If you drive around the state of Minnesota, especially around the Springfield area, you will find many old brick silos with the letters ACO at the top. I understand that some of these brick silos were even built in states bordering Minnesota, as I have found some in eastern North Dakota. However, they are most common in the area the bricks were made. If you want to find a large number of ACO silos, drive around Brown County.
If you come across an Ochs brick silo that does not have the initials ACO at the top, but displays some other letter combination, you have found a relative rarity. Of course, ACO stands for Adolph Casimir Ochs, the founder of the Ochs Brick Company in Springfield. Once you have seen a large number of the reddish-brown brick silos across southwest Minnesota, you know which ones were built using Ochs brick.
So if you know a silo was built using Ochs brick, and it has some other initials at the top, what does it mean? There are four Ochs brick silos pictured below, all with different initials at the top. I would guess that a new brick silo owner was given an option to what they could put at the top of their new Ochs brick silo. Remember, money talks? Since the Ochs Brick Company wanted to advertise their brick silos, ACO was probably the option that did not cost anything extra. Maybe a new silo owner was even given a discount to allow the Ochs Brick Company to place their "logo" at the top. I would guess that if a new silo owner wanted to put their own initials, or the initials of their farm name (if they had one), on the top of a new silo, they had to pay extra. Therefore, since many farmers were not rich, very few would elect to place anything other than ACO at the top. Of course, there are some that have no initials on them at all. Maybe these are older than the ACO labeled silos, built before the Ochs Brick Company realized the power of advertising.
If you ever come across an Ochs Brick Silo with a non-ACO labeled top, send me a picture. I will update this page and include it. If you want credit for your picture, let me know how to credit you.
