Pages 10 and 10A of Tillotson Construction record, 1955, Boyden, Iowa to Dallas Center, Iowa

Close-up of a white, cylindrical industrial building with a blue railing and an overhead conveyor belt, set against a cloudy sky.

Pages 10 and 10A of the Tillotson Construction record show the boom in construction of reinforced-concrete grain elevators was winding down for the Omaha company in 1955. Tillotson continued to build new elevators until at least 1958, but the number of jobs diminished. We lack further proprietary records of the work.

Led by Reginald O. and Mary V. Tillotson, the company produced 1,626,770 bushels of new capacity in ’55 with country-elevator jobs in Nebraska and Iowa.

Here’s the complete list of eight locations: Waverly, Nebr.; Boyden, Churdan, Boxholm, Thornton, Palm Grove, Vail, and Dallas Center, Iowa. A view of Dallas Center is seen at the top of this post.

A black and white construction record document titled 'Concrete Elevators' listing various construction items, their units, and data for multiple locations including Boyden, Churdan, Waverly, and others, with numerical values and annotations.

A detailed construction records document listing concrete elevator specifications, including estimated data, machinery details, and remarks, organized in a table format with multiple columns and rows.

The largest jobs were at Thornton and Dallas Center, where 252,000-bushel single-leg elevators were completed.

Smallest was a 126,140-bushel storage annex at Palm Grove, an unincorporated town in Clay Township, Webster County, Iowa. The Facebook page titled Fort Dodge Iowa Memories, Stories, Photos offers a description of Palm Grove:

“Palm Grove historically served as a vital interurban station. Interurban railways were electric-powered rail lines that connected rural agricultural regions to major industrial hubs during the early 1900s. Before it became known as Palm Grove, the railway station went by the name of Crooks.

“The community maintained its own federal post office under the name Crooks Post Office, which operated from 1909 until 1914. During this era, such rural post offices were usually built inside general stores or situated directly at rail stops to sort mail arriving by train before it was distributed to local farming families.

“When the postal services consolidated and the reliance on electric interurban transit faded with the rise of automobiles, the community lost its status as an independent commercial village. It transitioned into a quiet, unincorporated farming community.”

Tall white grain silos next to a gray feed mill building, with blue trim and a clear blue sky. — Waverly, Nebr. in 2012, photo by Kristen Cart

Another storage annex was at Churdan, where Tillotson put up six tanks measuring 20 feet in diameter and reaching 105 feet in height for a total of 198,960 bushels of capacity. Under the headline “Churdan Elevator Co-op Buys Site,” a March 22, 1955 news item from The Jefferson Bee announced preparations.

“Churdan—The Farmers Elevator Co-op has purchased the ground and house just west of the elevator. It was owned by Mr. and Mr. Ray Stream. Mr. and Mrs. John Lundy and Barbara lived in the house. The work on the new storage space at the elevator will start about April first.”

We visited Churdan in 2014 and found an active elevator with stress cracks and an ugly appendage rising from the cupola. Quad States added a second elevator in 1969.

Page 8 of Tillotson Construction record, 1954, Dacoma, Okla. to Ensign, Kan.

Oct16 by baggyparagraphs

Silhouette of telephone poles along a road during sunset, with a grain elevator visible in the background under an orange sky.

Page 8 of the Tillotson Construction Co. record documents the stretch through 1954 when the company participated in the boom for large-scale reinforced-concrete grain-storage buildings, completing eight main-house elevators and eight storage annexes.

The Omaha company led by Reginald O. Tillotson and Mary V. Tillotson produced 3,789,055 bushels of new capacity in this period. Jobs were in five states: Nebraska (1), Kansas (2), Iowa (8), Oklahoma (4), Texas (1).

Here’s the complete list of the sixteen locations: Bellwood, Nebr.; Ensign and Montezuma, Kan.; Dacoma, Orienta, Weatherford, and Lahoma, Okla.; Booker, Tex.; Newell, Iowa Falls, Albert City, Glidden, Manson, Pocahontas, Goldfield, and Rockwell City, Iowa.

A detailed construction records document showing various elevator components, including item descriptions, measurements, and specifications organized in a tabular format.

Bellwood was the most ambitious storage project. Each of the ten tanks measured 20 feet in diameter and reached 130 feet in height.

The smallest commission was at Newell, Iowa, where the new 150,000-bushel elevator had five tanks measuring sixteen feet in diameter and reaching 120 feet in height.

A similar job left Manson, Iowa with a 152,000-bushel elevator, also with five tanks measuring sixteen feet in diameter and reaching 120 feet.

