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In 1962, the Messenger featured many of the businesses in Pike County.  The Troy Maid Bakery owned by Houston Yohn  was one of those featured.  From my understanding, the items made at the bakery were amazing, especially the cream horns.

“Buy locally and sell locally” is the unofficial motto of the Troy Maid Bakery here.  The bakery is owned and operated by Houston Yohn, who is a firm and outspoken believer in local industry.

“We buy everything we possibly can in Troy,” says the owner, who is also a Baptist minister.  Troy money is spent in Troy, he says, except for the ingredients for bakery products which cannot be purchased locally.

Not only is this true of business expenditures.  Yohn prefers to make personal purchases of clothing, automobiles and the like in Troy too.

And he applies this principle in the selling end of the bakery business also.  Yohn makes no attempt to solicit business outside the vicinity of Troy, although he is the owner of a prosperous and popular bakery concern.

     With 30 years’ experience in the bakery field, Yohn is well qualified as a baker.  A native of Houston Cunty, he moved to Troy in 1949 from Dothan and opened the Troy Maid Bakery here.

     He began the business in its present location, at the corner of Elm and Market Streets, with just himself and one helper to operate it.  Now he has seven employees, and he has doubled his floor space by taking over another building.

The only bakery in the Pike County area, Troy Maid has a flourishing retail and wholesale trade.  The firm caters to the institutional and restaurant trade.

Troy Maid markets a complete line of bakery products, including breads, rolls, cakes, cookies, pies and doughnuts.  High on the list in popularity is Troy Maid’s specially decorated cakes for birthdays, weddings, parties, anniversaries and other occasions.

The bakery supplies in full the needs of the Troy city school lunchrooms in bread and rolls.  Troy State College is supplied with 25 to 50 dozen doughnuts each day, and practically all the local restaurant use Troy Maid bread and rolls.

The Troy Maid Bakery is noted for its breads.  About a year ago the firm began making an original butter strip bread.  Now the idea has been taken up by other bakeries.

One of the concern’s most popular items is “Mrs. Gracey’s Health Bread.”  The late Mrs. F. M. Gracey originated the recipe, which Yohn purchased from her.  The bread is made with whole wheat flour and wheat germ, but no shortening or milk.  Some former Trojans request that this special bread be shipped to them weekly.

All formulas are original at Troy Maid.  Yohn follows the “old fashioned” trend in foods.

One additive that Yohn shuns completely is the moisture retaining agent used by some large commercial bakeries to keep bread soft.  It is a health hazard, Yohn feels, and adds that softness does not indicate freshness.

Yohn says his biggest business is the Baptist ministry, but his best paying business is the bakery.  He is the pastor of the Elam Baptist Church of Elamville in Barbour County.

He has been an ordained minister for almost 11 years, but was a lay speaker for some 20 years prior to his ordainment.  Yohn feels that there is a very close connection between the ministry and the bakery business.

“We teach that He is the bread of life.  We feed the spiritual body from the pulpit and the physicial from the bakery,” Yohn points out.

All of these articles can be found in previous editions of The Troy Messenger.  Stay tuned for more.  Dianne Smith is the President of the Pike County Historical, Genealogical and Preservation Society.