Category Archives: The Men and Women

The men and women who built grain elevators of slip-formed concrete in the mid-20th century.

Excitement and drama of 1947 elevator in Rushville, Nebr., Part III

by baggyparagraphs

Story by Ronald Ahrens and photos by Kristen Cart

Not a stick of wood!

So boasted George Bacus, Northwest Grain Co. boss, when he announced in June of 1947 that Tillotson Construction Co. was about to start a 99,000-bushel single-leg elevator in Rushville, Nebr.

It would be based on the plan established in 1941 at Sheldon, Iowa with four tanks measuring 14.5 feet in diameter and reaching 100 feet in height.

The tab for this elevator “of the most modern design” would come to $60,000. Details of the financing were not reported.

“We have long felt the need for more storage capacity and are quadrupling the grain facilities here because we want to keep Rushville the most attractive grain market in Sheridan county,” Bacus told the Sheridan County Star.

Other towns–Gordon, Hay Springs, and Clinton–could eat their hearts out.

The Tillotson elevator would rise on the site where the old Wolvington elevator was being torn down. Walter Wolvington, an auctioneer who went into the grain business, first partnered with Lester Davis in the purchase of the Aplan elevator in Rushville. Their next move, reported in the May 15, 1925 issue of The American Elevator and Grain Trade, was to buy the Nye Schneider elevator.

The partnership may have dissolved. After more than two decades, Wolvington sold to Bacus, who since 1939 had managed Farmers Elevator in Hay Springs. A big fire at that facility led him to go into business for himself.

In a display ad of Sept. 27, 1945, Wolvington wrote:

“Having sold my elevator I want to take this means of thanking the people of this community for their business and their loyal support during the twenty-two years I have been in the grain and coal business. Your friendship and your patronage are deeply appreciated. George Bacus, the new owner, is well experienced, friendly, and co-operative and will serve you efficiently and honestly. I will continue in my auctioneer work. See me for dates.”

Combined with the Aplan elevator and Rushville Roller Mills, total capacity in Rushville would increase from 40,000 to 130,000 bushels.

Not only was it the size of the new elevator, but also the speed of operation that impressed everybody. Thanks to the 20-horsepower motor in the cupola, the pace of boxcar loading would rise from 500 to 2,200 bushels per hour.

Construction was expected to take ninety days.

In Part II of this three-part Rushville series, we detailed the important steps in construction, and indeed the work was mostly wrapped up in October. The exception, though, was the electrically operated man lift, which was only installed in February of 1948. The Star’s description is worth repeating:

“The man lift is a miniature electric elevator which will provide transportation from the basement of the elevator to the head house. It will save employees of the local grain company a lot of strenuous climbing as it is necessary to go up to the head house several times a day when grain is being loaded out. The elevator has a small wire cage, about the size of a phone booth and operates exactly like elevators in Omaha department stores. A two horsepower electric motor at the top operates a steel cable which lifts the elevator cage at the rate of ninety feet a minute. The complete trip of 110 feet from basement to headhouse takes just over a minute and is a good deal easier than climbing the iron rung stairs fastened in the side of the elevator shaft.”

The Rushville elevator served Sheridan County farmers for decades. Now, after Kristen’s visit on May 23, we figure the facility is out of service. A couple of calls to Rushville to inquire about the present status produced nothing on the present ownership. But Kristen reports:

“Windows are broken out of the headhouse, and the scale house needs paint and appears unused. Concrete foundations remain after several round bins were removed. It’s hard to tell what they were. The metal sheds and round bins seem to be in use and in good condition. When I was there, the place was deserted, but in May that is to be expected.”

We did reach Jerry Wellnitz at the Sheridan County Historical Society. He heard the elevator building was condemned.

“The foundation is getting bad on it,” Wellnitz said.

After the admiring description of the foundation in Part I, which noted the slab was a foot-and-a-half thick with 97 cubic yards of concrete, it’s hard to believe there’s been degradation. Yet it’s pretty sure the elevator faces its 80th birthday in a state of limbo.

Excitement and drama of 1947 elevator in Rushville, Nebr., Part II

by baggyparagraphs

Story by Ronald Ahrens and photo by Kristen Cart

June of 1947 was the wettest on record with more than seven inches of rain across western Nebraska. Hail destroyed an estimated one million acres of winter wheat statewide. Beans and other irrigated crops in the North Platte Valley took a hit. Cornfields were written off, hay spoiled in the fields, and uncut alfalfa became woody.

Even though Chicago and North Western Railway chief dispatcher Louis Remillard had accumulated 70 boxcars for grain on the Chadron-Long Pine division, the Northwest Grain Co. in Rushville found incoming wheat testing above 14 percent moisture content and refused one load after another. 

