Pages 7 and 7A of Tillotson Construction record, 1951 to 1953, York, Nebr. to Helena, Okla.

by baggyparagraphs
Grain silos in a rural landscape, captured in black and white, with a nearby telephone pole and some sparse trees.

Pages 7 and 7A of the Tillotson Construction Co. record document the stretch from late-1951 to 1953 when the company reached deep into the Southeast as a builder of reinforced-concrete grain-storage buildings, completing main-house elevators and/or storage annexes at sixteen locations.

The Omaha company led by Reginald O. Tillotson and Mary V. Tillotson produced 3,186,820 bushels of new capacity in this period. Jobs were in ten states: Nebraska (2), Kansas (1), Colorado (1), South Dakota (1), Iowa (2), Illinois (1), Oklahoma (3), Texas (1), South Carolina (3), and Georgia (1).

Here’s the complete list of the sixteen locations: York and Fairfield, Nebr.; Estill (2) and Millet Ville, S.C; Draper, S.D.; Manson and Ralston, Iowa; Conlen, Tex.; Meno, Cherokee, and Helena, Okla.; Columbia, Ill.; Jamestown, Kan.; and Flagler, Colo.

At Helena, as seen at the top of this post, Tillotson had built the 100,000-bushel main house with the curved cupola in 1949 and added 200,000 bushels of storage in 1953. Provenance of the second elevator is unknown.

A construction record table detailing concrete elevator projects, with columns for various contractors and cost estimates. Each row lists items related to the construction process.
A detailed construction records chart listing various construction items, their details, and associated quantities for different locations, with numerical data organized in rows and columns.

The smallest commission was a curious 18,600-bushel elevator at Millet Ville, S.C. in 1952.

Called “Millet” today, Millet Ville was an unincorporated area on the Savannah River about 40 miles from August, Ga. The Atlantic Coast Line served this Lowcountry area. We are unable to learn anything more about the project, which is an outlier in every sense.

Notes in the record show Millet Ville with five bins measuring 10 feet in diameter and reaching 50 feet in height. There were eight internal bins and a 300-bushel-per-hour leg.

The facility was built without a driveway.

The Millet Ville cupola was of frame construction, and the manlift was hand-operated.

Getting started in Flagler
From the top in Flagler
Finishing up in Flagler

Our Tillotson uncles worked on the Flagler job in 1953 and took some valuable pictures, starting with construction of the first formwork next-door to the old wood elevator.

Estill, S.C.
Draper, S.D.

The elevator at Estill, S.C. was for Harper and Bowers, an outfit with 715,000 bushels of storage. It came at a time when grain production was expanding in the Palmetto State and Midwestern expertise was needed for storage.

Following the plan first used at Cedar Bluffs, Nebr., Tillotson also built a 130,000-bushel elevator on the old Macon Road at Orchard Hill, Ga.

Historical marker for the first grain elevator in Georgia, detailing its construction in 1946 and capacity of 108,000 bushels.

A plaque established by the Georgia Historical Society gives the date as 1954, but our record differs on that point. A search shows the elevator remains standing but is not in operation today.

Meno, Okla. with 1953 Tillotson elevator at right
Meno, Okla. with 1953 Tillotson elevator on right

The largest commission was the 537,500-bushel storage annex at another dot on the map, Ralston, Iowa.

Meno, Okla. is yet another dot on the map–but one we visited in 2018. The photos from that visit show two elevators. We believe Tillotson built both of them, but we only have the record of the smaller one–152,000 bushels–seen at the right in the above photos. Concrete-pouring started on Dec. 26, 1952 and the job was finished by late-March of 1953.

Home-movie images show Ben E. Schmidt and others on formwork circa 1950

by baggyparagraphs
View of the top of a large cylindrical structure against a clear blue sky.

After Ben E. Schmidt crewed on the 1948 Tillotson Construction Co. job in Montezuma, Kan., he helped to build a dozen more elevators in six other states.

He wasn’t the only member of the Schmidt family riding the formwork.

