My Genealogy Hound

Charles Huber, president of the Seneca Mills, stands in the front rank among business men. He was born and reared in Hungary, and there received his education. In 1880 he came to the United States and located at St. Louis. He has been remarkably successful in improving the milling system of the world, and was the first man to introduce the roller system into the winter wheat States. It is a sufficient testimonial of the position he holds in this branch of industry to state that most of the high-class mills of the country are constructed on the Huber system.

The Seneca Mills. The largest mills in Southwest Missouri are located in Seneca, and there is, probably, no single institution in Newton County which is destined to take a more important part in the advancement of the interests of Seneca, Newton County, or adjacent counties, than the Huber & Wack Milling and Live Stock Company, who operate these mills. As the firm title indicates, the business of the company covers both the milling and live stock interests. This enterprise was inaugurated in 1882 by Charles Huber, who erected a milling plant at Seneca in that year, and carried on the business under the name of Huber Milling Company. One year later he increased the capital stock of the’ establishment and took into partnership Paul Wack, then of St. Louis, and the firm then took its present name. Mr. Wack sold his interest in 1886, and retired from the enterprise. The officers are Charles Huber, president; Peter Huber, treasurer; A. Pankaw, secretary. The stock farm of the company consists of a beautiful range of 2,000 acres, stretching in a northeasterly direction from the mills, and on the land buildings are provided for the protection of several thousand head of sheep and cattle. This department is placed under the direct supervision of a superintendent. Since the establishment of this enterprise extensive additions have been made to the milling plant, and it is now a credit, not only to the county, but to the State as well. The buildings, which are handsome in design and neatly kept, lie immediately contiguous to the tracks of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad. The extreme eastern building is a warehouse and elevator, having a storage capacity of 30,000 bushels of grain. It is divided into four compartments, all having two floors. These have a uniform width of thirty feet, and aggregate in length 110 feet. A covered and elevated passage-way, 125 feet in length, connects the warehouse with the grinding department, the first feature of which is the corn-mill. This has an area of 35,740 feet, and is three stories in height. The machinery is operated by an engine of forty-horse power, and has a capacity for turning out 150 barrels in twenty-four hours. The boiler and engine rooms of the main mill come next; the former is 30x35 feet in ground dimensions, and is supplied with two steel boilers rated at 200-horse power, the water for which is directly received from two metal tanks, each four feet in diameter by twenty-five feet. The engine is a Corliss of ninety-horse power, and the engine room is 35x12 feet in size. Next comes the bull roller mill, for flour, with twenty sets of rolls. It is 40x60 feet in size and four stories high without the basement. West of the roller floor is a warehouse for flour 30x50 feet. An elevated conveyor leads from this building to the elevator proper, which has a storage capacity for 30,000 bushels of grain. The plant was put in by the firm of Dehner & Wurpel, millwrights, of St. Louis. The capacity of the mill is given at 350 barrels per day, though often over 400 barrels are turned out in twenty-four hours. The product of the mill finds ready market abroad, in England and Belgium, at home, in Texas and Arkansas. The principal brands of flour manufactured are White Crain, Western Delight, Constance, Success and Huber’s Hungarian. These mills have a splendid reputation in the trade, and their flour has taken the first premium against the world at the St. Louis Exposition.