Granary was an icon of Templeton for 70 years. Look back at its history

When a devastating fire gutted the Templeton Feed & Grain towers on July 4, the blaze destroyed a proud landmark that had anchored the heart of downtown for more than 70 years.

The fire chief confirmed on July 10 that the fire had been ignited by illegal fireworks. The resulting stubborn conflagration in the grain and granary dust took several days to extinguish and ultimately required the demolition of the two recently filled grain silos.

The silos were built from layers of Douglas fir 2-by-6s in 1952 and 1954, requiring some 50 tons of nails and a whole lot of community elbow grease to assemble.

Immediately after the July 4 tragedy, family representatives said they were uncertain if they’d rebuild, especially because the business’s fire insurance had been canceled about three years ago. In today’s difficult insurance climate, the Jermins weren’t able to find another insurer willing to cover the structures.

The loss of the iconic building has been heartbreaking for the Templeton community and the customers of the store.

Singer-songwriter Julie Beaver, a longtime Templeton Feed customer, wrote on Facebook the next morning that she was “heartbroken.”

“I feel like there’s a knife in my gut. Crying. To me, the feed mill was all that remained of the old Templeton I grew up loving. And now it’s gone,” she wrote.

Amid other changes in the community, “The feed mill still stood proud as a reminder of Templeton’s heritage as a ranching town,” she said. “As I cry, I am mourning more than just the feed mill. I’m mourning the entire culture and heritage of a bygone time.”

While Templeton folks are devastated by the loss, they also are a stubborn, resilient and fiercely loyal bunch.

Many of the ag town’s 8,600 residents already have responded in droves to help reestablish the Jermin family’s business that’s supplied feed and grain to the area and beyond for more than seven decades.

Supporters came from all over. In fact, it’d be tough these days to find a Templeton resident who’s not sporting a Templeton Grain logo cap or shirt, in effect wearing their dedication and determination for all to see.

In response to the community’s reaction, the Jermins have said since that they will rebuild, and in the meantime, they are continuing to sell their grains, proprietary blends of feed and ,yes, the Templeton Grain merch like hats and sweatshirts.

“We are devastated at seeing it come down! It does feel like a death,” Laura Jermin Humphrey posted on Facebook page. “But we must continue feeding the animals in the county, so we will continue to do so, but not out of our beautiful, iconic building.”

“One thing about the Jermin family is their stubborn nature,” she said. “They won’t let a ‘little’ fire get in the way of selling feed.”

They’re also urgently seeking a 10,000-square-foot building from which to operate temporarily, according to her July 9 social media post.

Meanwhile, a trusted, longtime business associate in Fresno, the Penny Newman Co., is using the Jermins “rations” to manufacture the feed blends that have made Templeton Grain so famous.

“Our rations, all developed by my father, are like McDonald’s secret sauce, very proprietary,” Tom Jermin, the 82-year-old patriarch of the family that owns Templeton Feed & Grain, told The Tribune.

He’s spent his life working at the family business.

“I worked there the summers in seventh through 12^th grade. I got out of the Navy in 1957, and I’ve been at Templeton Feed ever since.”

He’s semi-retired now, and son Rick Jermin, 52, is running the business.

Anyone with information about the fire or who has surveillance video is encouraged to contact the Sheriff’s Detective Division at (805) 781-4500. Tips can also be shared anonymously through Crime Stoppers at (805) 549-7867 or online at www.slotips.org.

How Templeton and its granary began

The image of the two grain silos and the adjacent circa-1912 poured-in-place concrete building is such a well-known symbol of the town, a drawing of the building serves as the logo of the Templeton Community Services District.

As the business, the Jermin family and the town recover, many are learning more about the history of Templeton and its landmark.

Much of that knowledge is Jermin generational, Rick Jermin said.

“Who would know the full history? That’s my dad, everything I know about it, he told me,” Jermin said, just as his father’s dad, Tom Jermin Sr., had told his son.

Templeton sprouted up when the Southern Pacific Railroad established its stop in that area. For a time, it was the end of that line, so to speak.

“The founding of Templeton in 1886 coincided with the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad,” according to the SLO Visitors Guide.

