Jim, let me see if I can answer a few of your questions. I live in Iowa and am familiar with grain elevators. In the 20s & 30s Iowa and southern Minnesota was raising corn and oats, with some wheat, but most went into feed for livestock. Most grain raised in Wisconsin also went into livestock feed. Northern Minnesota, the Dakotas and Montana was wheat country. Also other small grains like flax, rye, hops, etc. Corn yields were about 20 to 30 bushels per acre. Compare to today whene typically corn yield is 150-170 bushels, with many farms seeing close to 200 bushels.

1)      Grain elevators date back to the 1840s, when Buffalo NY became the place connecting the great lakes with New York City via the Erie Canal and the home of the first grain elevator. The wood cribbed elevator you see in your photos was quite common by 1900. Common construction was a square or rectangle shape, anywhere from 16’ to 36’ along one side. Height ranged from 40’ to upwards of 80’ for wood elevator. Concrete elevators reached heights of 110’ and higher. The walls were built with 2xmaterial laid flat and nailed together. The bottom was laid with 2x12s or 2x10s, then as the height grew the wall was reduced to 2x8s then 2x6s. The corners were interlaced in a finger joint. Then covered with siding. There were no corner trim boards because the weight of the grain would compress the walls in the first couple of years. This compression would cause any trim boards to pop loose.

2)      Competition: the situation you describe sounds like western wheat lands. At least one elevator would be owned by a local farmer coop association of some sort, larger areas might have two. One would be a local owned private concern. And at least one would be owned by a large flour mill operation, ie Pillsbury, General Mills, Cargill, etc. Coops existed to give members an advantage for purchasing as well as selling. Also the coop would extend a line of credit to members. The private elevator was a cash operation, who would buy the farmers grain and hope to sell it in a larger market while making a profit. The flour mills were buying direct from the farmers, they might pay a little more, but they might not.

3)      The great western prairie wheat lands were sparsely populated. And there may have only been two passenger trains a day, so people would only be present when a train was expected. In the era you describe folks only came to town once a week to do their trading, if that often. As the town was small the population was minimal.

4)      Short Answer: Yes. But unlike today the harvest was moved to processing centers, ie flour mills.

5)      Much of the land west of the Mississippi was developed as the railroads move west. In fact many towns were established by the railroads as a water stop. Soon a depot and stock pen was added, then a grain elevator, a store, etc. The town I live in was not incorporated until 10 years after the railroad came through. The first form of government did not form until 2 years after the railroad. The land grant railroads marketed and sold their land to prospective farmers, even running immigrant trains bringing new settlers to the wide open prairies. In many areas the railroad came first, the towns and people followed.

21 posts in July and August of this year.

Larry Buell