Besides the unusually lush pastures, though, there was a positive effect. At Rushville, the rains softened the ground to the benefit of Tillotson Construction Co. foreman Earl Connors and his crew as foundation work started around July 1.

In blanket coverage for the Sheridan County Star, editor Phil Gottschalk documented the drama of construction foot by foot. Forms started to rise from the ground at 1.00 a.m. on Sept. 5 after a delay in accumulating enough materials. Before long, work had started on the cupola (headhouse). 

By Oct. 2, the elevator was promised to be ready soon. Whitewashing started next, and the detailed description of the “dazzling coat of white ‘mix'” is worth noting:

“It couldn’t be called a paint because there is no paint in the concoction which consists of white cement, volcanic ash, salt, and several other chemicals. The mix will waterproof and seal the outside of the elevator as well as improving its general appearance. The coating will get whiter in a few months as the sun and the salt bleach it out.”

Tillotson foreman Earl Connors expected job completion by Oct. 21.

After operations started, the new elevator received praise for storing grain that would otherwise have been kept on the ground.

“Practically all of the 40,000 bushels of grain which were laying on the ground in Sheridan county on October 15 have now been safely stored in farm bins or commercial elevators. The Northwest Grain Company elevator in Rushville was completed in time to absorb nearly all the grain in this area which had been left outside because of a previous lack of storage space. Since the new elevator began taking grain steadily about October 27 over eleven thousand bushels a day have been received for storage. Grain has been arriving at the rate of about a thousand bushels a day, for example on Monday of this week 1,525 bushels were received. Most of this grain is coming from Oglala and Pine Ridge territory as practically all of the Sheridan county grain has already been stored or sold. ‘The elevator holds 100,000 bushels, so we are a long way from being full yet,’ Mr. Bacus said Tuesday. He anticipates quite a rush on grain receipts immediately after the first of the year but believes the new elevator will be able to handle all that comes to Rushville.” 

While editor Gottschalk was pleased, the Star’s columnist Mabel Grimes–whose thoughts open the previous Rushville post–had nothing whatsoever to say about the handsome whitewashed elevator. And in 1952, when she went to Chicago and covered the Republican National Convention for the Star, the C&NW budgeted $10,000 for installation of a signal light at the intersection just west of the depot. Frank Cook’s flagging service was no longer needed.

Our third post on Rushville will go into the background of ownership and the transformational nature of the new elevator.

Excitement and drama of 1947 elevator in Rushville, Nebr., Part I

by baggyparagraphs

Story by Ronald Ahrens and photos by Kristen Cart

The Chicago and North Western Railway depot in Rushville, Nebr. finally got a fresh coat of paint in the summer of 1947. Paint and painters had been scarce during the war years, and the depot needed attention. Local newspaper columnist Mabel Grimes explained that people thought such an important place of business shouldn’t look so shabby, but a touch-up job had been practically impossible.

“Now, she shines like the morning sun–a lovely bright red!” Grimes wrote in her “Swingin’ up Main Street” column for the Sheridan County Star.

At the same time, there was another forward step, a new sale barn, but it made Grimes worry about traffic at the railroad crossing.

“The hopes of the City Council for a ‘ding-dong’ signal at the crossing have faded—at least temporarily. In its place, Frank Cook sits (or stands) and waves his little red flag! Traffic will undoubtedly increase mightily [with] the Sale Barn and new Elevator across the tracks. And the little red flag might wear out—in time. We do need a loud signal there.”

Cook didn’t have to man the crossing all that often, though, so his flag would have had a long life expectancy. The Cowboy Line of the C&NW carried just a few trains per day on this route to Chadron. Nevertheless, the thought of him in his duster during stormy conditions generates respect.

The elevator in question in the northwestern Nebraska town was the 99,000-bushel single-leg monument then under construction by Tillotson Construction Co.

Foreman Earl Connors oversaw a crew that mixed seasoned Tillotson hands with fresh local talent. As the project got into full swing, the Star noted on July 10 that Leon Lupher, Jr. and his wife had come to Rushville to work on the elevator, and on July 4, their parents arrived to visit from Minatare (home of another Tillotson elevator) and Northport, bringing “well filled” picnic baskets, the contents to be enjoyed in the shade at the park.

In its July 17 edition, the Star noted: “Elevator Goes up Fast.”

