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Largest Of All New Ulm’s Industries Employs

250 People.

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PAY ROLL RUNS TO

HUGE SUM OF $200,000

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Growth of Plant Possible Because Of Supplies

Of Best Wheat.

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Residents of New Ulm, altho they realize dimly what the great Eagle Mill plant means to the town, really know but little of the workings of this enormous institution nor is it possible in a newspaper article to give any clear idea of the magnitude of the business transacted in this largest of all New Ulm manufacturing plants in the city. Ranking in size with the largest in the state and among the largest in the world it would not be possible to “write it up” and do real justice to it short of several articles, but a bird’s eye view of the plant is given in this third industrial article by Miss Macdonald of the Review force.

Made Marked Progress.

Sixty years ago, the Eagle Roller Mill, was a little saw mill, built on the banks of the Minnesota River. Today, it is one of the leading industries, not only of New Ulm, but of the southern part of Minnesota. Today, the mill, with three shifts of men, is turning out 6,000 barrels of flour per day. 1,000 barrels of the output is rye flour, corn products and cereal products. The remaining 5,000 barrels is the company’s patent Gold Coin and Daniel Webster flours. For 40 years the Daniel Webster Flour has held an enviable position among the leading standard patents. It is a flour well known over a large territory and is the result of careful experimentation and represents an achievement in the science of milling. The increase in the demand for this flour necessitated the building of a costly mill, a mill designed for the production of this one product. It has since warranted the expense involved for the production and the demand for this brand of flour continues to increase steadily.

Territory Covered Large.

These products cover an extremely large territory, and reach every large market in the United States and in many foreign countries. The Export business is managed thru the New York office. It has taken years of careful management and progressive labor to attain this large field.

Equipped To

Manufacture Power.

The company is fully equipped to manufacture its own power. The equipment includes three Connelly tubular boilers, a battery of automatic stokers, ash conveyors, coal handling and pulverizing devices, and a steam turbine of 750 h. p. capacity. The mill is operated by the steam generated by this set of boilers. The exhaust is utilized with the assistance of the turbine, which supplies current for the operation of the 1,000 barrel rye mill, and the auxiliary plants, such as corn and other driers. Two monster Corliss compound engines of a combined horse power of over 2,000 are also used to furnish power.

The large quantities of coal consumed are not touched at any time with a shovel. It is automatically lifted from the car, by means of a Brown steam hoist, two tons being lifted at a time, and is conveyed to the pulverizing machine. Here it is ground into dust, which is elevated to a steam hopper above the boilers. From this hopper it is conveyed to smaller individual hoppers, one above each of the boilers. Automatic plungers feed this into the fires, in just the correct amounts continuously. The ashes are automatically dropped and conveyed underground to an elevator located just outside the power house and from this elevator, trucks and wagons haul the waste away.

Tests All Wheat Used.

A carload of wheat arriving in New Ulm from one of the country elevators is given a severe test as soon as it has been “spotted.” The grain is tested for moisture, dockage, weight and gluten, and a small quantity of flour is milled from this carload in the laboratories. The flour therefrom is made into bread in an electric oven bake test. When the results of these tests are known the wheat is unloaded into bins which contain precisely that same grade and quality of wheat. This precaution makes, an absolute uniformity in the grain, the flour, and the bread. Before the wheat is dumped into the bins it is unloaded by power shovels and passes thru the most modern cleaning machinery where all foreign seeds and dirt are removed. The working floor of the elevator is covered with such machines as cleaners, separators, mustard seed, and wild pea extractors.

After the wheat is put in the bins, it is left there until such time as it is needed in the mill. Belt conveyors carry it into the mill, and there every kernel of wheat is subjected to an exacting cleansing process. It is first washed in absolutely pore water, scoured, and dried. This process insures clean, pure flour. Before the wheat passes to the rolls it is steamed to make reduction easier. The process of reducing the grain to four consists of a gradual grinding of the floury portions of the wheat kernel between corrugated and smooth rolls, and of the purification of the product by means of repeated siftings. During the process of milling the granular middlings undergo gradual reduction as they pass from break to break. At each break the finer particles are removed by sifting thru bolting, a kind of silk cloth. The middlings are thus separated from the powdery flour and the latter is subjected to a further reduction.