“I don’t know for sure how many of the brothers worked on elevators, but I know a brother-in-law, Jake Unruh, was also on this job,” says Mindi Adkins, granddaughter of Ben E. Schmidt.

Mindi–who contributed the home-movie captures with this post–absorbed the family lore of elevator construction days.

Workers on a construction site, performing tasks on a wooden structure.

She thinks the job seen in this post is Tillotson’s 1950 elevator in Alta, Iowa. Capacity was 246,070 bushels. There were eight tanks measuring 18 feet in diameter and reaching 115 feet in height. More specific details are found on page 5 of the Tillotson construction record.

The image at the head of this post shows formwork as the crew is nearly ready to top-out the cupola.

Workers on scaffolding at a construction site, with a focus on the wooden structures and safety equipment.

The overalls-clad figure on the catwalk is Mindi’s grandfather Ben, doing the task of concrete-finishing.

A worker in blue overalls is operating machinery on a construction site, surrounded by wooden structures.

The home-movie film was shot by Mindi’s great-uncle Fred Schmidt.

A man wearing a cap and work clothes is seen walking near a textured wall.

Fred’s color movie is a valuable survivor of the boom period of concrete-elevator construction. His foresight in making the movie benefits Our Grandfathers’ Grain Elevators today, thanks to Mindi’s initiative to isolate these images.

Photos, postcards open window on Montevideo, Minn. crewman and family

by baggyparagraphs
Weathered white wall with a closed metal roll-up door and rusted supports.

By Ronald Ahrens with photos by Mindi Adkins

In a tip-of-the-iceberg moment, Our Grandfathers’ Grain Elevators has received a fresh take on the Montevideo, Minn. elevator built in 1949 by Tillotson Construction Co., and it opens a door on the personal lives of crew members.

Mindi Adkins stopped by Montevideo en route from South Dakota and took pictures of the elevator.

“My grandpa Ben Schmidt helped build that elevator and many others,” Mindi explains.

An old grain elevator with a cylindrical top and weathered exterior, featuring signs that read 'LEDS' and 'HARVEST STATES.' The structure is surrounded by a concrete area with some overgrown grass.
A large, weathered grain elevator tower with a white exterior, partially obscured by clouds, surrounded by a grassy area and other industrial buildings.
Old grain elevator building with weathered white exterior and a circular top, featuring faded text that reads 'LEDS' and 'HARVEST STATES.'

Montevideo happens to be Tillotson’s “cover girl” elevator featured in the January 1950 issue of Farmers Elevator Guide. The story behind the story is that six unions filed a strike notice as the job got going the previous summer. One way or other, work was completed in the autumn and Farmers Equity Elevator Co. dedicated their new grain house on Dec. 30, 1949.

Mindi’s revelation has an additional personal element, as her contribution also includes postcards to her grandparents. One is addressed to them at Watson’s Cabins in Montevideo. The other is general delivery.

Ruth Toews Schmidt was from Montezuma, Kan. (site of another Tillotson elevator). She and Ben E. Schmidt married on May 20, 1945. They soon went to Colorado Springs, where Ben was assigned to a Civilian Public Service camp, serving two years. He came home and worked on Tillotson’s 1948 Montezuma elevator.

“My grandma Ruth told me that when they were building the Montezuma elevator, Ben jumped the gap between the two elevators at the top!” Mindi says. “I wish I knew how many feet it is, but Ruth didn’t approve!”

Afterwards, the couple went on the circuit of elevator jobs.

A vintage postcard addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Ben E. Schmidt, featuring handwritten text and a green one-cent stamp.
An old postmarked envelope from Copeland, Kansas, dated September 27, 1949, featuring a 1-cent George Washington stamp and handwritten recipient information.

Mindi elaborates on the question of elevator construction:

“I did get some information from Grandma. She told me all the elevators she remembered that Grandpa worked on–approximately 13 in seven different states. Then several years ago, my grandpa’s brother Lincoln, who also worked on elevators, told me the Tillotson name.”

After working in Montevideo, Ben was part of Tillotson’s crew at Alta, Iowa in 1950. Ruth became pregnant during that time.

