CHICAGO FIRM BUILDS SILICA MILL AT ELCO

Village of Elco Secures New Industry Which Will Employ 30 or 40 Men

The Evening Citizen, January 23, 1915

Contributed by Evelyn Caldwell

This is the Elco mill about 1960.

Photo courtesy: Anna Newell

The Charles P. Brevoost Company of Chicago is building a silica plant at Elco for grinding silica rock into powder. The company has purchased several acres of ground along the railroad near the depot from Louis Hartline and already work of constructing the plant has been started. Two large boilers, each weighing 25 tons have arrived at the site of the new plant in readiness for installation. The two boilers will attain sufficient steam to generate 500 horse power which will be the rating of the new plant. The silica rock which will be ground in the mill will be hauled from the mines some little distance from Elco. With the completion of this plant, there will be two silica plants in Alexander County, the other one being located at Thebes. The plant will employ 35 or 40 men. Silica is a white rock which is mined and later ground for commercial use. It is utilized as a filler for paints, cleaning powders and in some cases forming the white substance of candles. It is tasteless.

Note: The researcher has no information that the plant existed at Thebes, only the location of several test mines. There was a test mine located on the Lyle Lambert property. Pete Shaver told the story: "They had just brought six or eight new wheel barrels, and the mine caved in during the night." The hill slide is still visible today. The mine was never re-opened. Small amounts of silica were once mined from the Bailey formation near Thebes, but little else is know about the silica possibilities of the formation.
First production of silica from southern Illinois was reported in 1906 when three processing mills were in operation. Two companies that operated mills in the district during this time were Ozark Minerals Company at Elco, Tamms Industries, Inc. at Tamms (both now known as Unimin Mineral Specialities), and Olive Branch Minerals company at Olive Branch. Most of the silica produced in southern Illinois has come from the Clear Creek formation. At one time, all of the mines produced tripoli from the Clear Creek formation west of Elco and Mill Creek. The silica of southern Illinois occurs in deposits an inch or less to about 30 feet thick. The tops or bottoms of some of the commercial deposits are iron-stained.
The Olive Branch Minerals Company's silica mill was located just outside of the village along the Olive Branch-Tamms road. This silica was produced from the Grassy Knob "formation." The silica was mined near the plant; signs of the mines and foundation exist today. Inside the mill, large vats of silica were boiling. The Olive Branch mill used a wet-grinding process. The researcher's father, Mr. Holshouser, worked in the boiler room along with Ammel Pettit. There were large vats of boiling silica that resembled mud.
Note from Anna Newell: My dad, Milton Bottom, began working at the mill at Elco in 1939. It was owned at that time by Mr. A. M. Davis of Cairo. Mr. Davis also owned most of the mineral rights where the mines were located west of Elco. Besides being known as the Ozark Minerals Company, it was also known at this time as Illinois Mineral Company with headquarters at Cairo. Besides Mr. Davis, the owner, other employees in the main office were: Mr. J. M. Clutts, Mr. Ben Claflin and Miss Lindell Parker. Mr. Davis' son, Joseph Davis, became owner at the death of his father during the 1960s. He later sold the company to the Unimin Corporation.

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