Prior to 1927 raw milk, produced in unregulated dairies, was peddled in Madisonville door to door. M. Ashby Corum and his brother-in-law John H. Utterback believed there was a better way. Corum operated a dairy farm on West Noel Avenue and Utterback had a farm on Anton Road. The unpasteurized milk from their farms was sold on the streets of Madisonville. Pasteurization was a new procedure of making milk safer and more wholesome and was spreading across the nation.

Mr. Corum and Mr. Utterback decided to build a milk processing facility at the northeast corner of North Scott Street and east Couch Street. Mr. Utterback was placed in charge of the plant and was assisted by Mr. J. V. Vandervene, who was an expert butter maker. At first the venture was a co-partnership under the name of U. C. Milk Company, its name being from the first initials of the partners.

In 1927 a contest was held to select a name for the products sold by the company. Five people submitted the winning name, “Goldenrod”, for the state flower. The $15.00 prize was split with each person receiving $3.00.

In order to obtain capital expansion the partnership formed a corporation to take over the holdings of the partnership. On July 1928 the U. C. Milk Company was incorporated and stock was sold to investors of the community.

In the early years and through the 1930’s the company was known as much for making butter as for selling pasteurized milk. Transportation changed during the 1930’s from horse and wagon to motorized truck. The company expanded into a wider territory, hauling its products as far as Crittenden County and Union County in the 1930’s.

The first known acquisition by the company was the purchase of the Rockport Creamery in 1932. The company also purchased the Long Ice Cream Company of Madisonville, Highland Dairy of Providence, Blue’s Ice Cream of Dixon, the Ausenbaugh Dairy of Dawson Springs and the Hightower Dairy of Earlington.

In 1951, U. C. purchased Cardinal Dairy of Franklin, Kentucky. This greatly expanded the territory and sales of the company. This also allowed U. C. to gain a better supply of raw farm milk, which was disappearing in and around Hopkins County.

In 1962, U. C. purchased Meadow Gold Dairy in Princeton, Kentucky owned by Beatrice Foods Company in Chicago. This was the first acquisition of business from a major company in the dairy industry.

In 1968, U. C. acquired Atkins Dairy of Hopkinsville.

In 1970, U.C. acquired Model Dairy also located in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. By this time U. C. / Goldenrod was becoming the major supplier of dairy products in western Kentucky.

In 1978, U C purchased the Kentucky business of two Evansville, Indiana dairies. Ideal Pure Milk Company and American Dairy were acquired from Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Company. In 1983 to 1985, U. C. made a marketing move to expand into middle Tennessee. This proved very successful with establishment of a distribution branch in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1994, U. C. expanded into the Northern Kentucky and Southern Indiana areas and currently operates distribution branches in Elizabethtown and Louisville, Kentucky.

After Dean Foods Company acquired U. C. in 1998, U. C. through Deans, purchased R. G. Clark Distributors, Inc. of Paducah, Kentucky. Clark was a large distributor in the Jackson Purchase area of Kentucky for U. C.’ s Goldenrod brand products.

Dean Foods Company sold U. C. / Goldenrod in 2001 to National Dairy Holdings Company of Dallas, Texas. National Dairy Holdings is currently one of the largest dairy owned companies in the nation.

U. C. expanded through the years by acquisition and aggressive marketing, and by offering the best quality products and service available in the marketplace. Presently, the products produced and packaged in Madisonville, Kentucky are sold in several states including Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, and Alabama.