“Construction of the new 100,000 bushel elevator is two weeks ahead of schedule, G.A. Bacus, manager of the Northwest Grain Company, said Wednesday. The elevator is ahead of schedule because the construction company found the digging of the basement and boot pit to be much speedier than expected, the ground being soft and easily worked. This week a concrete slab a foot and a half thick was poured to form the basement of the 45 foot square structure. The slab contains 97 cubic yards of concrete—about equivalent to two railroad gondola car loads of concrete. The slab is being made thick because it will bear three thousand tons pressure from the empty elevator and six thousand tons pressure when the elevator is full. This means that there will be a load of nearly three tons to the square foot on the concrete slab base. Approximately 55 tons of reinforcing steel and tremendous amounts of sand, gravel, and cement will be used in completing the 125 foot high structure. Wooden forms for the four large corner bins, each holding 14,000 bushels have been completed ready for installation.” 

An editorial in the same issue lauded the backers of the sale barn and elevator.

“Every load of grain or herd of cattle sold in Rushville will enable the Rushville businessman to expand his operations, pay more taxes, contribute more money to community projects, and build Rushville into an even more attractive trade center and place to live.”

We’ve never found stronger testimonials to the fact that an elevator increased not only prosperity but also happiness. 

Our next post will document foot by foot the rise of the Rushville elevator. 

Perception of doors remains consistent from Tillotson to Mayer-Osborn jobs

by baggyparagraphs

By Ronald Ahrens

The walkout door on a grain elevator seems to be only a minor detail, but as a means of indicating lineage of elevators, it’s as important as a person’s nose. We say a girl has her mother’s or father’s nose, and the same for a boy.

Looking at the door pictured above, from the Mayer-Osborn elevator in Pritchett, Colo., we note the resemblance to walkout doors on Tillotson elevators going back to Goltry, Okla. in 1939, Tillotson Construction’s first concrete elevator.

The door in the photo below is from our 2018 visit to Goltry.

There are two common characteristics.

First, note the lintel above the door in each photo. A lintel is defined as “a horizontal architectural member spanning and usually carrying the load above an opening.” Every Tillotson elevator we’ve seen has a lintel above the walkout door. When William Osborn worked for Tillotson Construction Co., he absorbed this design detail, and presumably carried it west when he got into business in Denver. We see it repeated in the topmost photo, taken at Pritchett, Colo.

The second characteristic is the door’s blue color. At Pritchett, the weathered and time-worn door barely has some remaining blue. Goltry’s door, which would be about a dozen years older, held up comparatively well, color-wise–and there’s also some blue beneath the lintel.

Just a couple of details worth sharing to make the study of elevators richer.

A home mortgage for Reginald and Margaret Tillotson in 1939

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.

Mayer-Osborn’s signature stepped cupola emerges from Comanche National Grassland

by baggyparagraphs

By Ronald Ahrens

The Comanche National Grassland rolled on and on as we drove eastward on U.S. 160 in the southeast corner of Colorado. It seemed as if the scene would never change, but then a group elevators enigmatically appeared on the horizon. We hadn’t seen a cultivated field other than alfalfa for hundreds of miles on our drive from Utah’s canyon country. Where did all the agricultural bounty, as suggested by the elevators, come from?

We soon arrived at the Pritchett complex of Panhandle Milling. Not a soul was around, so I helped myself to some pictures. Most intriguing was the suave elevator with the stepped cupola. There were two manhole covers, but they were high up and I couldn’t read the embossed inscriptions. On subsequent review, they reveal the builder’s identity and more: Mayer-Osborn Co., Denver, Colo., The Hutchinson Foundry and Steel Co.

I was on the hunt for Tillotson elevators, so this was an unexpected find and it’s a big one, the first Mayer-Osborn elevator we’ve chanced upon in a while. We’ve never gotten our hands on Mayer-Osborn records and don’t know how many they built. Pulling one out of the weeds, so to speak, is a big deal.

The stepped cupola is a signature Mayer-Osborn feature, a great support in our argument that the architectural significance of grain elevators isn’t fully appreciated. Hello, Smithsonian!

The other concrete elevators at Pritchett revealed nothing significant to our cause. I did linger a few moments at the old wooden elevator, which is fresh-looking and could still be in use.

The Mayer-Osborn elevator may have been part of the story on November 25, 1951 when the Pueblo Chieftain reported “Baca County Farmers Near New Crop Production High.”

Jess Suhler, manager of Hart-Bartlett-Sturtevant Grain Co., told the Chieftain that about fifteen carloads had shipped from Pritchett. An agent at the Santa Fe station in nearby Springfield said the grain was going to Denver and then to west coast feed mills. The paper further reported:

“Shipments do not nearly total the crop production, however. Much of the grain is being held locally for feeding and for later sale. The 1951 maize crop promises to be a record one.”

