Elevator and Feed Mill History
Transcribed and Edited by Michael R. Reilly
Last Revised 12/30/2005
A Look Back at the Sussex Mills of Old: Sussex Mills a Fixture of Area’s History
by Fred H. Keller, published, Sussex Sun,November 30, 1999
With the coming of the Milwaukee, Menomonee Falls and Western Railroad in 1890, sussex Elevator was theend of the line on Maple Avenue. William Small and his son, John, were theoriginal proprietors of the Sussex Elevator.
There were in fact there businesses on the site – the elevator and feed mill, a coal yard, and the end ofthe line for the train depot.
Students would collect in themorning and take the passenger train east to Menomonee Falls High School. In the evening they would return on a passenger train west.
Meanwhile, the elevator wasinto a big business of shipping barley to the breweries, mostly to Milwaukee. Later, loads of beets were also shipped.
John Small, the manager of theelevator, coal yard and depot, died in 1917, at age 60.Afterward, a variety of owners and managers took over until after World War II.
In 1917, Sussex had no lessthan three feed mills-elevators, one on the Bugline, one on the Northwestern andone (the oldest) on the Wisconsin Central (started by James Templeton).
Sussex Elevator, for a periodof time, became a farmers’ cooperative, but there was no cooperation, and itwent semi-bankrupt.
In time the elevator up on theNorthwestern bought out Sussex Elevator and closed down the Northwestern mill,using it only for long-term storage.
In the 1930s, Al Otto andLester Nettesheim bought Sussex Elevator, and changed the name to Nettesheim andOtto. They added a machinery division to the north and also began to deliverfuel oil.
Roland and George Reinders ofElm Grove, after World War II, bought mills in the city of Waukesha, Dousman,Whitewater and Sussex.
Their initial manager in thenewly named Sussex Mills did not get along with the public and was replaced byHip Keller, a former employee at the Elm Grove plant.
Keller accepted Reinder’s bidto hire him, but insisted he be a majority owner. Reinders agreed. Keller boughtinto the company in September of 1946.
These were the days of theMarshall Plan when the United States was helping Europe get back on its feet.The U. S. was buying a lot of grain and shipping it to Europe. Sussex Millsbegan shipping oats by the carload. There was even a time when hay was broughtby the carload and shipped to Europe, and Sussex Mills participated, too.
The coal business hit a crescendoin the late 1940’s with 54 cars delivering to Sussex Mills one year, but thisbusiness quickly died as oil conversion units were put into older homes and oilburners were going into all new homes.
The Reinders brothers did notpurchase the machinery business when they acquired the mill. It became aseparate business, Evert Farm Store.
Brothers Pete and Roy Evertdid a business of farm machinery sales and repair, plus a lot of water-wellwork.
The oil-delivery business wasspun off to Lester Nettesheim; however, in the late 1970’s, the buildings andland of Evert Farm Store was purchased by Sussex Mills after Roy Evert died.
In 1950, Waukesha County wasknown as Cow County USA because Waukesha County had more cows than any othercounty in the United States. Keller upgraded the grinding service of the milland added an enterprising young assistant, Gordon Pfeil, a local farm boy justout of Waukesha High School. In time Pfeil and a couple of other investorsbought out Reinders’ entire stock in Sussex Mills.
Grinding and mixing feed wasthe big business in the 1950s and 1960s. The Bugline Railroad delivered carloadsof bran, soybean meal, linseed oil meal, brewers grains, alfalfa meal, beetpulp, oyster shells, salt and various other commodities.
Meanwhile, trucks deliveredconcentrates, waste malt and barley screenings, meat scraps, bone meal, mineralsand Dr. Roberts’ medications for the dairy, pig and chicken farm that dominatedthe Lisbon landscape.
The grinding of farmers’ corn,oats and other items was done with a 75-horsepower mill that fed into 2 1/2 tonmixers. In 1954, a new piece of machinery was added, a molasses mixer.
Initially, the liquid molasseswas delivered by railcars, but soon the molasses was just as cheap trucked fromthe Mississippi barges to Sussex Mils. The mills added an average of 2 to 10 percentmolasses to most mixed rations for cows and, for a period of about 10 years,there was 1,000 pounds of molasses used every day, a million pounds in less thanthree years.
Sussex Mills began to haveprivate-label mixes of concentrates. There was also a complete assortment ofwhole grains and cracked grains.
Keller retired in the early1960’s and Pfeil became manager and sole owner. The dairy industry was changingin Waukesha county and he attempted to change with it.
One of the big changes was theevolving horse business. He put in a oat crimper and started to make SussexMills horse feed, which became big business for a period of years.
The local shutdown of dairyfarms and the resulting cash cropping meant Sussex Mills had to change with thetimes. One facet was a spin-off from their old salvage of torn bags of flour,sugar and dog food into a full-fledged salvage food business.
Meanwhile, the coming of manynew subdivisions turned the main business of Sussex Mills to a lawn and gardencenter and the delivery of salt.
The lawn and garden centeralso sold snowmobiles, at one time handling Fox Track, Evinrude and Bolens. Oneyear, more than 200 snowmobiles were sold.
The main lawn and garden saleswere of fertilizer, lawn seed, lawn mowers and chainsaws, and, in the spring,garden seeds and plants.
The salt business became solarge that a new warehouse was built in the late 1960s to handle an average of60 tons per week. The peak of the salt business was 360 tons in one week.
Much of the salt was deliveredinto basements, and wholesale business was built up. The business wasessentially run with part-time labor, but over a period of time, some of thepart-timers became full time.
The Teamsters approached agroup of full-time salt handlers, and a vote was taken to start a union. SussexMills could not pay the demands of the Teamsters, so it went out of the saltbusiness.
This was the high-water markof Sussex Mills in the early and mid-1970s. Business declined until the doorclosed Oct. 27, 1990, when the mill site was sold to the village of Sussex.
Initially there was consideration that the site might become a large shopping area that would require all the Main Street homesto be razed.
There was also the idea that Hamilton High School would build an administration office on the site. These ideas did not pan out with the electorate.
In 1993, the mill was torn down and the land cleared.
Prior to this, the Bugline rail track had been abandoned in 1978 and a few years later, made into theWaukesha County Bugline Trail that goes from Menomonee Falls to Merton. Thedepot disappeared prior to World War II.
In 1994, the land was purchased from the village for the elderly housing projects that now exist. On Jan. 11, 1995, in the snow, the ceremonial ground-breaking for the newdevelopment took place. WovenHearts assisted living went up first, with the Sussex Mills Apartments not far behind.
The apartments kept the lookof old Sussex Mills Elevator, As a special gift at the dedication, miniaturebags of bird feed were sewn into specially printed cotton cloth bags. These weremeant to be collector items, and they are still found in the local area.
Today, Sussex Mills Apartmentsis a meal site for senior citizens. Its main meeting room held the local seniorcitizens activity center for a period of years. The center is now at willowSprings School where more space is available.
Sussex Mills Apartments has filled to capacity and may possibly build another set of similar apartments tothe west, but this is only in the planning stage.