E. L. Kreger was born in 1886 in Jefferson, Iowa. He was married to Grace Wilcox in November 1904. After graduation from high school he started work in Grimes, Iowa at the grain elevator and in 1908 he became manager of the Farmers Elevator Company there. In 1912 he went to Ralston, Iowa as manager of the Farmers Elevator Company where he stayed for fourteen years.

Kreger started the Farmers Elevator Service Company in 1926, with the idea that if elevator companies would cooperate in purchasing farm supplies in large units, substantial savings could be gained for their customers. Ninety-six elevator operators of the Iowa Farmers Grain Managers Association paid $5.00 each toward the company's operating capital, and Kreger was guaranteed $100.00 per month plus expenses. Kreger managed the company, known by the acronym FELCO, until his retirement in 1954. The original products available to FELCO members were coal, cedar posts, linseed oil meal, and office supplies. Eventually the cooperative handled a full line of farm supplies, including livestock feed, fertilizer, and petroleum. FELCO later merged with the Nebraska Farmers Union State Exchange, becoming the Farmers Regional Cooperative. In 1970, the Farmers Regional Cooperative merged with Land O' Lakes, a Minnesota-based cooperative, becoming one of the largest agricultural supply and food marketing cooperatives in the United States.

Early in the 1930s the National Recovery Act ruled out cooperatives and declared them illegal because they "prorated" the profits back to the businesses." Kreger went to Washington, D.C. on a Monday and working with Henry A. Wallace, Kreger left Washington Friday morning with a confidential order that said President Roosevelt would sign an executive order declaring coops legal on Monday.