| Additional Information: | This building is threatened with demolition in the Spring of 2009. Cupola covered with sheet metal; exposed beams; side hinged wood doors; two one story additions to north and one vertical board siding addition to rear. The building was finally demolished in February of 2016.
Robert B. Wentworth, a grain dealer, constructed a 40 by 60 foot and 50 foot high, timber frame grain elevator in 1862 southeast of the canal at 131 E. Mullett (48/20) (Wisconsin State Register 1862 [9/20: 3/1]). (It possessed a storage capacity of 4000 bushels. By 1873 and no later than 1884, he operated the elevator as Wentworth, Mcgregor and Company. In addition, he owned a shipping company, the Portage and Green Bay transportatipon Company, to move wheat, other grains, and other products by steamboat between Portage and Green Bay between 1864 and 1874. A railroad side track also extended to his elevator in 1871. Adjacent warehouses also stored coal, seed, and lumber. In 1889 and 1890, W.G. Gault and Sons owned the feed mill. Irving W. York purchased the elevator about 1890. With his brother George E. York, he ran the Portage Roller Mills: "... Grain Elevator and Grain Dealers, Manufacturers of and Dealer in High Grades of Wheat. Also Proprietors of the Portage Electric Light and Power Company" (R.L. Polk & Co. 1890). York maintained his mill store which carried flour, feed, and grain at 117 W. Cook (56/17) from shoretly prior to 1901 through 1937. By 1905, Robert E. York joined the firm, and by 1919, George E. and Robert E. York ran the company. Robert E. York continued to operate the feed and grain business under the name of I.W. York Comdpany. Sometime between 1918 and 1929, perhaps in 1927, the company added the adjacnet, one story, frame feed warehouse standing to the northeast of th elevator. This addition functionally replaced an earlier warehouse near the site. Robert York sold the company in 1946 to Sunnyside Hatcheries. The mill is currently owned by Vita-Plus Corporation of Madison. The I.W. York Company also maintained a flour mill and warehouse north of Jefferson and Emmett along the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul tracks. This buildig is no longer extant (Butterfield 1880: 934; Register Democrat 9/3/1909; 12/11-18/1923; Democrat 7/30/1897; Portage Daily Register 12/23/89; 9/3/09; 5/14/1914; 8/10/1914; Rugen 1868; Hoffman and Hyer 1899; Portage Area Chamber of Commerce n.d.; Wisconsin Necrology, vol. 14: 90). |
|---|
