Ralston, Iowa–The work on the new annex at the Farmers Elevator is progressing nicely. The Tillotson Construction Company of Omaha will soon have it ready to store grain.
Carroll (Iowa) Daily Herald, Wednesday, September 13, 1939
Note: The New York Times visited Ralston in 2006 for a story about inadequate storage capacity in the face of madly expanding corn production.
Glidden—The Tillotson construction company, Omaha, started work Saturday on a new reinforced concrete elevator for the Farmers Co-Operative elevator at Glidden.
Carroll (Iowa) Daily Times Herald, Monday, April 11, 1949
Glidden—As part of an expansion program at the Glidden Farmers Co-operative company, work begun April 13 on a reinforced concrete elevator with a 100,000 bushel capacity is progressing rapidly toward completion.
About 20 feet higher than the present buildings, the new elevator will be situated east of them. With the additional storage space the company, for several years the largest co-operative elevator owned and operated in Iowa, will be able to take care of a large amount of corn and beans grown extensively in the Glidden area.
The 100-ft.-high main storage part of the new elevator is up, and bin bottoms are being covered with concrete and hopper fill.
Approximately 35 men are working 10 hours a day on construction of the new elevator, which is under the direction of the Tillotson Construction company of Omaha.
It is expected to be completed by July or August.
Carroll (Iowa) Daily Times Herald, Wednesday, June 22, 1949
First of all, let me explain how an elevator actually works. The grain is dumped from a truck through the grates. The area below the grate is called the pit. The leg runs from the pit to the head house. On the leg is a thick rubber belt with buckets or cups. When the leg is started, the belt will move through the pit. The cups will fill up the grain and take it to the head house. As the leg reaches the top, it will arch, the cups will be up side down. When the cups turn to go back down towards the pit, they empty the grain on a conveyor belt. The cups will be facing downward, until the cups reach the pit and the will right themselves, filling up with more grain.
The run is the conveyor belt between the elevator and a storage annex. The run will have walls on the side of conveyor. They could be completely covered, too. Workers will set up the run, to a certain bin. There are openings at each bin. There is generally a door that they can open, so the grain will fall into the bin. They will put another piece of metal on the run, which acts like a chute. Thus, when the grain gets to the proper bin, and the grain hits the chute, the grain will move toward the opening of the run, and the grain will empty into the bin.
Sometimes, there will be a short conveyor belt that can be put under the main conveyor belt from the elevator. It is the same method. The grain will hit the chute, then through the opening, onto the second conveyor belt, which has a rise to it, and it will dump the grain into the bin.
Kristen mentioned that the bins are sloped. Most bins are built this way. You can think of it as self cleaning, as all the grain will come out the bottom of the bin. Now, if they built the bin flat, most of the grain can be removed. However there will still be about three feet of grain that is away from the bottom opening. Then some one has to climb through the manhole into the bin and they must shove the grain through the opening at the bottom. This is the only way that you can empty a flat bin.
The storage annex always has a basement. There is a conveyor belt that runs from a bin, back to the elevator, then up into a hopper. Most elevators have two separate hoppers. One will load a rail car and the other one can load a truck. If you did not have this conveyor belt, you could not unload a bin.
The area where the run is located is enclosed. If you look at a photo of a grain elevator with a storage annex, you will see an enclosed area above the storage annex. Outside this area, the bins are covered with concrete. Inside the run, either part of each bin will be open, or they could have metal slabs that cover the bins.
This is an image that was in my grandfather’s papers when he died. It was his photo, since he was the only photographer in the family. This was the only elevator image he identified on the back. The caption was “Kanorado, KA, 125,000 bu.” I know Grandpa worked on it because he photographed it. We know it was built before March of 1947, which was the month Joe Tillotson died.
Grandpa was working for Tillotson Construction of Omaha as late as the fall of 1944 through the spring of 1945, when Giddings, Texas, was built. Dad visited Grandpa on the Giddings job, so he was able to date it–they visited in early 1945, the spring, when Dad turned eleven years old. That means the Kanorado elevator was built circa 1945 to 1947.
It may be hard to find information on Joe Tillotson’s business because he was independent for such a short time–even though there were quite a few elevators to his name.
¶ Ronald’s note: While posting this, I gave Kan-o-RAY-do a call and was told that original records pertaining to the elevator’s construction burned in an office fire.
Kanorado, Kansas–J.H. Tillotson, Contractor, of Denver, built this elevator. Here’s a view of the south side. Note the windows near the top. J.H. Tillotson and Mayer-Osborn built the no-headhouse elevators with different window arrangements.
