Elgin is well known for the many dairies that it helped to produce.  Lord’s Park has an indirect connection with that part of the city's past. The land that Lord’s Park now sits on was originally a dairy farm owned by Phineas T. Smith and Dr. Joseph Tefft. On February 12, 1852,  Smith and Tefft shipped the first can of milk from their farm to a hotel in Chicago. It wasn’t long before other hotels and vendors began to connect with Elgin dairies in order to fulfill their need for milk. Soon after that, milkmen would be seen in trucks marked "Elgin Dairies".