Frontier grain storage facility with a small building in the foreground and large silos in the background under a clear blue sky. — Bellwood, Nebr. in 2020

Bellwood, Nebr. in 2020

We have visited Bellwood, Pocahontas, and Booker and can share file photos. The dawn photo at the top of this post is from Booker in 2018.

A red truck partially inside a loading bay of a large silos building, with a grassy area and barbed wire fence in the foreground. — A Ford F-500 on the driveway at Dacoma, Okla. Photo by Brad Perry.

Because of the out-of-the-way locations of these country elevators, and because of the secondary importance of storage annexes, little attention or acclaim was given and it’s hard to find documentation in archived newspapers.

Concerning the Orienta job, the Enid Morning News reported on Jan. 24, 1954:

“Work is progressing rapidly on the 300,000 bushel addition to the Major County Co-op Elevator association’s plant at Orienta, in Major county west of Enid. When [the annex is] completed sometime in March the association will have a storage capacity of 630,000 bushels, according to Ray Fuzzell, veteran manager. The addition is being constructed by the Tillotson Construction Co., of Omaha, on a cost plus basis with limit of $123,000. The association has had an elevator at Orienta since 1917. ‘We just did not have the storage capacity to take care of our local needs,’ Fuzzell said in commenting on the addition. ‘We do not expect to ship in any wheat for storage.'”

An advertisement promoting 'Biddy's Best All Mash Chick Ration' for raising chicks, featuring a drawing of a chick and highlighting potential profits for farmers.

The 1954 Oklahoma wheat crop was huge. The Associated Press reported a “spectacular boom” in elevator construction, with “pounding hammers and whirring concrete mixers” as 35 to 40 co-operatives added 9 million bushels of storage capacity. Dacoma was one of seven locations in the state where quarter-million-bushel jobs were underway.

Tillotson Construction was an important constituent in this movement, a leading innovator with its own distinctive architectural style and many characteristic features.

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

Oct2 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 Augusta, 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.

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.

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

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.

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

Sep25 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.

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.

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

Sep18 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 3,744,000 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. — Pond Creek, Okla.

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, Colo.

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

Pages 4 and 4A of Tillotson Construction record, 1949, Hooker, Okla. to Dalhart, Tex

Aug26 by baggyparagraphs

Pages 4 and 4A of the Tillotson construction record document a stretch in 1949 when the Tillotson Construction Co. showed its stuff as an experienced builder of reinforced-concrete grain elevators, producing 2,423,200 bushels of new capacity.

These pages give detailed specifications of jobs at a range of locations from Hooker, Okla. to Dalhart, Tex. They show Tillotson was particularly busy in Iowa, building at 11 locations there. Besides Iowa, there were commissions in Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

Here’s the complete list of locations: Hooker, Okla.; Paulinna, Iowa; Hordville, Nebr.; Churdan, Iowa; Glidden, Iowa; Dike, Iowa; Randall, Iowa; West Bend, Iowa; Sanborn, Iowa; Gilmore City, Iowa; Montevideo, Minn.; Pocahontas, Iowa; Jackson, Minn.; Pierson, Iowa; Clare, Iowa; Dalhart, Tex.

Jobs ranged from 50,000 bushels at Paulinna – a commission labeled “elevator only” – to a single-leg house of 310,000 bushels at the enduringly important location of Dalhart.

Jim Hamman contributed the exquisite black-and-white photo of Paulinna seen at top. Built on the Minatare, Nebr. plan of 1941, it had two tanks measuring 15.5 feet in diameter and reaching 85 feet in height.

Despite the “elevator only” notation, the Paulinna listing includes another note: “Whse 32’x50’ 120 cu yd.” We interpret this to mean a warehouse for flat storage was built in addition to the elevator, and its construction required the additional 120 cubic yards of concrete.

A note on Glidden is hard to decipher: “Cups @ 12” O.C. @ Glidden “Job Error.”

Stately on the plain, Tillotson’s elevator at Satanta, Kan. is weathered but working

Jul8 by baggyparagraphs

By Ronald Ahrens

As the evening sky turned to warm pastels and a train slugged along the track on terra firma, we approached Satanta, Kan. in search of the Tillotson elevator built in 1947.

Tillotson Construction Co. records led us to expect a 250,000-bushel, twin-leg main house with eight tanks (silos) measuring 18 feet in diameter and rising 120 feet. The cupola measures 21.5 x 48.5 x 40.25 feet, and tops out the elevator at 166.75 feet in height.