“My grandma was weary of moving so much and requested that she go home to Kansas for the baby to be born. So Grandpa took off work, and my mom, Pearl, was born in Montezuma in June 1950.”

Smiling elderly man with a white beard and glasses, wearing a light-colored shirt, posed in front of wooden furniture.
Ben E. Schmidt

After their elevator work ended, Ben and Ruth settled in Osceola, S.D. and took up farming. They raised three daughters and one son. 

A historical advertisement for a Guernsey milk cow, including contact information for the seller.
The Daily Plainsman, Dec. 9, 1966

Lore from the elevator years continued to circulate within the Schmidt family. Mindi’s uncle Lincoln told of working on Tillotson’s elevator at Stromsburg, Nebr. and falling in love with a girl who lived there. “He could see from the top of the elevator when she arrived home from work. They did marry and raise a family.”

Ben and Ruth Schmidt left South Dakota for Oklahoma in 1967. Ruth, who loved to sing, worked as a nurse and caregiver. Ben had a custom-combining business. He died in 1997.

Mindi migrated back to South Dakota in the early 1990s. Her grandmother Ruth died in 2016 in Kansas.

The Schmidts represent Tillotson Construction as exemplars of hard work, sacrifice, and resourcefulness. Our Grandfathers’ Grain Elevators is honored to record their achievements.

Pages 6 and 6A of Tillotson Construction record, 1950 to 1951, Palmer, Iowa to Hereford, Tex.

by baggyparagraphs
A grain elevator with silos and a loading structure, located beside train tracks, under a cloudy sky.

Pages 6 and 6A of the Tillotson Construction Co. record document the stretch in 1950 to 1951 when the company further extended its accomplishments as a builder of reinforced-concrete grain-storage buildings, completing main-house elevators or annexes at sixteen locations.

The Omaha company led by Reginald O. Tillotson and Mary V. Tillotson produced 3,685,996 bushels of new capacity in this period. Jobs were in Nebraska (6), Iowa (7), Missouri (1), and Texas (2).

Here’s the complete list of locations: Palmer, Ringsted, Ocheyedan, Thompson, Palm Grove, West Bend, and La Porte, Iowa; Cedar Bluffs, Aurora, Omaha, Wahoo, Greenwood, and David City, Nebr., Sunray and Hereford, Tex. (seen at top in 2018 photo); and Malta Bend, Mo.

A detailed construction record sheet for concrete elevators, featuring columns for item description, measurements, labor costs, and totals from various locations including Palmer, Ringsted, and others.
Black and white document displaying construction records of concrete elevators, detailing specifications, machinery, and remarks for various sites.

Tillotson was in a continuation of its major phase. The average capacity among these sixteen jobs was 230,374 bushels. Not bad for a company that started with 60,000 bushels at Goltry, Okla. in 1939.

The smallest commission was the 50,000-bushel elevator at Malta Bend, Mo.

Largest was the 550,000-bushel storage annex at Sunray, Tex., which had to leave everybody connected with the job impressed.  

Best-known from these sixteen locations is the Omaha terminal elevator with 382,880-bushel capacity. An annex was later added at this Vinton Street site. The elevator no longer operates, although there are once again plans afoot for redevelopment. Meantime, many people find it to be an eyesore. A mural project a few years ago tried to address that.

David City, Nebr.
Vinton Street, Omaha
Wahoo, Nebr.

Special notes on page 6 indicate that Tillotson built a 19-foot Stran-Steel bridge at Sunray and the Greenwood job was “rainy @ start.” Notes on page 6A show Omaha included a train shed, truck shed, truck scale, and office.

In addition to the aforementioned bridge, Sunray also had a basement tunnel.

The reader is invited to peruse these records to find additional details.

Not even ‘by fits and starts’ applies to Tillotson Construction Co. in Missouri

by baggyparagraphs
A view of large concrete silos used for grain storage, with a loading mechanism and a crane in the background under a clear blue sky.

