07/10/2025
This … That…and the Other … stories found in the old Decatur County Newspapers … CENTER GRAIN TANKS NEARING COMPLETION ON SITE OF AREA’S FIRST GRAIN STORAGE… Oberlin Herald 7-12-1956
The site of the first commercial wheat storage warehouse in this area has taken on a new appearance as work on the Center Grain Co. Elevator and storage tanks nears completion.
The bolted steel and concrete warehouses are in the center of the line of grain storage facilities in south Oberlin which can now house a total of nearly 900,000 bushels of grain.
Veteran county grain man Oscar Lohoefener has interest in nearly a quarter million bushels of this total as owner of the 160,000 Lohoefener Grain Co., which he first purchased in 1923. And the 83,000 bushel Center Grain Co., of which he has been a partner with his son, Harold since February of this year.
Flanking the two Lohoefener enterprises are the U. S. Government bin site on the east holding 450,000 bushels of grain and Howard Banta’s 200,000-bushel capacity Oberlin Milling Co.
The new tanks at the Center Grain replace the old wooden elevator, which had been rated at 12,000 bushels but practically was of much less capacity. The old elevator was the first built in Oberlin in 1887, just two years after the railroad reached here.
Lohoefeners bought it from Harold Brown, whose family had purchased it after the Oberlin Equity folded in 1937.
Oscar Lohoefener has been in the grain business in Oberlin since 1923. He operated as a partner with Homer Hitchcock from 1925-39.
His new venture has four tanks 21 foot wide and 56-foot high flanking three smaller tanks 12 foot wide rising over the concrete driveway. The head house rises another 28 feet over the storage tanks.
The three large tanks on the east are filled and emptied by means of augers at top and bottom. The other tanks are filled from pipes at the top of the elevator.
To get to the top Lohoefener has installed an electric man lift. Grain in the tanks is cooled by an aeration system. Hot spots are detected by means of cables running thru the bins which take temperatures every six feet in the bin.
The Nichols Construction Co. started work on the tanks in March and the place was ready to store grain by harvest. However, the slack harvest filled the tanks to only half capacity.
Lohoefener has similar, but small tanks at his east plant which hold 45,000. Two large steel buildings add 100,000 bushels plus the capacity of the elevator itself.
There is now grain storage room in Decatur County at a commercial warehouse and government bin sites to hold 2,085,000 bushels.
