UE COUNTY CO-OPERATIVE 



(Continued from page 17) 

 for a year while the Steward Co-op 

 attempted to get back on its feet. Un- 

 able to do this, Lee County Grain pur- 

 chased the elevator at a bankruptcy sale 

 in February, 1941. This purchase 

 necessitated borrowing $5000 from the 

 St. Louis Bank for Co-operatives, but 

 ^he- loan was repaid in less than a year's 

 time. 



The Ashton elevator was purchased 

 in the spring of 1941. This included 

 the elevator structure and a feed mill. 

 The grinding equipment was moved 

 from the mill to the elevator soon after 

 the purchase was completed and the 

 mill is now used for storing supplies. 



There you have the Lee County 

 Grain's physical setup — four operating 

 elevators and one storage elevator. At 

 the Lee Center and Ashton elevators 

 there are facilities for grinding and 

 mixing feed. Since the outbreak of the 

 war, farmers of the territory have 

 found their co-operative of increasing 

 value in supplying them with protein 

 feeds. A carload of soybean meal is 

 shipped in every month and the co- 

 operative also mixes supplement feeds. 

 Gross feed sales income for 1943 

 amounted to $96,l6l, and the grinding 

 and mixing income totaled |4680, or 

 almost double that of 1942. The co- 

 operative also does considerable seed 

 business as well as selling coal, lumber, 

 and other supplies. 



Since the Lee County Grain started 

 business it has maintained good work- 

 ing relationships with other Illinois 

 Grain Corporation member elevators in 

 the area. These include the Eldena Co- 

 operative, the Sublette Farmers' Ele- 

 vator, the Walton Co-operative, and 

 West Brooklyn. Lee county ranked 

 sixth among the counties in the state 

 for volume of grain marketed through 

 the Illinois Grain Corporation for the 

 period July 1 to Nov. 30, 1943. 



The men who are entitled to the 

 major share of credit in the success of 

 the Lee County Grain are the board 

 members. At the 1943 annual meeting 

 in December, two men who have served 

 continuously since the first organization 

 meeting were reelected. They are 

 Wesley Attig, president, who repre- 

 sents district 1 of the co-operative's ter- 

 ritory, and Glenn Pfoutz, district 2. 

 Pfoutz served continuosly as secretary 

 for nine years until he was succeeded 

 in this office two years ago. Frank 

 Mynard, who also served on the board 

 since the cooperative was organized, 

 retired as director at the 1943 annual 

 meeting. Mr. and Mrs. Mynard re- 

 cently celebrated their 50th wedding 

 anniversary. Other present directors 

 are Arthur Bprkhardt, district 3, start- 



\ 



ing his second year of service; Holly 

 Smith, district 4, starting his second 

 year; Roy McCracken, district 5, start- 

 ing his first year; Joy Sandrock, secre- 

 tary-treasurer, district 6, starting his 

 second year. Clarence Hart, vice-pres- 

 ident, is the member at large on the 

 board nominated by the Lee County 

 Farm Bureau board. The co-operative's 

 board of directors was set up by district 

 in 1941 to give a better representation 

 over the territory. 



According to Glen Hart, who served 

 as president from the beginning of the 

 organization until he retired three years 

 ago, most of the board lived in the Lee 

 Center territory when the co-operative 

 was launched, and the district setup was 

 finally decided on to give representa- 

 tion from other territories. 



Charles Eersten, Lee County Gtain patron. 



gets a ticket bom Manager Harry Ancles 



at the Steward eleyotor. 



Glen Hart, first president of the Lee Coun- 

 ty Grain, gets his hog supplement ieed 

 bom his co-operatire. 



Richard Sondgeroth is the manager at the 

 Lee Center elevator. 



Other directors on the first board at 

 the organization meeting in October, 

 1932, in addition to Glen Hart, Pfoutz, 

 Mynard, and Attig, were Carl Sartorius, 

 William E. Taylor, and the late Wiliam 

 Degner. Taylor retired from the board 

 about four years ago. Other early di- 

 rectors elected at the first annual meet- 

 ing in 1934 who contributed to the 

 early building of the cooperative in- 

 clude Vernon Pomeroy and Robert 

 Ramsdell. 



Robert J. Hoyle, general manager of 

 the Lee County Grain, is another man 

 who has been with the cooperative 

 since its early days, having been em- 

 ployed in 1933. He ably interprets the 

 policy of the board of directors and 

 sees to it that the co-operative is run 

 on a business-like basis. For example, 

 a daily report is required from each of« 

 the elevators so that an accurate check 

 can be kept of sales, grain movement, 

 etc. There are 10 employees handling 

 this million-dollar business in addition 

 to the general manager. Elevator man- 

 agers are Richard Sondgeroth at Lee 

 Center, Nathan Sword at Ashton, 

 Harry Andes at Steward, and Kenneth 

 Gentry at Shaw. Employees in service 

 include Oliver Dickinson and Adin 

 Rounds, U. S. Navy; Harry Lambert, 

 Reuben McBride, and Lawrence Ches- 

 ley, U. S. Army. 



What are the future plans of the 

 Lee County Grain.' That will depend 

 largely on future conditions. This 

 much, however, is certain. The board 

 is seeing to it that the co-operative is 

 prepared financially to safeguard the 

 producers' grain marketing interests. 

 This safeguard is not confined to the 

 territory of the co-operative, but in- 

 cludes any part of the county where 

 producers may be in danger of losing 

 their grain marketing facilities as the 

 result of. an elevator going out of busi- 

 ness. 



Conniry Life Insurance 



Establishes New Record 



Country Life Insurance Company has 

 .set up another record. This time it's 

 the biggest year's business in its 15 

 years of operation. 



For the calendar year of 1943, Coun- 

 try Life had a paid business of $25,- 

 836,917, making a net gain of business 

 in force for the year of $20,853,042. 

 At the close of 1943, business in force 

 totalled $202,958,977, according to 

 Dave C. Mieher, manager. 



The previous largest year in the 

 company's history was in 1936 when 

 paid business amounted to $25,244,832 ; 

 net gain of business in force, $20,124,- 

 312, and total in force at the end of the 

 year, $100,133,614. 



L A. A. RECORD 



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