By Ronald Ahrens with Brad Perry

As with Minnesota, where we know of just two jobs, we have to ask why Tillotson Construction Co. did so little work in the state of Missouri. After all, it’s an agricultural leader, a noteworthy part of the Grain Belt, ranking eighth in corn production. Tillotson built plenty of elevators in neighboring states. All we have to show for work in the Show-Me State is a 1951 elevator at Malta Bend.

An irony in this comes from the fact that Charles H. Tillotson was born in Brunswick, Mo. in 1877. In the mid-1920s, when he worked for Van Ness Construction Co., there was involvement with a wood elevator in Wilcox, Mo.

Announcement about G. A. Sallee purchasing an idle elevator in Wilcox, Missouri, previously owned by the R. M. Van Ness Construction Co.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know details of how Van Ness ended up as owner of an elevator that it likely enough built?

After the death of my great-grandfather Charles H. in 1938, sons Reginald (my grandfather) and Joe (great uncle) launched Tillotson Construction Co. to build grain elevators of reinforced concrete.

For a concrete elevator, Malta Bend was “tiny” with capacity of 50,000 bushels. There were four tanks measuring 12.5 feet in diameter and reaching 90 feet in height.

Map showing the location of a town in Missouri, highlighting its position within the state and surrounding counties.
Malta Bend, Saline County, Missouri via Wikipedia

I asked contributor Brad Perry for his take on Missouri. His reasoning follows:

Until modern genetics, reduced tillage, and other tech advances, Missouri agriculture North of the Missouri River was “subsistence.” Similar to southwest and south-central Iowa below Interstate 80. The primary crop-growing regions were the valleys north and south of the Missouri River, chunks of eastern Missouri adjacent to the Mississippi River, and in the Bootheel.

Yes, there are some 1940s and 1950s concrete elevators (or earlier) but they tend to be barge-loaders or feed-soybean-wheat processors. 

Missouri’s grain business has been dominated by two companies, both of which are cooperatives. One is MFA, or Missouri Farmers Association, headquartered in Columbia. The other is Ray-Carroll County Grain Growers, of Richmond, Mo. I have worked with both–quite extensively with Ray-Carroll. 

Exterior view of a grain elevator with silos marked MFA, located beside a highway with a for sale sign in the foreground.
MFA complex at Brunswick, Mo. by Brad Perry

A third factor in Missouri grain markets has been St. Louis, which was the primary destination of any grain not already loaded on barges on the Missouri River. Ray-Carroll has an elevator in St. Louis. 

Finally, the Missouri grain world changed with large trains. Ray-Carroll was the leader in this for Missouri. They geared up for 54-car (now 110-car) Burlington Northern trains at Hardin (seen in Brad’s photo at the top of this post); 50- and then 75-car trains at Norborne (“Soybean Capital of the World”); and 75- and then 100-car trains at Carrollton. 

Ray-Carroll next built greenfield shuttle loaders at Slater and Corder–their first moves on the south side of the Missouri River. They have also turned their Brunswick location into a Burlington Northern shuttle loader. 

MFA has tried to follow suit with a greenfield loader at Hamilton, along with upgrading a couple of other facilities.

All’s well that ends well at Tillotson’s 1946 elevator in Wellsburg, Iowa

by baggyparagraphs
A grain elevator building under construction, resembling future designs by the Tillotson Co. in Wellsburg, Iowa.

By Ronald Ahrens

It was urgent business indeed as Tillotson Construction Co. undertook a $47,500 elevator for Snittjer Grain Co. in Wellsburg, Iowa. The Frerichs and Snittjer wood elevator burned in 1944–just the latest fire at that site. In the wartime period, it wasn’t automatic or quick to build a replacement. The interval without sufficient grain storage in the Grundy County village had farmers scrambling.

Nor had it been automatic that a partnership would endure. Harm Frerichs, the former bank cashier who teamed with Sherwood Snittjer, died in 1940. Frerichs was 52 years old at his death, which was attributed to double-pneumonia. “He had been afflicted with diabetes for a number of years,” the Waterloo Daily Courier reported. He also owned Grundy County Oil Co.

