dairyman from Kansas State Agricultural College to establish the best feed rotation, utilizing sweet clover with corn and grain. Melody Farms also offered “Susie Cow Milk” for infants, whose feeding required the milk from one cow.

Centennial planning began and Lowell was grateful to have someone of Frank Madigan’s social stature. The celebration was big, with over 50,000 visitors expected to come to Lowell. The Governor along with other political figures were planned guest speakers. Madigan was chairman for the parade committee, along with being the Grand Marshall. The parade was big, in fact, in the reporting it was called more than a parade, better described as “a moving spectacle”. It was over three miles long and took nearly 1 1/2 hours to pass a given point. No surprise, the parade began at Melody Farms, then proceeded into town. Madigan as GM was mounted on a horse and led the parade. He was escorted by state police and deputy sheriffs on motorcycles. He was followed by a military escort and color bearers. After the military were the descendants of Daniel Marsac, fur trader, first white permanent settler. With the U.S. airplanes from Selfridge Field roaring over the parade route, it was said that no town or city in Michigan ever offered its visitors a more magnificent sight.

Everything Madigan did was big. The bridge party fundraiser for the Centennial was not just a card game. Fifty-six people played at bridge tables in the center aisle of the Melody Farms dairy barn, while an attendant dressed in white walked up and down wiping the cows’ noses and mouths. Among the guests were Chief Ed White Eagle, Sioux Indian from Rosebud, S.D., and his wife, Princess White Eagle, a Chippewa girl formerly from Hubbard Lake near Alpena. They performed dances at the fundraiser that were photographed by motion picture men present. They were also scheduled as entertainers at the centennial. The fundraiser exhibited a pair of 10-foot logging wheels, relics of the lumbering days, to also be displayed at the centennial. They had been used for bringing large logs out of the woods. They were rare relics, as few pairs were around at that time.

Frank Madigan died unexpectedly in 1934 at the age of 44. The dairy farm was sold to George Lundberg, who built a house on the farm in 1940. He had a stone facing put on the front of the house. Though the farm is gone and the property is now within the city limits, the Lundberg house is still here, disguised as the Greenridge Realty Inc offices at 1160 W. Main St.

Images:

Frank Madigan leading the Centennial Parade on horse back.

Melody Farms barn.

1931 Advertisement.

Centennial fund raiser
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