1920-1929:

• 1927 Solon elevator is purchased

• 1928 Purity Feeds is developed

• 1929 The Crash and multiple jobs for Frank

In 1927, Frank Krob partnered with another brother-in-law Joe Pavel and purchased an elevator in Solon, Iowa, just seven miles south of Ely. Joe managed the Solon elevator.

In 1928, Frank purchased grind-and-mix feed equipment, including the area’s first hammer mill and feed mixers. The 80 hp four-cylinder gas engine that ran the hammer mill was initially cooled out of the same cistern as the elevator engine, but it ran so hot that the water in the cistern would be near boiling. Frank began traveling to Iowa State University once a year to learn about animal nutrition and feed, and began marketing his own brand of feed, Purity Feeds.

Later improvements included a corn cracker and a Clipper brand seed cleaner.

A Fit of Depression…. Things went quite well until the Depression hit after the crash of '29. Times were tough, and Frank took on many extra jobs to keep his head above water. He was the night operator at the telephone office so he slept there every night. He carried the mail bags from the post office to the depot to put them on the train each evening. Ely had a DC electric light plant right next to the elevator, so Frank started it every night and kept it running. Frank’s wife Libby also helped out by singing in a quartet for funerals, making two dollars per funeral (this money was kept in a bowl in the pantry). In addition, they had a small acreage with a large garden, a few cows, and several chickens, and so were able to keep the family fed. Their children recall days when Libby would call out to them from the kitchen, “What do you kids want for supper tonight, potatoes and eggs or eggs and potatoes?”

Frank had always been very lenient with credit and when corn hit below ten cents a bushel and hogs were less than a dollar a cwt the farmers had no way of paying him, so he had no way of paying the bank. He had over $30,000 in accounts receivable, which in those times would have been enough to buy several farms. One evening he came home from work and announced that he no longer had the elevator because the bank had foreclosed. However, the bank had no idea on how to run an elevator and nobody had money enough to buy it so after a few days they gave it back to him.

He also worked with the Ely Shippers Association, receiving, weighing, and shipping livestock from the stockyard located just south of the elevator. Every so often he and another person would take two three-ton truck loads of livestock to Chicago in 1927 Chevrolets. This was not always a winning situation, as there was at least one instance where a load of sheep didn’t even pay the freight.

Frank did not have enough money to pay his main full-time employees. He told them, “If you just stick with me through this, I’ll make it right with you.” They remained loyal, making nothing more than grocery money, and in the end Frank was able to make good on his promise. Frank always made things right. During the Great Depression, whenever a coal company shipped a car of coal they sent the bill of lading to the local bank. Before the coal could be unloaded Frank had to go to the bank to pay the freight charges and they gave him the bill of lading which he had to present to the station operator before the coal could be unloaded. This one time Frank had no money to pay the freight. His five children each had a savings account between 25 and 50 dollars so he had to withdraw that money before he could unload the coal. Later on when things improved he bought them each thousand dollar insurance policy to repay them. He maintained the payments until the children reached adulthood and they took over the payments. To this day it causes the kids to have a small smile as they pay the annual premium—a reminder of how Frank always made things right.