Arkansas’s Last Remaining Ice Cream Company Celebrates 75 years
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n the 1920's there were several Ice Cream companies in Arkansas. Local ice cream producers were necessary because of the lack of
refrigeration. Ice and salt was the method of freezing and keeping frozen ice cream. One of those companies was Grisham’s Ice Cream headquartered in Searcy, White County. In 1927 the company merged with the Terry Dairy Co., of Newport. The general manager was Ben Grisham and William Terry was president. Their salesman and assistant manager was Ray Yarnell.
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n 1929 Grisham was bought by Southwest Dairy Products. In the early 1930's Southwest Dairy Products filed for bankruptcy. Ray Yarnell pulled all of the cash that he could, borrowed on his insurance policy, and purchased the defunct company. In March of 1933 the “bank holiday,” declared by the federal government, caused all of Yarnell’s funds to be frozen. The early years were hard because of the Depression and Yarnell drew not salary for the first year and had to borrow money to continue. Winter was extremely hard with long periods where the company sold no product.
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raham had used the slogan, “Angel Food Ice Cream is All Cream” and built a refrigerated room to harden and freeze the ice cream which gave it a different texture from the slushier product that was the norm. There was an ammonia ice cream freezer capable of producing ten gallons of ice cream at a time. In 1929 Grisham had brought a refrigerated truck and began a route between Searcy and Cabot and Searcy and Tuckerman. With these resources Yarnell continued to produce ice cream for the local market throughout the 1930's and 1940's. Ray Yarnell’s son Albert delivered ice cream locally on his bicycle and his mother served as bookkeeper. By the late 1930's the Yarnell’s were able to buy their first electrically refrigerated truck
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lbert Yarnell returned from the Second World War in 1948 and was named vice president and sales manager. He helped guide the company through the post war years. In 1951 Yarnell’s went through their first, of many, plant expansions. This first major expansion allowed the company increased their ice cream production sufficiently to expand their sales territory through central and south Arkansas. Albert was named General Manager in 1960 and became president in 1974, upon the death of his father.
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n 1970 the company reached a major milestone of any company, especially a local ice cream maker, it reached $1 million in sales. Roger Yarnell’s son Albert joined the company in 1975 making the third generation. The fourth generation, Christina Yarnell, joined the company in 2001.
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rom the very beginning Yarnell’s has been know for their innovative products. It’s early ice cream was firmer that the normal for the time. In 1978 they introduced the first all-natural ice milk which was marketed throughout the region. In 1991, Yarnell introduced Guilt Free, a fat-free, no-sugar-added line of ice cream product. This may have been the first product of it’s kind in the United States. The company continues to introduce new products along with their traditional favorites and the ice cream novelties.
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n 75 years the small regional ice cream company has grown until it now has sales in six states (Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee) and is the only Ice Cream company in the State of Arkansas.