Biltmore in the community
Provided by Biltmore Company
The hospitality of the Biltmore Dairy and the quality of its ice cream products were legendary in the Asheville community. O.L. Merchant was a partner in the Merchant Construction company. The building contractor for the Frith, Edith’s house in Biltmore Forest. Merchant’s children recalled the “generous supply of popsicles, Eskimo pies, and ice cream when the construction company was working on the estate. A special memory is the delivery of a frozen Yule log on Christmas Day.”1 John Cecil assisted under-privileged children of Asheville through the “Clean Life Club” affiliated with the YMCA and donated ice cream to be served to the children on Saturday nights while they learned “about the Bible and good sportsmanship.”2
Biltmore Dairy Farms was a regular participant in the annual Rhododendron Festival parades that began in 1928. Jack Merrell, grandson of blacksmith Mitchell Meadows, represented Biltmore Dairy Farm in the first annual parade dressed in an orange suit with black shorts and a black Biltmore cap (his family still has the outfit) and he rode in a replica of a milk truck with the Biltmore logo. Afterwards, the whole family was treated to ice cream at the Dairy.3 One float had a small replica of the calf barn with real calves looking out the windows; it was pulled by six white mules.4 Another year, Edith wanted to put milker and delivery driver Clifford Austin’s daughter in the parade to advertise Biltmore buttermilk because it was all she would drink as a baby.5
Margaret Wallis rode on one of the Biltmore Dairy Farms floats in the Rhododendron Festival Parade. Her father George Wallis, Sr. drove the six-mule team that pulled the float. Her brother George rode the float another year. There also was a children’s parade, and Margaret’s horse Corn Liquor pulled a two-wheeled wagon with the children on it. The float designs were very creative and Biltmore won several grand prizes for them. Judge Adams allowed the dairy workers to spend what they needed to build the floats. The Rhododendron Festival lasted a week, and the night before the parade there was a ball, perhaps held at the Grove Park Inn, and a king and queen were crowned.6