Taking a closer look at the towering elevator, I saw Hart-Bartlett-Sturtevant Grain Co. in fading letters on lower part of the headhouse. In a 1950 suit against the I.R.S., the company declared its headquarters to be in Kansas City, Mo., and it owned and operated 54 grain elevators in seven states. It was renamed Bartlett Co. in 1954.

There’s undoubtedly more to learn about Mayer-Osborn’s elevator in Pritchett, but it’ll have to be saved for a future post. Meanwhile, we’re still reveling in our good luck.

Tillotson archive yields mystery photo of Troth Tractor & Equipment of Omaha

by baggyparagraphs

So far, it’s impossible to explain why a photo of a tractor dealership was included in the archive of Tillotson Construction Co. We await further illumination.

Newspaper searches first reveal Troth Tractor & Equipment Co. in 1946 in Omaha. The dealership offered an integrated approach to farming. A classified ad in the World-Herald advises readers: Troth Tractor and Equipment, Authorized Ford-Ferguson Sales and Service. 2515 O St., MA 7958

Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson collaborated on the Ford-Ferguson 9N tractor, examples of which are seen here. This was around the same time that Raymond Loewy and Associates, of New York, designed the new Farmall for International-Harvester.

Wood Bros. Pickers (see sign) refers to the Wood Brothers Thresher Co.’s single-row corn harvester that the tractor towed along. Picked corn would be lofted into a wagon that trailed the picker. Wood Brothers was founded in Minnesota in 1893 and moved to Des Moines in 1899. A Facebook post provides further information:

Wood Bros. Thresher Company marketed their corn pickers on their own and then sold to the Harry Ferguson Co., a part of Ford MotorCompany. 

WHY PAY CASH? asks Troth in this 1949 ad. 

New improved Ford tractors and Wood Brothers pickers cost you less per acre and mean more income. Buy your new improved Ford tractor, Dearborn equipment, and Wood Brothers corn picker now. Up to 2 years to pay. Very low budget rates. A farm plan to fit your every need. Let the Ford tractor pay its own way and keep the profit in your pocket. We are easy to deal with. See us today. Omaha’s Ford Farming Headquarters.

The Dearborn Disc Plow and other implements were produced by the Dearborn Farm Equipment, agriculture division of Ford Motor Co. Note the neon sign in the showroom’s plate glass.

H.B. Smith, next door at 2517 O St., also appears to be a postwar addition to the O Street tableau.

To repeat, we can’t explain this photo. But if you told us that it was included because Uncle Mike Tillotson loved Ford Motor Co. so very much, that would be good enough.

Remodeling in Bruno, Nebr. finds Van Ness on the job for Nye & Jenks

by baggyparagraphs

The Great Depression forced many changes in the early 1930s. For one, the Nye & Jenks Grain Co. decided to get out of the lumber business at its Bruno, Nebr. location. To that end, in April of 1934, men were tearing down the lumber sheds at the company’s location in that little Butler County burg. The plan was to use the lumber on hand, along with some hauled to Bruno from Cedar Bluffs–which lay 25 miles distant in Saunders County–to put up a storage annex.

Nye & Jenks was an Omaha company, and a cursory search of archived newspapers suggests Van Ness Construction Co. was their preferred contractor. There was more activity at other eastern Nebraska locations such as Fremont, Wahoo, Cedar Bluffs, and Brainard.

Van Ness, of course, employed Charles H. Tillotson and his son, Reginald O. Tillotson. In 1934, Reginald was around 26 years old, newly married to Margaret I. McDunn, but not yet a father. Their first son, Charles J. Tillotson, was born in 1935.

After her 1925 graduation from Wayne State College, Margaret had taught in Lynch, Nebr. for a time, and coincidentally Nye & Jenks appears to have had an elevator there, too.

Charles H. Tillotson died in 1938. Reginald passed away in 1960, and Margaret in 1995. Charles J. died in February 2026.

Reginald’s notes in a photo album retrieved from family archives indicate the men seen above are Dean Essex, R.O. Tillotson, Rupert Hammonds, Tony Proskovec, and C.H. Tillotson. We don’t think the listing proceeds from left to right, though, and are unable to say just who is who. We think R.O. and C.H Tillotson are two of the three wearing the working garb. As for the others, we couldn’t learn anything that would pin down their identities.

Patches of snow on the ground suggest a late-winter or early spring date for the photo. The men are dressed for a chilly day, although the sunny moment was somewhat balmy.

The Peoples Banner, a weekly newspaper published in Butler County, gave this update on June 21 (using one of the many variant spellings for Nye & Jenks Grain Co.:

The work of re-modeling the Nye, Jenks & Co. elevator in Bruno has been completed. The elevator now has a capacity of 30,000 bushels. The company has discontinued the lumber business and will handle grain and coal from now on.

