FRESNO, Ohio – The directors of the Ohio Swiss Cheese Association (OSCA), formed in 1918 to help the state’s Swiss cheese makers produce a safer and better quality product, have decided to dissolve the organization.

The cause for its closure is a result of the decline in the dairy industry in all states. Smaller producers have gone out of business, leaving fewer, larger plants. Add to this dilemma the waning membership and interest this past decade.

Ohio produced 45 percent of the nation’s Swiss cheese last year. More than 60 percent of cheese produced in the state is Swiss. That level of production came from 12 plants.

Although Swiss cheese was first made in eastern Ohio in the mid-1800s, it was in the early 1900s that the sale and production of Swiss cheese began to grow. Known as cheese houses at the time, there were more than 80 different cheesemakers, most of whom were Swiss immigrants sponsored by farmer-owned cooperatives. The cheesemakers used their inherited and acquired cheesemaking knowledge and work ethic to make Ohio the leading Swiss cheesemaking state in the country.

Most of the cheese houses were family-owned and operated by second-, third- and fourth-generation descendants of their Swiss heritage founders.

“The Swiss immigrants that came here brought with them a truly unique knowledge and deep tradition of quality that remains here to this day,” said Richard Guggisberg, of Guggisberg Cheese in Millersburg, Ohio. “Just as Switzerland is recognized the world over for their cheeses, Ohio is recognized as the nation’s leader in production of Swiss cheese. The Ohio Swiss Cheese Association brought all of these immigrants together and played a major role in making Ohio Swiss cheese what is it today.”

Guggisberg grew up around these cheese houses in Millersburg. His father, Alfred, founded the company in 1950. His father’s cheese plant had four copper kettles at first, then advanced to use steel vats. The family made several types of cheese. When Alfred died in 1985, Richard took over the operation.

“Cheesemaking wasn’t just a job but was a lifestyle in which all family members normally participated in some way from childhood years into adulthood,” said Chuck Ellis, president of Pearl Valley Cheese in Fresno. Pearl Valley Cheese was founded by Ernest and Gertrude Stalder, immigrants from Switzerland, in 1928. They purchased a small cheese factory that was little more than a stone building and a copper kettle. They made one 200-pound wheel of Swiss cheese every day with milk that came from dairy farms in White Eyes Township delivered by the farmers themselves.

Today, Pearl Valley makes 14 different types of cheese with Swill and Colby still being the main focus. Recent additions have been gouda and chipotle pepper. They produce more than 30,000 pounds of cheese a day, or about 7 million pounds of cheese annually.

About 90 percent of the cheese they produce is for wholesale with distributors taking it across the eastern United States and some parts of the Midwest. Pearl Valley cheese stretches from Wisconsin to Florida.

The epicenter of Swiss cheese production was in Tuscarawas County, but cheese houses popped up throughout Holmes, Coshocton, Wayne and Stark counties.

Many Swiss cheesemakers would build living quarters on top of the cheese plant. Making cheese at the time was labor intensive and these makers started their days early, starting fires while waiting for milk to be delivered from that morning’s milkings. Milk was heated in large copper kettles that held up to 300 gallons. A kettle that size would yield a 200-pound cheese wheel, Ellis said. The process would be repeated again after the evening milking.

By the turn of the 20th century, the number of cheesemakers had sky rocketed. According to the OSCA book, there were 137 producers in 1908. And though cheese makers were plentiful, there was little consistency to the product. That made it difficult to market outside the region. The number of producers dropped to 63 by 1914.

A group of cheesemakers got together and partnered with the USDA and Ohio State University staff to improve cheesemaking, techniques and facilities. That’s how the OSCA was started. For many years the OSCA provided laboratory services and acted as a supply house for the cheesemakers in the area from an office in Sugarcreek, Ohio. As smaller-producing cheese houses closed and others grew with in-house labs and direct supplier connections, the association’s functions changed into one of promotion for the industry and as a clearinghouse for regulatory rule changes from government agencies.

The OSCA has dwindled over the years and members now include Guggisberg Cheese, Pearl Valley Cheese, Steiner Dairy, Broad Run Cheese, Middlefield Original Cheese Co-op and Bunker Hill Cheese.

In 1953, the OSCA originated the idea of a festival in Sugarcreek to showcase the area’s Swiss heritage and the cheese for which the area is known. The Ohio Swiss Festival is held each year in early October.