His funeral rite at the local Reformed church brought together “perhaps the largest number ever to assemble in Wellsburg,” according to an obituary, which didn’t mention the elevator.

Map showing location of a specific area in Iowa, with a highlighted region indicating the focus area.
Wellsburg, Iowa (red dot) from Wikipedia map

Without further details of the new entity, we can say the partnership ended, Snittjer proceeded, and Tillotson started building on his behalf in 1946. The Daily Courier reported on July 14:

“Two crews will be employed until the work is completed. There will be four silos 80 feet high, with a capacity of 50,000 bushels. A driveway and dump pit will be constructed between the silos. The elevator is being constructed of steel and cement.”

The Des Moines Register followed up the next week, saying the silos would be 84 feet high.

Newspaper article headline and text about the construction of a steel and concrete grain elevator by Snittjer Grain Co. in Wellsburg, Iowa, detailing costs, height, capacity, and a historical note about a previous elevator that burned in 1944.

Page 1 of the Tillotson construction record cites a revised 1939 plan from Goltry, Okla. as the basis for this new elevator. Goltry, a 60,000-bushel house, was Tillotson’s first concrete elevator. Wellsburg capacity is listed as 50,650 bushels. A note about the tanks gives their diameter as 12 feet, same as Goltry, but evidently they weren’t as high. The job consumed 662 cubic yards of reinforced concrete, another seven yards for the hopper, and 30 1/3 tons of steel. (Goltry used 758 cubic yards and 32 1/2 tons.)

This early page of records lists total costs, less commission, at $47,500. Expenditure for labor was $21,473. A note in the costs section says “costs incl. whse and office partly built.”

For an example of wartime inflation, look at Goltry’s total cost: $21,522.97. Call it $50 greater than Wellsburg’s outlay just for labor.

Other Wellsburg costs (transcribed literally): Cement @ job $6,842; Sand @ job (3,000# c.y.) $1,944; Rock @ job (unclear); Re-steel @ job (J-rods, wires & nipples) $2,246; Lumber $1,991; Machinery $5,500; Structural steel $776; Electrical mat’l $597; Doors & Windows $1,148; Painting & water proofing $30; Hardware (Bolts, nails, etc.) $515; Equip. expense (Depreciation, rentals etc) $2,526; Freight (Not included above F.O.B job) $192; Sub-contracts $94; W.H. Tax & Ins. $1,718; State taxes $430; Miscel. (Overhead, job office, plans, bond, etc) $725.

Two large grain silos standing in a field under a clear blue sky.
Tillotson’s 1939 Goltry elevator at right.

It’s instructive to look so closely at the books because, after this first series of elevators listed on page 1, costs are omitted from the records. Nor is a page 1A available with additional specifications such as height of drawform walls and dimensions and height of the cupola.

On Oct. 15,1946 the Courier declared the Wellsburg elevator to be finished and open for operation: “It stands 110 feet high, is 45 feet square and has four silos connected by bins. Peak capacity will total 60,000 bushels.”

Using the same plan yet again, Tillotson started a job the next year in Rushville, Nebr. To show how the finished result would look, they sent a photo of Wellsburg to the local newspaper. That picture is seen at the top of the post.

Industrial grain storage facility with tall silos and a loading conveyor, under a clear blue sky.
Wellsburg complex, Brad Perry photo

The Wellsburg elevator’s fate was unclear until Brad Perry supplied the photo seen above. Snittjer Grain continued as an independent operation until being purchased in 2023 by Landus. World Grain reported: “Landus has 56 licensed grain storage facilities with 152.686 million bushels of storage, according to Sosland Publishing Co.’s 2023 Grain & Milling Annual, which places it 10th among grain handling companies in North America. Landus also has access to seven railroads.”

Page 5 of Tillotson Construction record, 1949 to 1950, Wapello, Iowa to Rock Valley, Iowa

by baggyparagraphs
A large grain silo complex with multiple white silos against a cloudy sky.

