For 100 years, the Kasbeer Farmers Elevator Co-operative has stood on the north side of the tiny unincorporated village of Kasbeer, serving the farmers who earn a living from the rich soil of the area.

The Kasbeer Elevator was organized in 1912. John Zink was the first manager, and his son, also John Zink, followed his father in that role.

In 1937, the elevator celebrated its 25th anniversary with a three-course dinner served in the basement of the Kasbeer church.

According to newspaper coverage of the event, “One request of the directors was that all food left from the dinner was to be sent to the needy families and to the homes of the sick. This request was complied with, and this plan of doing something for others was one of the bright spots of the 25th anniversary.”

In recapping the previous 25 years, the newspaper said the elevator “has had its ups and downs, but at present is enjoying unusual prosperity.”

In 1937, the company was composed of 107 stockholders, holding 112 shares. Aside from grain buying, the company handled feed for home consumption, the grinding of feed and retailing of coal.

In August, Joe Louis, current manager of the Kasbeer Farmers Elevator, turned to the same analogy in looking back over the last 100 years.

“As with any elevator, it’s had some ups and downs, but so far, we’re still going,” he said.

The company has grown throughout the years, both in the number of stockholders — now up to 357 — but also in capacity.

“We have 2.3 million bushels of capacity here,” Louis said. “We’ve added a million bushels since 2005.”

There’s not a lot of history written about grain elevators, but Louis has been around since 1997, and has heard some of the stories from the old-timers.

“The original stockholders paid $50 per share, and they could buy up to 10 shares,” he said.

With that capital, and probably some financing from a local bank, the cooperative begin, starting with a wood house.

There’s another reference to the Kasbeer Elevator in the 1914 edition of the American Cooperative Journal, which reported in its Farmer Elevator News section that “Mr. Walter Townsend had charge of the Farmers’ Elevator here while Manager Zink and Director Herman Eickmeier attended the convention at Bloomington.”

A more tantalizing glimpse of life back then can be found in the November 1915 edition of School and Home Education.

According to the magazine, “The Farmers’ Elevator people of Kasbeer, Illinois, is the liveliest country organization of Bureau County. For three years past they have conducted a three days’ Institute. This fall the meetings were held in a large tent in the school yard. The adjoining country schools had a very creditable exhibit of work and gave interesting drills and exercises. Games were played and athletic contests held in the afternoon of the third day. Music was a strong feature of all the sessions. This was furnished by the people themselves. Solos, duets, quartets, choruses, varied the program. There is a growing sentiment in favor of a strong Consolidated School there, and they are entitled to it because they understand so well and put into actual practice real cooperation. People from Princeton, Ohio, Walnut, and other surrounding towns, joined with them on the closing evening in their Annual Celebration.”

According to the Ohio Centennial Book, the Farmer’s Institutes were held each year from 1915 to 1923 and were organized by the farmers and attended by people from miles around.

According to the book, “People still talk about the large parades and their wonderful band. Mr. Ferguson was the band leader and members were A.M. Smith, Guy Kasbeer, George Schafer, Harry Paden, Roy Matson, Sumner Kasbeer, D.E. Smith and Ralph Kasbeer.”

Louis has a few old photos of the Kasbeer Elevator, including some of when the railroad tracks were removed about 1954.

“They say the rail line went all the way into Normandy, so we did ship out at one point in time, grain by rail,” he said.

Another photo shows the old office, which Louis said was upgraded in 1964.

"It was just added on to," he said. "That was when they put the indoor plumbing in."
In the late 1960s and 1970s, the elevator erected concrete grain bins. The steel bins came later.

The Kasbeer Farmers’ Elevator Company recently became a Kent Feed dealer, handling livestock and domestic animal feed. It’s a little different than the services the elevator used to provide.

“They used to handle all kinds of fencing, building materials — I think they sold lumber — and they sold coal,” Louis said. “We don’t have a feed grinder anymore, but we still sell bagged feed. But back in the livestock years, they ground a lot of feed, and that is no longer there either. We tore that down in 2003.”

Moving and adapting to the times has always been the goal of the Kasbeer Elevator.
"We'd always like to improve our grain handling and storage," Louis said. "We're here to service our local area producers, and that's what we want to do."

Part of serving customers involves trying to figure out the weather, which is never easy.

“We’ve been real fortunate in the decisions that we’ve made,” Louis said.

In 2008, the elevator had wanted to replace its aging 1982 Meyer Morton grain dryer, but instead decided to try and eke out one more year.

It turned out 2008 was a fairly wet year.

"It took a lot of labor, a lot of effort to get that dryer through that season, so the next year I told the board, 'If corn's $15, we still need to replace that dryer,'" Louis said.
Ironically, 2009 turned out to be extremely wet and cool.

“The corn just didn’t mature,” Louis said. “We already had our dryer up in June, so we were able to service the customers, and be open more hours with that new dryer in place.”

Louis said he appreciates the loyalty of both the stockholders and the elevator’s other customers.

“This area, with the customer base that we have, and the traditional hometown your-handshake-is-as-good-as-your-word attitude, that’s what’s really unique about this area,” he said. “It seems that they want to see the co-op thrive.

In 2011, the elevator put up a new office building. Everything was moved into the new building in May, and in August, the elevator held an open house to celebrate its 100 years and show off the new facility.

Louis said the new office was built with the next 100 years in mind.

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be around then,” he said. “The soil types around this area are very good, and if you buy into what Monsanto and all those seed companies say, we should be seeing 300-bushel corn.”

Larger crops and equipment will mean the elevator will need to continue to grow and change with its customers.

“As the farmer expands with semis, that puts more stress on our dumping capacity because you’re not dumping a 250-bushel wagon, you’re dumping 950 bushels at one time,” he said.

“With expanding yields — as long as Mother Nature cooperates — and larger equipment, that really puts the pressure on us to meet the demands the farmer is putting on us.”

Louis said time is money for producers at harvest time, and the elevator needs to be prepared to serve those producers.

“That’s where we’ve got to look forward,” he said.