SideRoads, Fall 2019

Building a STRONG farming community 8 Fall 2019 www walinga com needs It provided hybrid seed gasoline tractors outnumbered farm horses and mules by the mid 1950s feed mixing fertilizer and more In 1977 it began to expand beyond its Pearl City base by acquiring struggling feed stores ensuring that local communities continued to have access to a complete line of agricultural services Around that time the co op also changed its name Coal was no longer essential to farm operations To refl ect this new reality it became Pearl City Elevator Inc Over the next two decades Pearl City acquired locations in McConnell Dakota Warren Baileyville and Pearl City Elevator Inc has helped agriculture thrive for more than 100 Years M any businesses have come and gone in the past 100 years but Pearl City Elevator Inc in northern Illinois is still kicking after more than a century of serving farmers Founded in 1918 as Pearl City Farmers Grain and Coal Company the rural cooperative has seen dramatic changes over its lifetime Back then one in three U S residents lived on farms today the farm population hovers around 1 percent Each farmer grew enough to feed about seven people now that number is closer to 100 Pearl City Farmers Grain and Coal Company started as the brainchild of six men who envisioned grain milling and coal delivery services for the local agricultural community By incorporating as a cooperative they ensured that profi ts would be reinvested back into the areas farms in the form of patron dividends The original by laws stipulated another way in which the coop would support hard working farmers bottom lines they guaranteed that Pearl City would pay the highest market price for grain A Community that Thrives through Vision and Hard Work This approach helped the farming community survive the booms and busts that ensued in the following decades from the Great Depression when the money commanded by cattle and hogs at the Chicago stockyards was not enough to cover the costs of shipping them there to the runaway interest rates of the 1980s As technology developed Pearl City Farmers Grain and Coal Company expanded to meet its patrons growing