The Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America, called the Farmers Union, was organized in 1902 in Rains County, Texas, to improve the welfare of families who make their living by farming. The structure of the Union is community based; individuals join together to form locals, three or more locals form a county union, the state organization is made up of locals and counties which together form the National Farmers Union. The Farmers Union places a strong emphasis on education, cooperative efforts, and legislation.
As indicated by the records, the Farmers Union in Clark County, Washington, became active in the late 1940s. Charter Oak Local received its charter in 1947. The other locals in the county are Enterprise, Sara, and Evergreen. The Clark County organization received its charter in 1947.
The records of the Clark County Farmers Union are divided into two series: the records of the county organization, and the records of the local chapters (Sara, Charter Oak, and Evergreen).
The first series, Clark County Farmers Union, is divided into four sub-series: Correspondence, 1947-1967; Financial Records, 1947-1967; Membership, 1947-1966; Minutes, 1947-1957. The correspondence file contains both incoming and outgoing correspondence, resolutions, news releases, and administrative papers for the period from 1947 through 1967. The bulk of the material is from the late 1940s through the early 1950s, and from 1964 through 1967. The financial files include a secretary-treasurer's record book, 1951-1952, as well as bank statements, cancelled checks, and receipts for the period from 1947 through 1967. The bulk of the material covers the periods from the late 1940s-early 1950s, and 1961-1967. The membership file contains membership lists for 1947 and 1966, as well as membership cards for 1947 through 1959, with the majority of the cards from 1956 through 1959. The final subseries of the first series, minutes, includes minutes of the country meetings and minutes of the annual conference of the Washington-Idaho Territory Farmers Union.
Within the correspondence file are resolutions to members of the U. S. Congress reflecting the local position on local, state, and national issues, such as the Columbia Valley Authority, Universal Military Train ing, the state income tax, housing for senior citizens, Social Security, and local highways. Responses to these resolutions were received from Warren Magnuson, Hal Holmes, Walt Horan, Harry Cain, Thor Tollefson, Henry Jackson, and Russell Mack.
The materials within the correspondence and minutes files indicate the activities of the Clark County Farmers Union in forming farmer cooperatives and in sponsoring educational camps and training sessions for their leaders and youth.
Series two, the records of local chapters, includes three subseries. The records of the Charter Oak local contain minutes of meetings from 1956, receipts, financial records and a membership list. The records for the Evergreen local include a secretary-treasurer's record book, 1950-1965, financial records, a copy of the by-laws and financial statement for the Oregon-Washington Farmers Union, cancelled checks, and membership records for 1959. Those for the Sara local include its charter, minutes of meetings, membership lists, and membership cards, 1957 and 1958. The Sara local records cover the period from 1947 through 1958.
This collection is open for research use.
[Item Description]. Cage 455, Clark County Farmers Union Records. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The records of the Clark County Farmers Union were donated to the Washington State University Libraries by the oganization through Alan Ham in April 1979 (MS 79-12).
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.