Lebanon #13: Scroggin Feed & Seed

280 West Sherman Street

Scroggin Feed & Seed on January 19, 2006

This old Purina Chows feed mill is located directly across the railroad tracks from the Santiam Travel Station. Notice the old painted sign and the stacked stone foundation. It was originally built in 1881 as a grain warehouse by a cooperative of local farmers and was known simply as the Lebanon Warehouse. It had a capacity of 60,000 bushels, with six 20x20x20-foot grain bins that were later divided into smaller units over the years. John Settle had 4/5ths ownership by 1882 and purchased the building from the cooperative in 1883. Settle was born in Indiana in 1809 and worked as a farmer before becoming one of the first millers in the Lebanon area by 1850. This warehouse became part of his milling operation. John and his wife (born in Indiana in 1844) had two children in Lebanon.

Scroggin Feed & Seed on January 19, 2006

Thaddeus Sterling purchased the building in 1907, and he later leased it to his son-in-law Seymour Ralph Scroggin, son of J.P Scroggin who ran the Seamore & Scroggin sawmill and opened the bank of Lebanon in 1896. Ralph Scroggin operated Ralph Scroggin Grain and Feed Company out of the building, and built an addition for grinding grain into animal feed. He inherited the building in 1928. In 1937, a new addition was built for processing turkeys, which was a major local industry at the time. Two old railroad refrigerator cars built in 1912 and 1913 were purchased and housed in the addition, and remain there today. Ralph Scroggin went on to became mayor of Lebanon in the late 1930s. Evan after he sold the business, it continued to be known as Scroggin Feed & Seed until 1979, when it became Farmway Feed & Seed.

Though the land still belonged to the Union Pacific Railroad, the structure was eventually taken over by Linn County due to back taxes and in 2008 the county deeded it to the non-profit Scroggins Mill Rural Heritage, which plans to restore it. In 2010, the land was purchased from the Union Pacific Railroad through a $124,000 loan from Arthur and Barbara Boucot.

MillPictures.com has some pictures here.

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