Date:   ca. 1951-1965

Image Number:   SDI01cdSDI01

Comments:  

In January 2014, Angela Erickson of Lexington, N.C., contacted Scottsville Museum to tell us that she and her husband had been digging around an old railroad track in the Lexington area.  Quite by surprise, they uncovered an old milk bottle, which was slug-plated "Snowden Dairy, Scottsville, VA," as shown in the above photo.  Angela said she excitedly began researching Snowden Dairy but had not found additional information about the dairy. So she contacted Scottsville Museum.  We were intrigued by her bottle discovery as we, too, did not have information about Snowden Dairy in our files.  In an effort to learn more, we contacted two avid Snowden researchers, Joanne Yeck and Richard Nicholas.

Snowden farm sits just across the James River to the south of Scottsville as shown in red on this map of the horseshoe bend area of the James:

In 1964, Dominik and Elko next purchased Scottland Farm, a 1025 acre farm west of Scottsville for $578,000.  (Note: Scottland Farm was the old Scott place where John Scott (1725-1798) lived; John was the grandfather of John Scott (1796-1829), who was the founder of Scottsville.)  Elko described this experience as quite elating: "The transformation of a life of 'hands on' farmers at Snowden to that of managing this much larger project at Scottland was quite elating.  We had a regular dairy crew amongst the ten employees, but Dominik's presence and action was required everywhere in the operation....The dairy crew would frequently call Dominik out in the middle of the night for some cow care or even milking if one of them did not show up.  It never was an easy job, but we did it and progressed well as 'Virginia Country Gentlemen.'"

Scottland Farm, ca. 1964

"Eventually together with a good friend from Germany, we bought back Snowden Farm to run it along with our Scottland Farm, six miles distant.  Unfortunately, 3 hurricane-induced floods quite devastated the buildings and lowlands of Snowden Farm and proved that the re-purchase of Snowden had been a miscalculation.  It had to be sold again."

Dominik von Stillfried was born in Germany in 1925, and was the son of Franz de Paula von Stillfried-Mettich and Maria Veronika (Strachwitz) von Stillfried. Dominik is passed away on July 09, 2016, in Charlottesville, VA, and he is buried at the St. George Catholic Church Cemetery in Scottsville, VA.  Elko von Krogh Stillfried was born on May 21, 1927, in San Francisco, CA; she was the daughter of Mathilda and Harold von Krogh.  Elko passed away on February 29, 2020, in Charlottesville, VA, and she is buried at St. George Catholic Church Cemetery in Scottsville.  Dominik and Elko are survived by their son, Gebhard Stillfried and his wife, Agnes, of St. Stephens Church, VA, and their two children, Franz and Charlotte.  Also surviving Dominik and Elko are their daughter, Christiane Riederer and her husband, Max of Ashland, VA, and their two daughters, Josephine and Elena. Dominik and Elko were preceded in death by their son, Franz Stillfried, who is also buried at St. George Catholic Church Cemetery.

Special thanks to Joanne Yeck for her Snowden silo photo and Richmond Times-Dispatch images of the Snowden Farm sale advertisements above.  Also we thank Richard Nicholas for connecting the Stillfrieds to Snowden Dairy and Scottland Farm and thus firing up our research.  Finally, thank you, Angela Erikson for capturing our interest in Snowden Dairy and to Elko Stillfried for her very helpful autobiography that provided details about the Snowden Dairy beginning in 1951.