Carnation (brand) - Wikipedia

On September 6, 1899, Carnation processed its first can of evaporated milk. From the article:

"Carnation was founded as an evaporated milk company. With the increased availability of home refrigeration of fresh milk and cream throughout the 20th century, the demand for evaporated milk decreased. Carnation diversified its product portfolio after the 1950s and was acquired by Nestlé in 1984 for $3 billion.

Elbridge Amos Stuart
Elbridge Amos Stuart (10 September 1856 in Guilford County, North Carolina[3]–14 January 1944 in Los Angeles, California) was an American milk industrialist and creator of Carnation evaporated milk and its famous slogan, that it came from "Contented Cows".[4]

On 6 September 1899, Stuart and a business partner founded the Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Company in Kent, Washington, and he became its first President (a post he held until 1932, then serving as Chairman from 1932 to 1944). Its product was based on the relatively new process of commercial evaporation of beverages. Stuart believed that there was value in sanitary milk at a time when fresh milk was neither universally available nor always drinkable, and correctly believed that his product would join other staples on grocers' shelves.

In 1901, his partner sold out, leaving Stuart the company and $105,000 of debt. As sales gradually grew, Stuart sought a brand name for the product. Passing a tobacconist's window in downtown Seattle, Stuart saw a display of cigars round a sign with the name: Carnation. His own firm subsequently adopted the name Carnation Evaporated Milk Company.

One of the most important things Stuart had learnt on his father's farm was that high-quality milk came from healthy cows; so to ensure premium standards, he distributed pure bred bulls to the farmers supplying the factory, whose offspring were selected for milk productivity. Eventually, Stuart established a breeding farm, named Carnation Farm, where the application of new principles of husbandry continually improved the productivity of the herd. Carnation cows held the world milk production record for 32 consecutive years. One cow in particular, Segis Pietertje Prospect, produced 37,381 pints of milk during 1920, and a statue of the cow was erected to honour this record. The town of Tolt, Washington, was later renamed Carnation, after the nearby breeding and research farms."