he purchased the elevator, David Evans later becoming his partner in the grain business. They also had storage bins into which grain was scooped south of the elevator on the west side of Chestnut Street. When the fire of May 1, 1890 destroyed the elevator and the Caroline Bayne and David Hibbs homes just north of it, the grain elevator was rebuilt on the ground where the old one burned. Mr. Evans owned the business after buying his partner's interest when Jenkins moved to California in 1884. He died in 1894. It is today the El Paso Elevator Company's mill, equipped to grind and mix feeds for livestock.

James Seery and George Rouse built an elevator south of the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad tracks on the site now occupied by the El Paso Implement Company. It burned in 1873 and was rebuilt at once. It was operated in turn by W. H. McClellan, W. R. Shuman and F. S. Larison. It burned February 21, 1903 and was not rebuilt.

The Webster elevator was located across the street south of Grafft's planing mill, the site of the waterworks. When the planing mill burned September 19, 1875, the fire spread to the elevator and both were destroyed and not rebuilt.

Two flour mills were built in 1868. George L. Gibson built the first one on the south side of the rails, about midway in the block now the Corn Belt Park. Lawrence Gassner owned it when it was destroyed by fire February 11, 1882. The west mill, located south of the railroad tracks and just east of Route 51, was built by Ives Brothers, but burned in 1869. It was immediately rebuilt on a larger scale, but the owners got into financial difficulty and were declared bankrupt and the property sold. John Ellis, a farmer, converted it into an elevator in 1874, and it changed hands a number of times, being finally operated by John Kinsella who had purchased it from Fred S. Larison. It burned on July 19, 1921.

During the early years these elevators were in operation, wheat and barley were the principal grains shipped. Quantities of grain, hay and flour were shipped from here to the war commissary department in St. Louis during the Civil War with a war tax on each shipment. Freight on a car of grain to St. Louis was $65 with $1.62 tax; to Chicago, $44 with $1.10 tax. Corn was growing in annual volume and today is the leading product shipped; wheat and barley have given way to oats and beans. All grain is now shipped in bulk in cars that hold more than four times the bushels those early cars held when all of the grain was bagged, each of the little cars holding an average of 165 bags.

After the Civil War many farmers found it difficult to make the payments on the land they had contracted to buy from the Illinois Central, upon completed annual payments. The railroad wanted to keep the land in the hands of the buyers, so it would remain in cultivation and provide freight. Finding the farmers could not pay in dollars, the railroad arranged to take corn at 20 cents per bushel in payment for the debts, and many local farmers managed to keep their land by

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