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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 3: Financial Correspondence
- Material in this series consists of correspondence between the NDMWGA and financial institutions. Arranged first are letters to banks in North Dakota, alphabetical by county. Correspondence to banks in Minnesota and Montana, and to institutions of the Federal Government, are arranged next. The federal institutions were the most important source for funding for the Association throughout most of the 1920s.
- Box 5
- Folder 17: Adams County
- Folder 18: Barnes County
- Folder 19: Benson County
- Folder 20: Bottineau County
- Folder 21: Bowman County
- Folder 22: Burke County
- Folder 23: Burleigh County
- Folder 24: Cass County
- Folder 25: Cavalier County
- Folder 26: Dickey County
- Folder 27: Divide County
- Folder 28: Dunn County
- Folder 29: Eddy County
- Folder 30: Emmons County
- Folder 31: Foster County
- Folder 32: Golden Valley County
- Folder 33: Grand Forks County
- Box 6
- Folder 1: Grand Forks County
- Folder 2: Griggs County
- Folder 3: Hettinger County
- Folder 4: Kidder County
- Folder 5: LaMoure County
- Folder 6: Logan County
- Folder 7: McHenry County
- Folder 8: Mclntosh County
- Folder 9: McKenzie County
- Folder 10: McLean County
- Folder 11: Morton County
- Folder 12: Mountrail County
- Folder 13: Nelson County
- Folder 14: Oliver County
- Folder 15: Pembina County
- Folder 16: Pierce County
- Folder 17: Ramsey County
- Folder 18: Renville County
- Folder 19: Rolette County
- Folder 20: Sargent County
- Folder 21: Sheridan County
- Folder 22: Sioux County
- Folder 23: Stark County
- Folder 24: Steele County
- Folder 25: Stutsman County
- Folder 26: Towner County
- Folder 27: Traill County
- Folder 28: Walsh county
- Folder 29: North Dakota Banks
- Folder 30: North Dakota Banks
- Folder 31: Williams
- Folder 32: Metropolitan National Bank, Minneapolis
- Folder 33: Montana Banks
- Folder 34: Miscellaneous out-of-state Banks
- Folder 35: U.S. Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, St. Paul: 1923
- Folder 36: U.S. Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, St. Paul: 1924
- Folder 37: U.S. Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, St. Paul: 1925
- Folder 38: U.S. Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, St. Paul: 1927-29
- Folder 39: U.S. Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, St. Paul: 1930-32
- Folder 40: U.S. Federal Land Bank of St. Paul 1926-33
- Folder 41: U.S. War Finance Corp. 1922
- Box 7
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]