Paris, IL: 1890-1964 Merkle Wiley Broom Co. and Agriculture Support

Broom: (Satellite, the land is now used by a seed company)

Corn Mill: (Satellite, rail served)

Elevator: (Satellite, not rail served)

Fertilizer and other chemicals used by farms: (Satellite)

The tracks by the building below was the Pennsy. The Big Four tracks were nearby. See Railroad Hub for the original railroad routes and Rick's post below concerning today's routes.

Chuck Edmonson posted
Part of an old postcard for the Merkle Wiley Broom Co., in Paris, Il. Don't get swept away by it.

Edgar County Historical Society posted 11 images with the comment: "In 1879 John Merkle and his son Oscar started the Merkle-Wiley Broom Company in Paris. The new brick factory was built at the corner of West End Ave. and Broom Street in 1890. In the 1910-1919 era the company produced 10,000 brooms per day. By the 1920s they were producing 20,000 per day.It was famous for its Red Bird and Blu-J brooms which the factory shipped all over the U.S. The Blu-J brooms were produced until the 1920s. The company merged with the France Broom Company in 1964. The last broom was produced in Paris on April 30, 1964. In 1985 a furniture manufacturer acquired the facility. It survived a fire in 1996, but Northern Harvest demolished the building in 1999 to make way for a new facility. 

 My grandfather Hugh Henson was a night watchman in the factory during the 1920s. One of his duties was to stoke the furnace with coal for the next day. He built a 900 sq. ft. home on West End Ave. where my mom was born in 1925. It still is there, and I took pictures of it. I collect Merkle items like a set of twelve postcards showing all phases of the operation, ink blotters, an original metal store display, advertising catalogs from different years, a kitchen wall clip to hang brooms, original invoices, and other advertising items. We have searched for over thirty years to find and original new old stock broom to put in the display, but we've had no luck at antique advertising shows, antique shops and malls, flea markets, and antique markets, Most real broom corn brooms today are made in Mexico and don't look anything like the original ones. My dad Charlie worked in broom corn fields when he was young during the Depression. He showed artisans at the Amana Colonies in Iowa some techniques he learned. Enjoy!"

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Larry Pittsley commented on the above post
Found this a couple of weeks ago.

Rick Smith posted

NY Central F-M H16-44 (Class DRS-7 ) Nº7007, at the Illinois Cereal Mill, Paris, IL (Edgar Cnty), 1961. Now Cargill (since 1994), the mill remains as a major employer in Paris.

I barely can recall seeing F-M power on that portion of the former Big Four, when I lived in Eastern-Central IL during that period, from age 10 through my early teen years (1964). Of the few remaining intact segments of the Cairo Division, this north-south portion extends from the south end of Paris (Cadillac Packaging Co. and Pretium Packaging Co.) and north of the diamond X-ing (less than a half mile north of the mill) with the former Big Four St. Louis Division, and to a point north some 21 miles at Vermillion Grove, IL. This north-south segment interchanges at a diamond with the DREI's former B&O east-west segment at Christman, IL (13 miles north of this mill). That line extends from Decatur (IL) to Hillsdale, IN. The segment of the former Big Four St Louis Division (at Paris) also was acquired by the DREI and extends from the main yard on the west end of Paris (were the track abruptly ends) and southeast to Terre Haute. The St. Louis Division hosted NY Central streamliners "Southwestern Limited" and the "Knickerbocker". Now it looks like little more than a "T-Rex" monster turned into a mudpuppy.

This is former CSX territory acquired from the Conrail dissolution, and sold off to the DREI (Decatur & Eastern Illinois [Watco]). Carl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer of "Our Gang" (syndicated for TV as "The Little Rascals") was born in Paris.

[photo - © Dave Ingles]

Cargill Dry Corn Ingredients

Street View, May 2023

Bill Edrington posted two photos with the comment: "WAMX 3896 occupies the old Cairo Division main at Paris, Illinois this afternoon as Watco Companies subsidiary Decatur & Eastern Illinois Railroad switches Cargill Dry Corn Ingredients, formerly known for many years to NYC, PC, Conrail and CSX railroaders as Illinois Cereal Mills." 

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Cargill grain elevators   I presume this is now extra storage for the corn mill.

Street View, Jun 2023

The chemicals   Note the white tanks on the left side as well as near the building on the right.

Street View, Jun 2023

1939

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

1977

May 1, 1977 @ 80,000; AR1VEHQ00010007

1993    The broom factory buildings were replaced by the next image, Apr 1998.

Google Earth, Apr 1993