Martinsburg Resident Collects Old Milk Bottles

June was Dairy Month and to celebrate the Herald featured stories like these talking about all things related to the dairy industry. This story is the final part of a three part series about local glass milk bottle collectors.

Josh Baran of Martinsburg has a collection made of bottles from dairies in Blair, Cambria, and Somerset counties, and a few others from the state and around the country.

“It is a passion, I love it,” he said.

Baran got a lot of the bottles in his collection from flea markets, antique stores, eBay, online auctions, and area collectors including Jason Clapper.

“Jason does auctions and a lot of clean outs — he knows what I am looking for and helps me out,” he said.

Baran has many bottles from dairies from all over the Cove including Martinsburg, Roaring Spring, Williamsburg, and New Enterprise.

He collects bottles from the Somerset area because his grandparents and father are from Windber.

Baran also has a love for collecting bottles from Johnstown’s Sani-Dairy because his grandfather shipped milk for them.

His best friend’s great grandfather had a dairy in Summerhill and Baran was determined to find one of those bottles.

“If I see something that strikes my fancy, like a bottle from St.Mary’s, I will get it,” Baran said.

He never knew how much of a following there was for collecting milk bottles until he started doing it.

“I wouldn’t say it’s an underground thing, but it’s not what people think of doing,” Baran said.

He also collects all the advertising related items.

“The lengths they would go to promote their milk was unreal and unheard of today, you don’t see that type of promotion from milk today,” Baran said.

He said the milk bottles travel and has found ones from Pennsylvania in antique stores while on vacation in places like Myrtle Beach, S.C.

“Back then people didn’t even think about it – they either returned them and got their money or they kept them and used them for whatever,” Baran said. “That was always something you would see with the advertising about sending the bottles home.”

What he likes about collecting the bottles is that they never get old, and being able to hear people talk about memories they have about the dairies.

“You get a lot of ‘I remember when they were open,’ or they used to work there, or ‘my grandpa was a delivery driver’ – it is so cool to hear about that.” Baran said.