“Templeton was the last station headed south. Passengers traveling elsewhere boarded stagecoaches that took them to San Luis Obispo to catch another outbound stagecoach,” the guide said.

“Reports are that within 90 days, the town added three hotels, three general stores, a drug store, two blacksmith shops, five saloons, a billiard parlor, a lumber yard, two barber shops, a public hall, post office and around 30 homes.”

By 1889, the railroad had extended south to Santa Margarita and moved the station, the guide continued.

However, “Templeton remained a shipping center for grain, wood, charcoal, fruit and cattle to be transported by train to markets across the nation.”

Templeton Feed & Grain silos built in the 1950s

In 1912, a one-story, cast-in-place concrete structure was built at 405 S. Main St., in Templeton.

Tom Jermin Jr., the 82-year-old patriarch of the family that owns Templeton Feed & Grain, doesn’t know who built it, but he told The Tribune that he does remember his father telling him “it was a garage at one time in the ‘20s, a dentist office and even a drive-through grocery store.”

For decades, the town’s agricultural background was rooted in barley, according to Jermin.

He said his father, Tom Jermin Sr., knew that all that grain needed to be stored somewhere, and that the small “mom-and-pop” feed store on Main, owned by Harold Ruth Sr., could be the start of something big.

“My dad bought the store from Harold in 1946. Then in 1952, he decided to build the first silo,” Tom Jermin said.

“We were buying a lot of barley. We use the barley to manufacture feed. It’s the base for all our mixed seed. We had to have someplace to put it,” he said.

“This was a major dryland barley-farming area. Almost all the vineyards now were planted in barley then,” Jermin noted, along with plums and almonds.

His dad built the second silo in 1954, thereby creating the iconic silhouette that for decades had represented Templeton.

“We were selling our feed in four states at one time,” Jermin said. “In the ‘60s, we were feeding literally, hundreds of thousands of turkeys in seven locations, from Pozo to Santa Maria to Paradise Valley. Each turkey ranch took about 36 tons of feed a day,” all delivered by bulk truck.

“We made feed for horses, hogs, a lot of poultry and rabbits. We hated to see Sundays come, because we knew everybody would be out of feed by Monday.”

Even now, their most popular feed is, surprisingly, for rabbits, he said. “A majority of rabbit judges all use our feed.”

In the interim years, the structures and business survived many challenges, including economic downturns, earthquakes and another gutting fire in 1979.

What’s next for Templeton Feed?

This time, until they can rebuild and reopen, the Jermins will continue selling their products at the nearby Nature’s Touch Nursery & Harvest at 225 S. Main St.

Their chicken feed sells for $18 to $19 for a 50-pound bag, Tom Jermin said.

“In the days of bomb shelters, they used to say, ‘The best thing to take in there is a bag of chicken feed.’ It’s up to 50% protein, with a lot of soybean meal in it,” he said with a laugh. “If you put enough molasses on it, it might improve the taste.”

What keeps the family going now, they say, is their people, their customers, suppliers and supportive community members.

Just as the Jermins have passed historical information on from generation to generation, many of their customers have relied on Templeton Feed & Grain for decades.

“It’s like the fruit-gem candies we’ve been giving out for 50 years or more,” Jermin said. “A customer will come in with her granddaughter and say, ‘I used to get this candy here when I was a child.’”

“This industry is very personal. You get to know people,” a slightly emotional Jermin said. “We’ve had so many calls from company owners, wanting to know how they could help. The firefighters, Waste Management Co. and ABI, people donating food, buying hats. So many people.

“The day after the fire, I must have gotten at least 50 hugs from people,” he said. “That’s Templeton. That’s why we have to keep going.”

This story was originally published July 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.

Kathe Tanner

The Tribune

805-781-7904 (voicemails only)

Kathe Tanner has been writing about the people and places of SLO County’s North Coast since 1981, first as a columnist and then also as a reporter. Her career has included stints as a bakery owner, public relations director, radio host, trail guide and jewelry designer. She has been a resident of Cambria for more than four decades, and if it’s happening in town, Kathe knows about it.