For a hundred years or more this famous cheese has been made and marketed at the village of Cheddar near Bristol, England.
In the middle of the nineteenth century a farmer in that neighborhood, Joseph Harding of Marksbury Vale, systematized the manufacture and it was his method that became the model for cheesemaking in America. In this country it was first made in Herkimer County, N.Y., where Harry Burrell not only made cheese for the home market, but also exported to England, and his son, David H. Burrell, at Little Falls later developed the machinery which became the standard for the American and Canadian cheese factories.
The factory system by which cheese was made from milk brought together from several farms, originated near Rome, N.Y., and soon cheesemaking became an important industry throughout Central and Northern New York whence it spread into Pennsylvania, Ohio and the West, as well as to Canada. To-day Wisconsin makes more cheese than all the other states together and Canada largely supplies England with Cheddar cheese of excellent quality.
Joseph Harding, who systematized the making of Cheddar cheese in England
David H. Burrell,
who introduced laborsaving machinery and supplies in the cheese factories
Jesse Williams, father of the American factory system