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North Dakota-Montana Wheat Growers Association Records
National Agricultural Associations
Warehouse Company General Files
North Dakota-Montana Wheat Growers Association Records, 1921-1938
Collection Overview
Title: North Dakota-Montana Wheat Growers Association Records, 1921-1938
ID: OGLMC016
Primary Creator: North Dakota-Montana Wheat Growers Association (1922-1930)
Extent: 68.75 Linear Feet
Date Acquired: 00/00/1955. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: Agriculture, Business and Industry
Languages: English
Abstract
Scope and Contents of the Materials
The North Dakota-Montana Wheat Growers Association Records date from 1921 to 1938 and have been divided into eleven series.
Series 1: National Agricultural Associations
Series 2: General Files
Series 3: Financial Correspondence
Series 4: Elevator Correspondence
Series 5: Organization Department
Series 6: Warehouse Company General Files
Series 7: Warehouse Company Correspondence
Series 8: Credit Company Loan Files
Series 9: Credit Company General Files
Series 10: Grower Files
Series 11: Pamphlet File
Series 12: Oversized Materials
Series 13: Photographs
Collection Historical Note
The North Dakota Wheat Growers Association was organized on January 23, 1922, and incorporated on February 21st of that year. The Association was headquartered in Grand Forks. The purpose of the Association was to stop the dumping of wheat on the market after the fall harvest. Using funds borrowed primarily from the government, the Association advanced its members seventy percent of market value upon delivery of their wheat. The Association then sold the wheat to millers and exporters throughout the year, thereby avoiding the low prices of the fall glut. After deducting its own expenses, returns where given back to the members.
August 22, 1922 saw the first shipment of wheat purchased by the Association. Members signed a five year contract, pledging to sell all of their wheat to the Association. In its first year of operation, the Association consisted of over three thousand members, and by 1923 that number had grown to over 9,000. 1923 also witnessed the beginning of The Wheat Grower, an official bimonthly publication sent to all members. By 1924, membership was nearly 16,000. Even at this level, however, only one-fifth of all North Dakota wheat farmers were members. The Association handled over $6 million worth of wheat that year, but it was a small percentage of a total crop of over $125 million.
Membership continued to grow in the years after 1924, but the amount of wheat put into the pool declined. There were several reasons for this: one, cash poor farmers needed to have all of their money up-front, not just the seventy percent offered by the Association. Second, many elevators were hostile to the pool. The Association addressed these problems in 1926 by three means: first, members were solicited from Montana. Second, the North Dakota Wheat Growers Credit Corporation was formed to lend money to its members, thereby "freeing them from antipool pressure by the holders of crop mortgages." Third, the North Dakota Wheat Growers Warehouse Company was established. The Warehouse Company sought to buy or lease grain elevators. This was followed in 1928 by the creation of the North Dakota Wheat Growers Cooperative Terminal Association, which purchased a 150,000 bushel elevator in Minneapolis. By 1930, it owned a total of over 80 elevators.
Membership grew in 1929 after the Federal Farm Board offered a guaranteed price through cooperatives. Since the Association was the only wheat cooperative in the state, farmers and elevators poured into the membership ranks. This boom was short-lived, however, as 1929 saw the price of wheat fall. The United States Grain Stabilization Corporation purchased the stored wheat, but yet did not pay for storage costs. In addition to these losses, the Association also lost the privilege of trading on both the Duluth and Minneapolis Boards of Trade. These factors caused the Association to go out of business after the 1930 harvest. The Association sued the Federal Farm Board for damages, but was unsuccessful. By 1931, most of the pool elevators were closed or were managed by others.
Source: History of North Dakota by Elwyn Robinson, page 384-86
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections
Accruals: Additional material was transferred from the North Dakota Pamphlet File on August 30, 1984 (Acc.84-1325) and on August 11, 1998 (Acc.98-2230).
Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.
Acquisition Source: A.J. Scott
Acquisition Method: Donation; the acquisition records are unavailable
Preferred Citation: (Description of Item). North Dakota-Montana Wheat Growers Association Records. OGLMC 16, Box #, Folder #. Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
Finding Aid Revision History: Finding aid migrated to Archon in April 2015.
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[Series 1: National Agricultural Associations],
[Series 2: General Files],
[Series 3: Financial Correspondence],
[Series 4: Elevator Correspondence],
[Series 5: Organization Department ],
[Series 6: Warehouse Company General Files ],
[Series 7: Warehouse Company Correspondence ],
[Series 8: Credit Company Loan Files ],
[Series 9: Credit Company General Files ],
[Series 10: Grower Files ],
[Series 11: Pamphlet File ],
[Series 12: Oversized Materials],
[Series 13: Photographs],
[All]
- Series 7: Warehouse Company Correspondence
- Correspondence of the Warehouse Company to its elevator agents, arranged alphabetically by town name. Subjects include: agents' practices regarding the purchase of grain, problems with individual members and rivalries with other local grain elevators. Subseries A consists of correspondence to North Dakota agents, while Subseries B is correspondence to Montana.
- Sub-Series 1: North Dakota
- Box 15
- Box 16
- Folder 1: Crystal
- Folder 2: Dawson
- Folder 3: Derriak
- Folder 4: Dickey
- Folder 5: Dunn Center
- Folder 6: Dunn Center
- Folder 7: Eckelson
- Folder 8: Edgely
- Folder 9: Eldridge
- Folder 10: Fero
- Folder 11: Fero
- Folder 12: Fillmore
- Folder 13: Flasher
- Folder 14: Flora
- Folder 15: Foreman
- Folder 16: Fort Clark
- Folder 17: Gackle
- Folder 18: Grand Rapids
- Folder 19: Hannaford
- Folder 20: Hazelton
- Folder 21: Hazen
- Folder 22: Hazen
- Box 17
- Folder 1: Hebron
- Folder 2: Hensel
- Folder 3: Hensel
- Folder 4: Hesper
- Folder 5: Hoople
- Folder 6: Killdeer
- Folder 7: Knox
- Folder 8: Lakota
- Folder 9: Lawton
- Folder 10: Lawton
- Folder 11: Linton
- Folder 12: McHenry
- Folder 13: McHenry
- Folder 14: Mohall
- Folder 15: Miles
- Folder 16: Park River
- Folder 17: Park River
- Folder 18: Pisek
- Folder 19: Rolette
- Folder 20: St. Joe
- Folder 21: St. Joe
- Folder 22: Souris
- Folder 23: South Heart
- Folder 24: Spiritwood
- Folder 25: Stanton
- Folder 26: Steel
- Box 18
- Sub-Series 4: Montana
Browse by Series:
[Series 1: National Agricultural Associations],
[Series 2: General Files],
[Series 3: Financial Correspondence],
[Series 4: Elevator Correspondence],
[Series 5: Organization Department ],
[Series 6: Warehouse Company General Files ],
[Series 7: Warehouse Company Correspondence ],
[Series 8: Credit Company Loan Files ],
[Series 9: Credit Company General Files ],
[Series 10: Grower Files ],
[Series 11: Pamphlet File ],
[Series 12: Oversized Materials],
[Series 13: Photographs],
[All]