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.

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.”

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.