Four Generations of Farming
When Richard James and Marjorie Bingham James settled on Monument Farm’s 21 acres in 1929
with a handful of cows and fields full of apple trees and grapes, they probably didn’t imagine that
theirs would become Vermont’s signature name in local milk production, bottling and distribution.
“They started bottling milk in the basement of the house,” Millie Rooney said of her parents. “My
mother would bring the utensils, the separator and everything, up into her kitchen to wash and [my
father] started delivering milk to different homes. It was common. Other farms did that too—it wasn’t anything unusual
then.”
In the 1960s, Richard and Marjorie’s children Steve and Millie, and Millie’s husband Jim Rooney, took over the
business and growth reached a plateau after the bottling plant and milking facilities were upgraded.
“We did expand [distribution] more in Addison County, but we sort of kept that as our parameter,” Millie said.
“Jim was so busy managing the plant and the drivers and taking care of the trucks, it was just too much to think about
expansion and development.”
The current generation in charge of Monument Farms, Pete and Bob James and Jon Rooney, has divided the
business into three sectors and increased to processing 65,000 lbs. of milk a day from 400 cows on 2200 acres of land. Pete runs the barns and the fields while Bob is in
charge of distribution and advertising and Jon manages the bottling plant.
“This is a good working relationship,” Pete said. “A big part of it is that we grew up together and did everything together.”
“I think the biggest key thing is that everybody has their own division,” Bob chimed in.
Jon added, “I have a hard time picturing how it would work if there were just one of us running the business. We’ve improved it since we took over.”
The Monument men are hitting their 50s and wondering about the future, but Bob’s sons, Dan and Ben James, are already very involved with the business and they
plan to keep it that way.
“Everybody likes the fact that we’re a local family business, so they’re hoping we’ll stay,” Dan said. “We plan to.”
Even a farm with a foundation as sturdy as Monument’s faces the many challenges of agribusiness, but
over the decades a deep understanding of one vital principle has kept the dairy going strong.
“It’s a great business—don’t get us wrong—but there’s times you wonder, with milk prices so low and
the amount of work you put into it, why you do this,” Pete said. “But there’s something that keeps you here.
It comes down to the pride you have in the business and the pride that other people take in the business.”
Weybridge, VT 1926
1925
1930
1935
1929
Richard James and Marjorie
Bingham James purchase
21-acre Monument Farm.
1945
1949
Five men work in the fields Millie James and Jim
and barns, two work in the Rooney marry in front
bottling plant.
of the farmhouse.
1940
1945
“It was quite stressful when [my parents]
started out from nothing. They had
no savings, just the generosity of my
grandfather that he put his land and his
buildings up for collateral for their loan.”
-Millie Rooney
Millie Rooney and friend, 1945
1950
1955
1960
1964
Jim Rooney and Steve James, 1967
1965
1970
“I think we’re as proud
of the relationship we
have [with the College] as
Middlebury College seems
to be.”
– Jon Rooney
“When I came back here twenty-five years ago, we were averaging
40,000 lbs. of milk a week, that was a big week. Now we’re
averaging 60- to 70,000 lbs. of milk a day, which is still a drop in
the bucket of the big guys, but that’s a sizeable amount of growth.
We do all our growth from within. It’s not one huge investment
where you buy another herd or a couple hundred cows—it’s all been
grown from within. It’s what we call sustainable growth.”
– Jon Rooney
1975
1980
1985
1990
“We’ve worked so hard so
the next generation will have
this opportunity. That’s why I
came back.”
– Pete James
Pete James, Bob James and Jon Rooney, 1996
Geronimo, 1950
“We’re obviously unique in that we
are producer-handlers, processing
our own milk and selling it. That’s
getting much more unique at our
scale every day, and I think people
are more aware of that uniqueness
now than in the past, and people
in the area take a lot of pride in
supporting us and are glad to see us
doing this. They’re glad to be able to
buy a locally produced product from
people they know.”
– Jon Rooney
“I think a lot of companies
if they weren’t trying
to establish a family
business, they would be
seeing how fast they could
get bigger and resell.
That’s not at all what
we’re after. It’s just always
nice to get a little bigger
because you can do a little
more and feel like you’ve
done something.”
– Bob James
“All along I intended to come
back here. I couldn’t imagine
a better community to raise
a family in. We had such a
great childhood, I couldn’t
imagine a better way to
grow up. Now our kids
didn’t necessarily grow up
doing the things we did, it’s
all totally different, but it’s
still a very warm, inclusive
community.”
– Jon Rooney
Ben and Dan James, 2009
2010 and beyond
New technology and the
2001
methane digester are on the
Pete, Bob and Jon purchase
most recent land addition, bring horizon as Dan and Ben James
prepare to take the reigns.
Monument Farms to 2200 acres.
1980s
Pete and Bob James and Jon Rooney begin to take
over Monument farms from Steve James and Jim
Rooney. Millie Rooney continues to run finances.
1951
1965
1963
1967
Monument Farms
Bottling plant
Millie Rooney takes over
Fire destroys the original
acquires Middlebury finances from her mother. remodeled to include
barn and outbuildings
College account.
office space and store. but spares the farmhouse
and bottling plant.
Randy Palmer, herdsman, 2009
“If we’re going to be in this business, and we
hope that the next generation will come into
it, I see the methane digester as being another
avenue for a position, just something to bring
the next generation in and diversify a little bit.
My father was all about diversification.”
– Pete James
Pete James, Bob James and Jon Rooney, 2009
1966
1960
Begin milking at
Millie and Jim Rooney return to Monument Farms Hagar Farm, having
after a decade away to join Steve James in taking previously milked at
over the farm from Steve and Millie’s parents.
Jewett Farm.
“We always thought that my
father was probably 20 years
ahead of his peers. He didn’t
want to farm with his father
and brother because they
didn’t want to change their
ways, they wanted to stay
small. He just felt that in order
to get ahead he needed to
increase his herd and be able
to market his own milk, and
that’s what’s happened.”
-Millie Rooney
Richard James, 1937
“We’ve been established for a long time, and I’m proud
things are very neat and clean. There really aren’t a lot of
family businesses that have been run from generation to
generation, especially farming businesses today.”
– Bob James
1995
1996
New milking parlor and
equipment installed at
Hagar Farm.
2005
2000
2007
Begin plans for
methane digester.
2010
”We’re fourth generation now, so it’s
something to carry on. And it’s not like
it’s a bad company to work for. This is
what my family does. It’s kind of fun to
carry it on. That plus everywhere I go
people always come up to me and say,
‘Hey, your milk is great!’”
– Dan James
Ben James, 2009
1993
“We’ll definitely keep
everything right in the family,
keep it going the way it is.”
– Ben James