THE CARGILL GRAIN ELEVATOR
The Cargill Company
During the last quarter of the 19th century, growing wheat was a popular agricultural activity in the Seymour area. Then a new type of drought resistant wheat was imported from Russia that tolerated the sparse rainfall of the Great Plains. The new wheat along with a disease that devastated local crops led to the decline in wheat production. Around 1900 the market, disease such as grain rust, and ability of the land to produce, led to an end of the era when wheat was king for the area farmer.
In 1879 the W. W. Cargill Company erected a large grain elevator north of the railroad tracks near the canning factory. The facility was in operation into the 1900’s. It had a capacity of 25,000 bushels plus an additional warehouse. The company had numerous elevators along the tracks from Green Bay to Winona, Minnesota.
The agency in Seymour was managed by Mr. Louis Holz, who was considered one of the city’s most prominent and influential citizens. He started working for the company in 1882. Mr. Holz was active in city government serving nine terms as alderman.
The company also was a dealer in seeds, flour, land plaster, (finely ground gypsum, used chiefly as a fertilizer), and salt, for which they represented the Michigan salt mines.