Patke Farm Dairy
Clarence and Aloysius Patke
Aloysius (Al) and Clarence Patke grew up on a 200-acre farm near Villa Ridge where their father and mother, August and Philomenia, started milking cows in 1938. By 1954 the herd had grown and so had Al and Clarence. These young men decided to start a producerdistributor operation in Washington. They called the retailing component of the business Patke Farm Dairy and started that year selling fluid milk products. Clarence was in charge of milk production and Al of retailing.
As business grew they expanded to stores in Union, O’Fallon, and Wentzville. The herd grew to nearly 400 cows and the farm to 800 acres. Additional retail outlets were located in the greater St. Louis area.
Having lived through years of limited availability of ice cream, though they craved it greatly, they established Washington Ice Cream Company and produced up to 36 flavors of ice cream. They still make their own ice cream mixes for freezing.
The first Patke store still stands at the comer of Fifth Street and Terry Lane in Washington. However, many changes have been made over the past 53 years. The cows have been gone for a few years and milk is purchased from surrounding farms for processing.
Small dairies have had to produce value-added products and provide unique services to customers to maintain a profitable business. The long service of the Patke Dairy to consumers in east central Missouri speaks well for the abilities of the Patke family to provide quality, convenience, and value to their products. Among the unique packages used for fluid milk has been the economic plastic bag.
Even at age 82, Al still handles many of the duties in the store at Washington. His legacy is being passed on, not only by family members, but also by the many young persons he supervised as employees of the stores. He has these young persons on the right path into the working world.
Al married Ethel Siedhoff in June of 1948. They have five children-Diane, Doris, David, Dorothy, and Dennis. Currently David is the chief operating officer of the business and Dorothy is office manager.
Clarence has been the major farm operator and herdsman. He took special training in artificial insemination at the University of Missouri in order to speed up genetic improvement of the Patke dairy herd.
Clarence married Joann Schmidt, April 28, 1951 and their children are Ginger Voss, Brenda Ley, Debbie Fink, and son Clarence, Jr. who currently assists with farm operations.
The sisters of Al and Clarence are Bernice Eckelkamp, Frances Loepker, Irene Voss, and Lucille Pointek.
The Patke brothers are active in St. John’s Catholic Church and have contributed time and effort to Public Water District #3 and the Washington Rural Fire District.