Page 5 of the Tillotson Construction Co. record documents the stretch in 1949 to 1950 when the company extended its accomplishments as a builder of reinforced-concrete grain-storage buildings, completing main-house elevators or annexes at sixteen locations.

The Omaha company led by Reginald O. Tillotson and Mary V. Tillotson produced 3,744,00 bushels of new capacity in this period. Jobs were in six states: Iowa (3), Nebraska (1), Kansas (1), Colorado (3), Oklahoma (5) and Texas (3). 

A detailed construction record chart for concrete elevators, featuring columns for items, measurements, and cost totals, with entries for various project locations and specifications.

Here’s the complete list of locations: Wapello, Alta, and Rock Valley, Iowa; Bellwood, Nebr.; Clifton, Kan.; Seibert, Burlington, and Flagler, Colo.; Bushland, Canyon, and Hartley, Tex.; and Helena, Imo, Drummond, Pond Creek, and Kildare, Okla. 

Bushland, Tex. is pictured at the top of this post.

Tillotson was in its maximalist phase. The average among these sixteen jobs was 234,000 bushels. Not bad for a company that a decade earlier (with time off during World War Two) started with 60,000 bushels at Goltry, Okla. 

A row of large concrete silos against a blue sky, with a metal catwalk and equipment for grain handling.
Pond Creek, Okla.
Silhouette of a tall grain elevator against a sunset sky with clouds and distant train cars.
Canyon, Tex.

The smallest commission was the 100,000-bushel storage annex at Helena, Okla,, where Tillotson had built the main house two years earlier. Its capacity, too, was 100,000 bushels. 

Largest in this group were the 320,000-bushel elevators at Canyon, Tex. and Bellwood, Nebr. Both followed the same plan with eight tanks measuring 20 feet in diameter and reaching 120 feet in height. There were 22 internal bins and a dust bin.

Aerial view of a construction site with several structures, vehicles, and piles of lumber. Two large round tanks are present, along with a wooden platform under construction.
Flagler, Colo.
View of grain silos and a welcome sign for Flagler, a historical community, along a paved road lined with trees.
Flagler photo by Gary Rich
Black and white image of a construction site featuring wooden structures and supports, with a partially assembled circular framework in the foreground and background buildings visible.
Flagler, Colo.

A digital copy of Page 5A of the records, giving more complete specifications, isn’t available for this post.

Mayer-Osborn used Stran-Steel on 1950 Coors job in Johnstown, Colo.

by baggyparagraphs
Black and white advertisement for Stran-Steel, highlighting its advantages for light-load construction. It features scenes of various construction projects using Stran-Steel, along with details about its strength, durability, and applications in military and civilian structures.

By Ronald Ahrens

After being established in Denver in the late-1940s, Mayer-Osborn Construction Co. sought innovation in methods, which led to use of Stran-Steel in the elevator they built for Adolph Coors Co. at Johnstown, Colo.

It would be necessary to look at the plans for this elevator in order to know more about technique and application, but an assumption is that Stran-Steel was easier to work with than labor-intensive rebar.

The Coors job got underway in the spring of 1950. The Johnstown Breeze announced:

“Preliminary work began Tuesday on the construction of the new receiving and storage elevator for Coors’ Moravian malting barley here. The elevator, which will be of concrete and strang [sic] steel construction, is being built by the Mayer-Osborn company of Denver and will be completed prior to July 1 when harvesting normally is started on the malting barley crop to be received at the elevator.”

Stran-Steel–commonly misspelled as “Strang”–was introduced in the Good Housekeeping Stran-Steel House at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.

An advertisement for the Good Housekeeping-Stran-Steel House, highlighting its design and features. The illustration shows a modern steel house surrounded by greenery, with text discussing its affordability and construction benefits.

The Coors elevator went up on a former stockyards site in the railroad triangle southeast of Johnstown. The area is today known as Colorado Sweet Gold, a slick name for an industrial park.

