1910-1919:

• 1910 Frank Joseph “F.J.” Krob & Wes Fiala purchase Ely Elevator

• Corn is .44/bushel, Oats are .30/bushel

• 1918 adds commercial fertilizer and takes FJ Krob willingly to service in WWI

Frank Joseph “F.J.” Krob grew up on a farm south of Lisbon Iowa. Frank's father Joseph, a Bohemian immigrant, had made the six-week voyage across Atlantic Ocean with his family when he was eight years old, and his mother Frances was the daughter of a Union soldier who was killed in the Civil War. Frank received his education in the Lisbon school system and played center on Lisbon High School's famous football team when the gridiron sport was just getting underway in Linn County. His parents did not want him to play football, so he never told them about it, but they figured it out one day when he came home with a broken collarbone. After Frank graduated from high school, he went to Cedar Rapids and got a job as a street car conductor.

In addition to being a farmer, Frank's father Joseph had formed a partnership with his son-in-law Wes Fiala in the Lisbon Elevator. Seeing little fulfillment or future as a street car conductor, 21-year-old Frank decided he would also go into partnership with his brother-in-law Wes, and the two purchased the Ely Elevator from C.S. King, shortly before March of 1910. Frank handled the day-to-day management, and after a short time, Fiala turned the operation completely over to Frank.

Frank still lived in Lisbon and made the daily 20-mile commute to Ely on his motorcycle, until one morning when he was running late, went too fast around a corner and wrapped his motorcycle around a tree. He never rode a motorcycle again.

The Ely Elevator had been constructed in 1900 by local entrepreneur Joseph Woiteshek, and was described by the Cedar Rapids Gazette as “modern in every detail, with equipment for the rapid unloading of grain from wagons, etc.” It had a capacity of 26,000 bushels, and a twelve horse power single cylinder gas engine, used to power the corn sheller and the elevator with its six-foot fly wheels and a loud bark that could be heard for miles across the countryside. The engine was started by turning the flywheel back against the compression, then forth once, then back again against compression, and then flipping the switch on the magneto. The engine was cooled by water that was pumped out of a nearby cistern.

All grain was brought in by horse-drawn wagons that contained roughly 26 bushels of ear corn or 52 bushels of shelled corn, depending on test weight. The grain was not graded as it is now, and any discounts were eyeballed. Those familiar with the Ely elevator are also familiar with the daunting ramp which leads up to the driveway, so it is easy to imagine that the horses were sometimes reluctant to drag the wagon up into the elevator, and often times had to be led. The scale in the driveway was engineered so that it could be raised to dump the wagons. By turning a wheel that looked like the helm of a ship, the rear wheels would be lowered and the front wheels raised two or three feet, allowing gravity to take some of the burden off the man running the scoop shovel. The grain would be dumped into the pit just behind the scale, and there was a trap door in the pit which could be changed to direct the corn to feed the sheller (if it was still on the ear), or directly to the leg (if it was already shelled).

According to Frank's own handwritten ledgers, the price of corn in 1910 was about $.44 per bushel, and the price of oats was about $.30 per bushel. The grain was purchased from the local farmers and shipped out on the Rock Island railroad.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the area around Ely had been largely settled by Czech (Bohemian) immigrants, and almost everybody of Bohemian descent, including Frank, could speak fluent Czech. However, with the exception of some of the oldest farmers, most of the business Frank conducted was in English.

Frank’s first grain truck was an old Hudson car, which had been converted into a truck for hauling. The second truck was a Ford Model T. In the twenties, FJ Krob and Company finally purchased its first “real truck,” a 1928 1 ½ ton Chevrolet, with a home-made wood box which held 100 bushels. Every bushel of corn that was picked up on the farm was thrown over the side of the truck with a scoop shovel.

Coal retailing was an important part of the early elevator operation. A familiar sight was of an elevator employee, with only the whites of his eyes showing, after a day's work of unloading coal cars and delivering coal to customers. Coal was unloaded by hand out of flat bottom cars, and the first truck owned by the company was used to haul coal. The elevator workers hauled corn in the summer and coal all winter. In the late summer they would start filling customers’ coal bins in preparation for winter. The coal had to be loaded on the trucks by hand and unloaded the same way. Most of the coal was shipped from eastern Kentucky. They also got some from West Virginia, along with some poorer quality coal from Indiana and Illinois. There were some mines in southern Iowa, but the quality was so poor that they never handled it.

Between 1915 and 1921, Frank and Libbie had five children: Joseph Victor (whom they called Vic); Martha; twins Norb and Bob; and the youngest daughter, Doris. As the children grew, Frank discouraged them from spending time at the elevator because there were so many places where they could get into trouble.

Commercial fertilizer sales began in 1918, when Frank Krob shipped in the first car load of fertilizer ever brought into Linn County. It was a fifteen ton rail car of 125 lb bags which took three years of hard selling, finally going door-to door, to convince farmers to try a few bags.

During World War I, Frank Krob joined the army. In 1918, he served as an instructor in gas warfare at Camp Gordon Georgia, but was never sent overseas. In the following years, Frank served as mayor of the town of Ely, as the town marshal, and was also Ely’s first fire chief.