We hadn’t even considered it, but the harvest was just starting and trucks were expected to rumble up any moment. Everybody was prepared to work into the night. An employee saw me prowling around and came out of the office to caution me. Meanwhile, I’d already taken advantage of the opportunity to snap a couple of interior photos.

To allay questions about my legitimacy, inasmuch as possible, I said, “My grandfather built this elevator.”

The Tillotson elevator is 79 years old and has the scars and scabs and prostheses to prove it, but remains in operation for Skyland Grain LLC.

Complete specs for the elevator are found below in this post.

The elevator followed a plan established at Dike, Iowa and included eight internal bins. I looked for evidence of them along with the other marvels inside.

A remark on the records says, “Loading spout out bet. 2 tracks. Roto Flo dist. equipped 1 leg.”

U.S. Route 160 had led us from Springfield, Colo. into Kansas near a town called Johnson City. Continuing on this highway to its junction with Kansas Route 190, we covered the 50 miles to Satanta.

Tillotson built elevators in other southwestern Kansas towns: Moscow, Elkhart, Rolla, Montezuma, and Ensign. We lacked the time to wander to the first three and would only make it to Montezuma in the dark.

There is no record of Tillotson building the storage annex.

After Montezuma, we passed through Ensign on the way to our hotel at Dodge City, checking in at 11.00 p.m., exhausted after a 600-mile drive from Durango, Colo. with stops at several elevators. Then the clerk surprised us with the news that our room was on the third floor and neither of the elevators was working. They still weren’t working in the morning, either, so it came to hundreds of steps with all our stuff up and down and up in the night, down and up and down again in the morning.

On the side trip to Satanta, I should have asked to test the man lift. Despite the age, it probably works just fine.

A home mortgage for Reginald and Margaret Tillotson in 1939

Jun24 by baggyparagraphs

We find notice of a $4,000-mortgage at 6% granted to R.O. Tillotson and wife (Margaret Irene) by The National Company, which appeared July 22, 1939 in The Daily Record, of Omaha. A record published in 1940 gave their address as RD 2, Omaha, which we take to mean Rural Delivery Route 2.

The Tillotsons formed Tillotson Construction Co. in 1938, and the company built its first reinforced-concrete elevator in 1939, the year of the mortgage. By then, the fifth of six children was entering the picture.

A 1937 ad in The Daily Record explained that The National Company was formerly known as First Trust Co. and had an office in 500 First National Bank Building. Built in 1917, this was the first high-rise in Omaha.

From earlier records, we know Charles H. and Rose A. Tillotson lived at 624 N. 41st St. Reginald and Margaret may have lived with them for a time.

It figures that this step in 1939, when they already had a swarm of kids, launched Reginald and Margaret into home ownership in a period when credit was tight. Ultimately, they built their dream home on a knoll in the Ponca Hills, north of Omaha.

Pages 3 and 3A of Tillotson Construction record, 1947-1948, including Cavalier, N.D.; Richland, Nebr.; and Montezuma, Kan.

May27 by baggyparagraphs

Pages 3 and 3A of the Tillotson Construction Company’s construction record duplicate pages 2 and 2A from a previous post, but these are the complete scans of full long pages. The extra information concerns Cavalier, N.D.; Richland, Nebr.; and Montezuma, Kan.

Pages 2 and 2A of Tillotson Construction record, Minneapolis, Kan. to Polk, Nebr., 1947-1948

May20 by baggyparagraphs

Pages 2 and 2A of the Tillotson Construction Co. record of concrete elevators cover jobs in 1947 and 1948. The pages start at Minneapolis, Kan. and extend to Polk, Nebr. The jobs range in size from a 31,360-bushel mill building at Minneapolis, Kan. (in addition to the 100,000-bushel elevator) in 1948 to a whopping 265,000-bushel elevator with 125-foot drawform walls in Dalhart, Tex.

Page 1, which started the record in 1939, included cost information, but those figures aren’t included here.

Locations represented in these records are Minneapolis, Kan.; Dalhart, Tex.; Helena, Okla.; Eva, Okla.; Rushville, Nebr.; Satanta, Kan.; Gruver, Tex.; Moscow, Kan.; Manchester, Okla.; Springfield, Colo.; Rolla, Kan.; and Polk, Nebr.

Be sure to look at the bottom of p. 2 for notes on adverse weather and other challenges that factored into these jobs.

Our Grandfathers' Grain Elevators

The men and women of slip-formed concrete and the buildings they created in North America

Category Archives: Tillotson Records