1940-1949:

• 1941 Norb Krob is drafted, and 1943 Bob leaving two wives to mix feed, 1944 John was drafted

• Rowley is closed while the men serve, Vic voluntarily eniisted .

• 1946 FJ Krob becomes a Kent Feeds dealer

Yet Another World War… In March of 1941, Norb Krob was drafted into the army. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Bob was drafted in 1943, leaving his mother Libby and sister Martha (Phillips) to fill in or him at the Ely Location. The two had to mix feed and at that time more feed was in 100# bags so it took both of them to lift one. Martha and Libby also had to sack corn cobs and lug them out in box cars on the railroad. Martha kept the company books and also drove the pickup delivering coal and cobs. There was a man who hung around town that Frank would hire to help shovel the stuff off, if he was sober at the time. They took what help they could get. One day Frank came into the office and said, “Mart, don’t get the books out. Guess you will have to drive a truck today. I have a corn sheller out in the country and my truck driver didn’t show up.” He pulled one of the big trucks up to the gas pump, filled it up, backed it away and said, “OK it’s ready for you. It’s okay, you can do it.” Martha had never driven a truck before. She was about 2 miles north of town before she found high gear.

Martha also served as the town clerk, the treasurer for the school, and president of the American Legion Auxiliary, in addition to having a young daughter to care for. She was featured in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, along with two other Ely women having to fill in for their husbands who were in the army.

John was drafted in January 1944. There a very reliable man, named Jack Kessler, helped out and the Solon operation stayed open while John was gone.

When Norb left Vic in Rowley in1941, things got tight, but when Vic volunteered for the Service in 1944, they became downright impossible. He left for the army with a railcar full of coal sitting there in Rowley with no one to unload it. His wife Edna unloaded the entire coal car by herself, and from then on was in the position to keep the elevator running. In spite of her best efforts, the Rowley operation had to be closed while Vic and Norb served, and re-opened when they returned.

The three brothers and brother-in-law were all sent overseas to Europe to fight the Germans. Amazingly, all four returned intact (three with Purple Hearts) from front-line combat. Norb and Bob were back by Christmas of 1945, and John Phillips and Vic shortly thereafter.

Changing Hands…. After the war was over, the next generation of Krobs began to take the reins. Vic resumed his station in Rowley, John in Solon, and Bob returned to help Frank in Ely. Norb had contracted a dust allergy while in the service, and he became the resale man for all three elevators. Norb recalled one crusty old customer greeting his sales call with, “Well, if you’re half as good as your Dad, you’ll be okay…”

Norb and Bob decided to run some feed trials, to see if the Krob-manufactured label, Purity Feeds, was up to snuff with the larger manufacturers. They set up ten coops of chickens, 2000 total, in the Ely CSPS hall and ran a feed trial with nine other feed brands. Kent Feeds came out on top, and from that point on FJ Krob and Company was a Kent Feeds dealer. (Regrettably, Purity poultry feed finished near the bottom.)

There was an Ely customer, who had been struggling to support his six kids with the farm, and as a result, he owed the Krob elevator $5000. So when he saw Frank Krob pulling into his driveway one Christmas Eve, he thought Frank was coming as a bill collector. Frank motioned him over to the car, pulled out a turkey, and handed it to him, saying “Here, this is for your Christmas dinner.”