A series of vivid photos shows work underway in 1935 as a crew undertakes the construction of a new storage annex and feed mill after fire loss at an elevator site in Alliance, Nebr. In this case, we assume the job was in the hands of Van Ness Construction Co., of Omaha, and Reginald Tillotson, employed by Van Ness along with his father Charles H. Tillotson, took the photos while working on the project. It wasn’t until 1938 that Charles H. Tillotson passed away, and Reginald and his brother Joseph formed Tillotson Construction Co.

Alliance is an important market town in Box Butte County, located in the Nebraska Panhandle. The client on this project was George Neuswanger, an oil and grain merchant.

“He first came to Alliance, after graduation from the University of Nebraska, in 1916 when he served as Box Butte County agent,” the Alliance Times-Herald would explain in a 1966 obituary.

The Times-Herald explains the construction activity in an article of July 16, 1935:

Work on a new small-grain elevator being built for George Neuswanger is in progress at the location where the Neuswanger building burned last spring at the southwest corner of the city and plans call for the new structure to be completed within a month’s time, ready to house a bumper harvest. 

About 30 men are receiving employment, erecting a cribbed elevator of wood which will be covered with galvanized metal. The project was begun three weeks ago. 

The elevator will be 150 by 30 feet and will be 60 feet high. Its capacity is to be 100,000 bushels.

Mr. Neuswanger intends to store only small grain in the building. He sees ahead a need for more space, with harvest conditions ideal and chances good for a splendid yield in this territory. 

Neuswanger’s bad luck continued in August of 1937 when a tornado missed Alliance by a mile but struck four of his hog barns on a feed lot north of town. There was no mention of what happened to the hogs.