At the same time, Anton Proskovec left Bruno to work at the Nye & Jenks elevator in Funk, Nebr., a town 165 miles to the southwest. It was a seven-week assignment, though, as the Peoples Banner reported him back on Aug. 9.

Ed Dvorak, who has been manager of the Nye, Jenks & Co. grain elevator for a number of months [since the previous August], left Saturday for his home at Howells [40 miles due north]. V.A. Proskovec will have charge of the business.”

Our insertions in the above passage are in brackets.

We think V.A. Proskovec and Anton Proskovec are the same person, and that would also include the Tony Proskovec of the photo.

An interesting, earlier note from the Brainard Clipper, the paper in the town just south of Bruno, intimates just how tough the times were indeed. The report of March 9, 1933 says:

The Farmers Elevator are not buying any grain, while due to arrangements made in the company’s head offices, the Nye & Jenks Grain Co. are able to buy up to $25 worth of grain from any one farmer, paying for it in the Co’s scrip. This scrip is made payable on or before April 1, and is acceptable by many of the wholesale houses thereby making it practical for merchants to accept it in trade. The scrip is issued in amounts of $5 or less. 

We leave the reader to discern the full implications.

It would be just four years before Tillotson Construction Co. was formed and turned its attention to large elevators made of reinforced concrete.

Page 1 of Tillotson Construction record, Goltry, Okla. to Wellsburg, Iowa, 1939-1946

by baggyparagraphs

Here at last we present a digitized page of the Tillotson Construction Co. record the late Tim Tillotson duplicated in 2012. Kristen Cart took the whole load of dupes to a copy center, and her effort leads to a batch of pages to be shared over the next few weeks. In that service, we’ve created a new subcategory of the blog for the records’ easy location.

Tillotson Construction Co. was formed in Omaha by Reginald and Joe Tillotson in 1938. Their first concrete elevator, listed on this page, was a 60,000-bushel job in Goltry, Okla. We visited that location in 2018.

Rose A. Tillotson was widow of Charles H. Tillotson and mother to Joe and Reginald.

The reader will note the company got off to a fast start until 1941 when World War Two intervened. There is a three-year gap until the next job in 1944. The page lists more from then until 1946. The jobs got much bigger–up to 350,000 bushels at Farnsworth, Tex. (Good luck squeezing “Farnsworth” into a narrow column heading!

Besides Goltry, we find details from Newkirk, Okla.; Douglas, Okla.; Medford, Okla.; Thomas, Okla.; Minatare, Nebr.; Sheldon, Iowa; Peterson, Iowa; Burlington, Okla.; Cherokee, Okla.; Lamont, Okla.; Blackwell, Okla.; Booker, Tex.; Follett, Tex.; Farnsworth, Tex.; Custer, Okla.; Elkhart, Kan.; Kingfisher, Okla.; Thomas, Okla. (another job); Ensign, Kan.; Pond Creek, Okla.; and Wellsburg, Iowa.

We visited some of these locations on our 2018 Texas-Oklahoma road trip.

Job sites are written atop the page with the year of construction. Most note which plan the elevator follows and extra information such as location of the driveway or diameters of the tanks. Zooming in splendidly reveals meticulously written entries. Uncle Tim told us the name of the employee who started this record. Maybe it’s in one of our early posts.

A key to reading this table: The left-hand column headed by “Item” lists various specifications such as gross capacity of the elevator and amount of rebar used per cubic yard of concrete in varying locations throughout the structure.

The middle section is devoted to costs (less commission) for labor and materials and even includes a line for state taxes. Only a few of Tillotson’s subsequent records include costs.

The bottom block has more info about total dollars and labor rates. At the very bottom, the notes are ad-libbed. They elaborate mundane points. One, for example, indicates total cost included a scale and office.

All in all, it’s a direct connection to answers on a great many points of Tillotson elevators.

More than 100 years ago, Charles H. Tillotson posed with … his father?

by baggyparagraphs

The man on the left is probably Charles H. Tillotson, and it’s possible the older man on the right is his father, John Wheeler Tillotson. There’s no labeling anywhere on the photo to help us. The location would likely be somewhere in Iowa. What was the occasion? It could be that Charles was showing off a car on a visit home. We can’t put a finger on the car’s make. Ford Motor Co. dominated in those days, but it doesn’t seem to be a Ford. The refined two-door runabout body style became common across the automotive industry around 1915. Charles H. already had a family by then. This wasn’t a kid-friendly auto, but he may have been setting a standard for his son Reginald and his grandchildren to come. They were all car-crazy.