In that long-ago time, the United States Brewers Foundation sponsored a “Beer Belongs” campaign to encourage beer drinking in the home instead of taverns. Coors was expanding its production of Moravian barley, as recorded by History Colorado:

“Coors scaled up the barley program quickly, enhancing the vertical integration of its operations and further tightening its control over the entire supply chain. A breeding program at the experimental farm the company created in 1949 in the San Luis Valley developed improved high-altitude varieties from the original seed stock … Grain storage facilities were built beginning in the 1950s near Loveland, and in Monte Vista in the San Luis Valley, collecting barley directly from the farmers and storing it until it was needed at the brewery in Golden, where a large new custom-designed malthouse was completed in 1957.”

Johnstown is twelve miles from Loveland.

Once the job got going, The Breeze reported on April 27 that burglars forced a lock at the combination tool shed and office. They stole $550-worth of stuff. Construction superintendent Ralph McAfee said the loss included two large power saws and “numerous” other tools.

Text from a document discussing the benefits of Stran-Steel, including its construction from light gauge strip steel, ease of erection by carpenters, and the compatibility with standard building practices and materials.
Stran-Steel explained in company promotional literature archived by the University of Chicago

We’ve found no further news of the construction or details of the elevator itself, but it was surely finished by September when Mayer-Osborn billed the Johnstown Town Board of Trustees $7.20 for supplies.

Additional searching reveals some aspects of Mayer-Osborn’s nature. For one, the Colorado Grain, Milling and Feed Dealers Association Bulletin reports that in an October 1952 conference, Eugene Mayer served as a member of the Equipment and Engineering Panel. Other members were Curtis Wagner, chairman; D.O. Ferris, Richardson Scale Co., Denver; Ray Barmington, Colorado A&M research engineer.

Mayer-Osborn was community-minded as well. In 1954, the Arvada Enterprise reported Mayer-Osborn’s midget baseball team would play the Lakewood Terrors on July 3.

Another item shows that, as with so many other elevators then and now, a Mayer-Osborn house could the scene of tragedy. The Associated Press had reported on July 18, 1952:

“Charles Myers, 16, of Johnstown was killed this morning when he was buried under a barley slide inside the Coors elevator here. Death was probably due to asphyxiation, but an autopsy will be held to determine the exact cause, Coroner Ross Adamson said. The coroner reported the boy and Bill Freauf, elevator manager, went inside the elevator to run grain into a truck. Mr. Freauf left the bin for about ten minutes and was unable to find the boy when he returned. Rescuers got the boy out about 40 minutes later and a Johnstown physician worked with a resuscitator for two hours in a futile attempt to revive the youth, Adamson said. The youth, a Johnstown high school student, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Myers. A sister [Marjorie] also survives.” 

It was an devastating tragedy for all.

What became of Mayer-Osborn’s barley elevator is unclear. Photos on the Colorado Sweet Gold website show nothing we would expect of an elevator from that era. Further searches concerning the elevator’s fate turns up news (link here) of an explosion and fire in October of 2005 and a “collapsed” grain elevator. No more details than that, but it suggests an unhappy outcome for Mayer-Osborn’s innovative elevator that met the needs of the Coors company in 1950.

Rising from the plain, a bean house has a concave cupola in Dove Creek, Colo.

by baggyparagraphs
Close-up of a silo with antennas and equipment on top, against a blue sky.

Story by Ronald Ahrens with photography by Mark Vaughn

Crossing from Utah into Colorado on U.S. 491 leaves a traveler with very little to look at. The landscape is wide open and featureless, giving extra significance to architectural wonders that may be encountered. As he left the Beehive State on this route and approached Dove Creek, Colo., our friend Mark Vaughn found his drifting thoughts interrupted by the stirring sight of a concrete elevator.

A person riding a green bicycle on a paved path surrounded by greenery in a sunny outdoor setting.
Mark Vaughn

Vaughn’s thoughts then turned to his favorite blog, Despite being overcome by mad inspiration, he kept his car on the road while taking a picture through the windshield.

As West Coast editor for Autoweek, keeping cars on the road has been a Vaughn specialty for thirty-seven years. His interest in elevators is a more recent development and redounds to our benefit.

