GRAIN ELEVATORS. The first building in El Paso was a small shed erected on the west Y to house tools used by the construction gangs on the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad. The Jenkins brothers, who built the first store in town, also bought large quantities of grain, but they had no elevator, so the farmers scooped it directly from their wagons into cars for shipment by rail.
Early in the 1860's William M. Jenkins sold the stock in his store to George W. Fridley, who conducted the business in the same location. Fridley built another store one block east where Mobley's filling station now stands, and moved his stock there in 1868. The same year he built the original elevator diagonally across the street and operated both the store and elevator until his death in the 1870's.
Jenkins restocked his own store building after Fridley moved out and resumed the sale of general merchandise. After Fridley's death,
Isaac M. Jenkins, pioneer Robert S. Jenkins, third of the
El Paso businessman. three brothers who were El Paso’s
first storekeepers.
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