At the Elevator
There was a time, not that long ago, when a traveller on an unfamiliar road anywhere on the prairies could easily locate the nearest town. At some distance, the first thing you would see was an elevator, or two or three. Then as you approached, your first step in identifying the town was written right there in large print up high on that elevator.
The elevator was the reason there was a town there in the first place.
The grain based economy can’t function without the delivery system. And in those early days the delivery portal had to be close enough to the farmer to make deliveries practical. Elevators were a solution to the problem of getting producers’ grain into railway boxcars. Shoveling grain into two-bushel sacks, which were then transported to a rail line was the first system.
One-storey wood frame buildings, known as ‘flat warehouses’, erected along the rail lines were used for storage, or the bags could be taken directly to a loading platform and emptied into a waiting boxcar. This was hard work and a very time-consuming job.
William Hespeler, in Niverville, Manitoba, constructed the first grain elevator in Manitoba, a wooden, silo-like building, in 1879. A more familiar form made its appearance in 1881 in Gretna, Manitoba, when Ogilvie Milling Company built a wooden, square, 25,000-bushel elevator. By the 1920s, most companies were building the standard, or traditional, 30,000 to 40,000-bushel elevator with a gable roof.
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) demanded standard, larger, vertical warehouses that could
take advantage of the fluidity of grain, especially when acted upon by gravity. To elevate the grain a mechanism known as the “leg” was devised, an endless belt with cups or scoops attached. It was the
leg that gave grain elevators their name and determined their shape.
By offering free land rental the railway encouraged private companies to build standard 25,000-bushel elevators. The hundreds of standard grain elevators built to these specifications ensured the uniformity of the cultural landscape.
Early elevators were often horse-powered. One cylinder gas engines were introduced around the turn of the century. These engines provided eight to fifteen horsepower. The weigh-scales could accommodate loads up to five imperial tons (4.54 metric tonnes). These scales tipped sideways in order to dump the loads of grain from the wagons into the pit. Boxcars had a capacity of approximately 1,000 bushels and it took two to three hours to load one, as the engines were not powerful enough to elevate the grain rapidly.
Almost all elevators were engaged in some sideline business. Many kinds of goods were handled in bulk including coal, flour, apples, twine, fence posts, wire and farm machinery.
The men in charge - elevator agents - were also called buyers, as they did just that. They bought the bags of grain directly from the farmer without benefit of scales or dockage regulation. The farmers were expected to bag two bushels of grain to each bag. Farmers could reject an offer and go to the next elevator, which they often did.
Elevators were typically 24 to 30 metres high. No
other building dominated the skyline as did the elevator.
We miss them.
*Even small villages like Lauder had several competing elevators.
The grain elevator may be a Prairie icon, but they were actually invented in NewYork State.
Unloading grain at a typical rural elevator.
Sources: https://www.thecanadianencyclo pedia.ca/en/article/ grain-elevators Photos: Archives of Manitoba. Grassland Collection*
