Feature on grain mills. TOPIC:
AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY
Written by Jim Sayre in April, 1999
GRAIN MILLS WERE ONE OF SHELBY COUNTY'S EARLIEST BUSINESSES...Pg 2 |
Final section of the D.T.& I. Bridge over the Great Miami River near Quincy is lifted into place in 1892. This railway was a business boon to Jackson Center and Maplewood, but hurt Port Jefferson. (Photo courtesy of Bruce Davis, Franklin Township).
A boon to the towns hosting it, the D.T.& I. spelled disaster to the by-passed Port Jefferson which once enjoyed an active grain and milling industry supported by its position on the canal. Port had attracted much of the grain from the farming districts to the north and east. "Then the D.T.&I. railroad stole down on the eastern plain and seized all that was left of Port Jefferson’s hopes, emptying its shops and leaving its once busy street a prey to decadence" (Memoirs). The Bellefontaine & Indiana railway (later the "Big Four"), built in 1852, put Pemberton on the map: "...The looming presence of two big grain elevators at the side of the steel artery of traffic answers the question of what drew population to this spot." (Memoirs). The two major grain elevators in Pemberton early in this century shipped about a quarter million bushels of oats, corn, and wheat. One of them, the Shanely elevator built in about 1903, was owned by L.G. Shanely and E.E. Harbour, a partnership which dissolved when Harbour sold out to Shanely (Hitchcock’s History of Shelby County, 1913). On the other side of Sidney, the Big Four railway facilitated large grain and livestock shipments from the Hardin Grain company, just a mile south of town, the Snow & Ginn elevator in Dawson, the Farmers’ Elevator near Houston, and the Groff & Simon elevator in Russia. The Houston elevator, like others, supplied all sorts of goods for the farmers, including coal, fencing, tiling, self-feeders, and seeds (Memoirs). |
[ Back ] [ Next ] [ Up ] [ New Search ] |
