Gabe’s Dairy

The House Once Numbered 1200 Loeb: What Remains of Gabe’s Dairy

At 1212 Loeb Street stands a large two-story brick house that is easy to pass without recognizing its place in Henderson history. During the first half of the twentieth century, the building carried a different address, 1200 Loeb Street, and was home to George William Gabe. It also stood at the center of one of Henderson’s longtime family dairies.

The Gabe family’s connection to dairying began at least one generation before George. In the 1880 federal census, his father, John Gabe, was already identified as a dairyman. George, born in Henderson County in 1876, was then a small child growing up in the household. By 1900, both John and the adult George were listed as dairymen, showing that the occupation had passed from father to son.

The family was living at 1200 Loeb Street by 1910. That year’s census listed John as a dairyman and George as a driver for a dairy. A newspaper report from January 1910 provides a more colorful look at the property. Thieves entered George’s chicken coops at 1200 Loeb and carried away 53 fowls. The article described him as having maintained a sizable flock before the theft, demonstrating that the property supported more than dairy cattle.

An advertisement published in November 1912 definitively identifies the dairy at the same address. Announcing a large public auction, George began the notice with the words, “At my dairy, No. 1200 Loeb street.” He stated that he had decided to leave the dairy business and intended to sell 30 milk cows, horses, a wagon, harness, milk cans, farming implements and everything else connected with the operation. He also mentioned a “good big barn” where the auction could be held if the weather was poor.

The size of that sale indicates that this was not simply a family keeping a few cows behind its home. By 1912, George had built a substantial dairy operation with livestock, delivery equipment and a large barn.

George’s departure from dairying was apparently temporary, or the business was subsequently rebuilt. The 1920 census once again recorded him at the Loeb Street property as a self-employed dairyman. In August 1927, he advertised for two fresh milk cows at 1200 Loeb. Two years later, he placed another notice after a red Durham cow wandered away from the premises.

By 1930, George was described in the census as a dairy farmer. His son George H. Gabe, then a young man, worked as a helper in the dairy. George’s younger son, Joseph “Joe” Gabe, also grew up working in the family enterprise. Joe later recalled that he began at age nine, delivering milk through Henderson by horse and wagon.

The house and surrounding property can be seen on Henderson’s old Sanborn fire-insurance maps. The 1923 map depicts a two-story brick dwelling at the historic 1200 Loeb address, surrounded by largely open land between Pond and Mill streets. A surviving family photograph identified as the “George W. Gabe Barn” may show the large dairy barn mentioned in the 1912 auction advertisement, although the photograph’s date and exact location have not been confirmed.

The old maps also preserve a nearly forgotten street name. The roadway now known as Meadow Street was once called Gabe’s Lane, reflecting the family’s extensive presence in the area. Loeb Street ran alongside the family home and dairy, while Mill Street formed another boundary of the surrounding property.

By the 1930s, Gabe’s Dairy had become an established and respected Henderson business. During the 1937 flood emergency, the Red Cross publicly thanked the “George Gabe dairy” for giving three cases of bottled milk each day to refugee centers operating at Holy Name School, the Moose Home and the hospital. The dairy continued making the deliveries as long as the centers remained open.

George remained actively involved nearly until the end of his life. The 1940 census, recorded only weeks before his death, identified him as operating a dairy “for self.” On May 25, 1940, he died unexpectedly at his home at 1200 Loeb Street.

His obituary reported that he had been involved in the dairy business for 44 years, placing the beginning of his own career around 1896. It stated that he operated Gabe’s Dairy in Audubon on Loeb Street and was well known in business circles throughout Henderson and the county. Because George advertised that he was leaving the business in 1912, those 44 years may not have been entirely continuous, but the surviving records show that dairying occupied most of his adult life.

Gabe’s Dairy continued after George’s death. In January 1941, the Henderson County Health Department announced its milk ratings for the final quarter of 1940. Gabe’s Dairy was among the local producers awarded a Grade A raw-milk rating.

Responsibility for the family business and property passed to George’s sons, George H. and Joe Gabe. In October 1941, Joe and his wife, Cordie Lee Gabe, conveyed several parcels in Henderson’s Audubon section to George H. for $5,000. The transaction included the old Gabe Brick Yard, eleven lots on Meadow Street, five acres near the brick property and several additional lots. The newspaper reported that most of the property was then known as Gabe’s Dairy and was situated chiefly along Loeb, Mill and Meadow streets.

The transaction reveals how extensive the Gabe family’s East End holdings had become. The dairy was not confined to the house and barn at one address. It covered land that would eventually become several blocks of the surrounding neighborhood.

That transformation accelerated before the end of 1941. In December, Henderson accepted a deed from Guy Burris for a strip of land extending from Gabe’s Lane-today’s Meadow Street-to Mill Street. The strip became O’Byrne Street. According to the newspaper, the new street would bisect “what was formerly known as Gabe’s Dairy.” Lots on both sides were being sold in preparation for a new subdivision.

The open fields and working dairy grounds were gradually replaced by streets, individual lots and houses. The modern arrangement of Meadow, Loeb, O’Byrne and Mill streets took shape across land once occupied by the Gabe family’s cattle, barns and milk-wagon routes.

The family’s dairy work did not immediately end with the subdivision of the Loeb Street property. In 1950, George H. Gabe was still recorded as the owner and operator of a dairy, then living along Airline Road east of Cane Run. This suggests that the operation continued on other property, or relocated after the original city tract was divided. Joe’s obituary later stated that he and his brother George co-owned and operated Gabe Dairy, although Joe also spent many years working in Henderson’s furniture and plastics industries.

Today, the cows, milk wagons, barns and open land are gone. Gabe’s Lane has become Meadow Street, and the house historically recorded as 1200 Loeb now carries the address 1212 Loeb Street.

The surviving brick house is more than an old East End residence. It is the clearest remaining physical connection to John Gabe, George W. Gabe, George H. Gabe and Joe Gabe-three generations of a family whose dairy served Henderson for decades. Its walls witnessed the growth of the business, the passing of the dairy from father to sons and the transformation of the surrounding farmland into a city neighborhood.

What now appears to be an ordinary residential block was once the heart of Gabe’s Dairy.

Sources include the 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 and 1950 United States censuses; Henderson Sanborn fire-insurance maps; Henderson County property records; the May 26, 1940, Messenger-Inquirer; Joseph A. Gabe’s obituary; and editions of the Henderson Morning Gleaner dated January 23, 1910; November 28, 1912; August 16, 1927; February 24, 1929; February 6, 1937; May 26, 1940; January 9, October 15 and December 23, 1941.