The passage thru the first set of rolls simply flattens the kernels after splitting them in half along the longitudinal groove. The flour passes automatically from each break or set of rolls to the next. Each roller is regulated so as to pulverize a little finer than the preceding one and each stream is purified by passing thru reels and aspirators which remove the fine dust by suction. When the flour is finished it is packed in sacks and barrels by automatic packers.

The millers in the employ of this concern, who have the work of manufacturing in charge, are skilled men of long experience, all of whom are under the direct supervision of the superintendent. From the time the wheat reaches the mills it is handled by machinery. No human hand comes in contact with it at any time during the process of its manufacture into DANIEL WEBSTER and GOLD COIN flours, consequently the flour reaches the housewife’s kitchen or the bakeshop pure and sanitary.

Storage Facilities.

Concrete elevators and warehouses are used for storing. The warehouse has been so constructed that barrels or sacks can be handled automatically from the mill, or into or out of the railroad cars. The warehouse has a capacity of 20,000 barrels. Six track scales provide weighing facilities for grain into the plant and elevator, and for the finished product outbound.

The Eagle Roller Mill Co., has a line of country elevators, 52 in number, situated in the best wheat producing sections of the country, Southern Minnesota and South Dakota. Their capacity, with the New Ulm elevators included, is 2,600,000 bushels. Each of these elevators is in charge of an expert wheat buyer and great care is taken to select only the best quality of wheat grown. An advantage en-joyed by this mill, which many other mills lack is that, by this system of elevators and expert wheat buyers, they are enabled to secure a constant supply of the very choicest milling

Added Mills.

During the past eight years the strictly modern and up-to-date cereal mill has been erected and enlarged,and the same care is taken in the manufacture of Rye flours and Corn products as with wheat flours.

A year ago the Company started to market Scratch Feed and Chick Feed in addition to the regular grades of mill feeds and special cereal feeds. Last summer a Blending Plant was added for manufacture of Buttermilk Laying Mash, Buttermilk Chick Feed and Dairy Ration. The capacity of the plant is 200 tons per day.

Employ, 250, Payroll $200,000.

The Eagle Roller Mill Co. employs 250 people, and their yearly payroll amounts to over $200,000. The annual volume of business is approximately $11,000,000.00.

Officers And Heads of Departments General PageMaker-H.L. Beecher.

Sales Manager-J. F. Armstrong.

Mgr. Export Dept.-A. F. Anglemyer.

Mgr. of Cereal Dept.-George W. Haynes.

Mgr. Feed Dept.-W. A. Appelgate.

Mgr. Grain Dept.-A. O. Olson.

Western Sales Dept.-A.P. Boock.

District Sales Managers-. C. L. Poynter, Wm. F. Meile, Joe Groebner.

Purchasing Agent-Wm. Stelljes.

Auditor–Gerhardt Spaeth.

Traffic Mgr.-John Laudon.

General Superintendent-Ed. Veeck.

Chief Engineer-N.E. Nelson.

This company may well be proud of what they have accomplished. From a small beginning of 100 barrels daily capacity they have, in 40 years,grown by leaps and bounds, until the present daily capacity is 6,000 barrels. Many methods for efficiency are found in the two story office building of this great concern, their machine shop, carpenter shop, and fire devices, which a trip thru the plant reveals. Citizens of New Ulm do take pride when pointing to their principal industry. The efficient men, who have the work of the concern at heart, are using their best efforts to put New Ulm on the map, as the home of the DANIEL WEBSTER and GOLD COIN flours.

New Ulm Review,

Jan. 16, 1924

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