This view shows the elevator, the office building and feed mill. I do not have a date for when it was built.
The office and feed mill were built at the same time.
This is a manhole cover inside the elevator.
Mary V. Tillotson holds five-month-old Ronald Ahrens early in 1956.
She attempted suicide once by swallowing Lysol & lived & about lost her larnix. She was in the hospital a long time & we were all so discusted with her. That was before we [Ronald’s parents] bought her house [3212 Paxton Boulevard, Omaha] on land contract, $500 down. Then she moved to a home. When the black started moving in we put up the sell sign & she was sooo mad at us—she wouldn’t hardly speak to us after that. Julie was due born in June ’63 & I think Mary died in Ap or May. She was found behind bath door dead—I never did hear why (or was never told I should say) I asked Gram—she didn’t know. She left $67,000 to Catholic church. We all got $2000. That’s what we bought the house on Grant with plus $2000—we made off her house. I’ve never forgiven her for the $67,000—HA. She missed Dad a lot when he died. He was all she really had. I think Dad left us 2000 to. She (Mary) had taken life ins policies out for you & Katie. Katie put herself through school with hers. What did you do with yours? The other kids got left out!
Wapello, Ia—The Wapello Elevator and Exchange has let contract for an all-concrete storage addition to its main building to the Tillotson Construction Co., Omaha. Work will begin this week and is to be finished in 60 days.
The Democrat and Leader, Davenport, Iowa, July 31, 1949
The Wapello elevator, by Sam Willson. The flag and ribbon were added during the Persian Gulf War.
New Grain Storage Structure at Wapello—
Here is the new $80,000 grain storage structure of the Farmers elevator at Wapello, which will be completed next week by the Tillotson Construction Co., Omaha, Neb. The structure is 135 feet in height with ground measurement of 24 by 40 feet, and has seven bins with total storage capacity of 101,000 bushels. The four corner bins are of 20,000 bushels capacity each and three inside or overhead bins each have 7,000 bushel capacity. Inlet and outlet pipes extend to the structure from the main elevator building shown in the photo, and the mechanism was operated for the first time Monday in a test run. Construction was started Sept. 1, but delays have extended the time of completion until some time next week. The new structure gives the elevator company a total storage capacity of 135,000 bushels of grain.
The Democrat and Leader, Davenport, Iowa, Dec. 8, 1949
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Editor’s note: We found an image of the Wapello elevator on a site called Tankwagon Express.
January 7, 2012
Hiya Tankwagon,
A partner and I are doing a blog about the grain elevators that our grandfathers built, and I believe that my own granddad’s Tillotson Construction Company, of Omaha, built the elevator at Wapello. We have a newspaper article that says it was being completed in 1949.
Can you supply any info? Also, could we use the photo that’s on your site?
Many thanks,
Ronald Ahrens
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January 8, 2012
Ronald,
Feel free to go ahead and use the picture. I can’t verify if that is a Tillotson elevator, but the date of 1949 is probably correct. Is there a place where they may have left a mark or identifier on the structure? Prior to that date, a large wooden square elevator stood in the approximate vicinity. It like most wooden elevators caught fire and burned sometime in the 1940s. Replacing it was a smaller wood structure tied to the feed mill, and the slip form. The wooden mill in the picture burned to the ground in the fall of 1994. While the concrete structure is still standing, it has not been in use since maybe 2001-2002. At that time, I worked there and we had some issues with the headhouse and confined spaces with the insurance company. It still stands unused. The entire facility has capacity for about 3 million bushels of grain more or less. Since I left the company in 2005 my access to information on the building is not as readily available. But I will see what I can find for you.
Sam Willson
Worker Is Killed in Fall From Elevator
Pochahontas, Iowa –(AP)–A 130-foot fall from the top of the Farmers Co-operative Elevator, under construction here, claimed the life Wednesday of Larry Ryan, 20, of Cassville, Mo.
Ryan, an employe of Tillotson Construction Co., Omaha, was operating a hoist used to raise supplies to the top of the elevator. Cause of the accident was not immediately learned.
Thursday, July 29, 1954
Injured in Fall (The Sun’s Own Service)
Hanover, Kans., Jan. 28—Edward Koppes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Koppes of Hanover, received a fractured right hip and right arm when he fell 20 feet from the roof to a concrete floor of a grain elevator which he was helping to build at Bonner Springs, Kans., on Jan. 19. He was taken to a Kansas City hospital. He is an employee of the Tillotson Construction company.
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 1948
Our Grandfathers' Grain Elevators 