With contoured sides, an overhanging brow, and twin rectangular windows as “eyes,” the bare concrete structure at Dove Creek looks like a tall, broad-shouldered robot. Studying the results of Vaughn’s scouting leaves us marveling at the concave cupola, which is of a rare design.

Who built this elevator? And when? The answer could well be on the cast-iron plate covering the manhole. This plate is seen near the bottom of the left-side tank. We wouldn’t be surprised if embossed lettering names Mayer-Osborn Construction Co., of Denver, as the builder. Mayer-Osborn had incorporated curvature up top into its design vocabulary during the company’s early 1950s heyday.

Alas, Vaughn’s high rate of speed precluded his stopping in order to climb up and read the plate.

Our call to High Country Elevators, Inc., of Dove Creek, has not been returned. Nor has anything turned up in our search of newspaper archives.

A tall concrete grain silo next to a small building, set against a blue sky with wispy clouds.

Dryland bean production is big in southwestern Colorado, and elevator capacity at Dove Creek is devoted to pinto beans. If indeed this was a Mayer-Osborn job, we can’t say our grandfathers always built grain elevators. Sometimes they built bean elevators.

A large concrete grain silo next to a metal storage building, with a white silo and a rolling door visible in the foreground.

The Dove Creek Press probably holds answers to our questions, but that newspaper is archived on microfilm at the Colorado Historical Society. Because Vaughn didn’t stop there either, we won’t know anytime soon.

Approaching the northern limit for concrete elevators at Jackson, Minn.

by baggyparagraphs
A tall grain silo with three cylindrical sections, set against a clear sky, featuring electrical wires in the foreground and nearby buildings.

By Ronald Ahrens with Brad Perry

Tillotson Construction Co. completed an elevator at Jackson, Minn., seven miles north of the Iowa state line, and it remains in use. We would like to say more about its history, but too little is clear. The completion photo seen above comes from Tillotson archives. “Jackson, Minn” is scrawled across the back in pencil without a date.

Attempts to access Jackson County Pilot newspaper archives failed.

Additionally, there’s no entry for the Jackson elevator in company records, although there is an entry for 100,000 bushels of storage in 1949. Here’s the link to all specs from that job.

A grain elevator facility with large silos and industrial equipment under a blue sky.
Tillotson elevator at the center in Jackson, Minn. Photo by Brad Perry

Instead of historical details of the elevator’s construction, we offer some perspective about what makes grain storage in Minnesota and the Dakotas a different matter as compared to other Grain Belt states just to the south, namely, Iowa and Nebraska, where concrete elevators abound.

Ronald: Do you have a take on why Tillotson built only a couple of elevators in Minnesota?

Brad: There were, and still are, some old-line construction companies in Minnesota that built a number of elevators in both Minnesota and Iowa.

Ronald: As we go north, concrete seems to lose its advantages.

Brad: Wood elevators were still being built in the 1970s in Minnesota and the Dakotas. I was always told that wood is a much better insulator (Duh!) and maintains grain quality better in cold climates.

Grain silos and warehouses alongside a railway track, with a water tower visible in the background and greenery in the foreground.
Wood elevator complex at Minnesota Lake, Minn. Photo by Brad Perry
A large, gray grain elevator building stands against a cloudy sky, featuring multiple storage silos and loading equipment, with a nearby stop sign and train crossing sign.
Wood elevator at Bricelyn, Minn. Photo by Brad Perry

Brad (continued): All over Minnesota you’ll find 100,000- and even 200,000-bushel wood houses and especially annexes. Concrete in Jackson makes sense—it’s about on the Iowa line. I can still remember a wood house for the Sisseton, S.D. co-op that we financed in 1976 at over $5 per bushel, which was two times the cost of concrete at that time.

Ronald: I went through Sisseton once. It’s near the North Dakota line. That’s as close as I ever came to North Dakota.

Brad: Another reason could also be due to livestock. Other than the southern two tiers of counties, Minnesota producers fed their corn to dairy cattle, hogs, and turkeys so that somewhat less of the collective storage was required. Minnesota is still the number-one state for turkey production.