Birthplace of Commercial Ice Cream Production. In 1851 C. Jacob Fussell built a factory nearby to produce ice cream from the surplus milk and cream of York County dairy farmers. This was the first time that ice cream had been mass-produced for commercial distribution in the US. The nearby Northern Central Railroad provided easy access to the Baltimore market. After Fussell moved his operations to Baltimore, commercial production was continued by local manufacturers into the 1940s.