C. Jacob Fussell: The Father of Commercial Ice Cream

In this installment of “History Off the Beaten Path,” we visit a formerly active stretch of railroad and learn about an ice cream magnate.

Trucks belonging to the Fussell-Young Ice Cream Co., parked in front of the similarly named store, 1921–1922. Public Domain

The tiny borough of Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, with a population around 500, was once a thoroughfare for trains running from Baltimore to York, Pennsylvania. This rural area also lays claim to the launch of the wholesale ice cream industry.

Behind the town of Seven Valleys, on what’s now a 27-mile walking and biking trail once busy with Northern Central Railroad trains, is a Pennsylvania Historical Museum and Commission sign. It attests to the fact that the first mass-produced ice cream factory was nearby.