The Yakima Valley Grape Producers was established in 1934 as the Yakima Valley Grape Growers Association, a non-profit corporation, to sell the products of the members through the Association and its manager.
In 1949 the association was reorganized so that stock could be issued under new state non-profit corporation statutes. At this time all grower equities in the form of certificates of indebtedness in the Yakima Valley Grape Growers Association were exchanged for stock certificates in the Valley Grape Growers Association. Each member stockholder was permitted one vote only, regardless of the amount of Class A Common Voting Stock owned. A grower was required to own one share of Class A Common Voting Stock if he annually delivered 15 or more tons of grapes to the Association. While non-growers were permitted to hold stock they were not accorded voting privileges. This transfer of equity took place between 1949 and 1959.
In 1959 the Yakima Valley Grape Growers Association was legally dissolved, leaving only the Valley Grape Growers Association, which was renamed the Yakima Valley Grape Producers in 1960.
The records of the Yakima Valley Grape Producers are divided into three series: Correspondence, Internal Organizational Files, and Financial and Fiscal Data.
The Correspondence Series includes alphabetically arranged grower files from 1942 through 1968 containing information on the disposition of stock and holdings of deceased members. General correspondence is arranged alphabetically by year from 1958 through 1972. The material from 1970 through 1972 is arranged alphabetically by subject and general areas. Included in the general correspondence are letters, memoranda, reports, tax returns, employee data, insurance forms, shipping orders, labels and publicity materials.
Internal Organization Files from 1934 through 1970 are arranged alphabetically and include annual meeting information, Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws, meeting minutes, news clippings, and data on litigation proceedings, such as several files on the case of Homer E. Evans vs. the Yakima Valley Grape Growers Association, 1953-1958, that include court briefs, correspondence, memoranda and original evidence presented.
Financial and Fiscal Data, 1934-1973, are arranged alphabetically by subject, and chronologically within each subject heading. Accounts receivable, advances to growers, collateral reports, certificates of indebtedness, crop grower ledgers, general ledgers, grower account sheets, inventories, payroll data, trade account sheets, trial balances, and violator lists are included in the Financial and Fiscal Data Series. In 1949 the association was reorganized and renamed, and records for the old corporation (the Yakima Valley Grape Growers Association) as well as for the new corporation (the Valley Grape Growers Association) are both in the same ledgers. This has been noted on the file folder titles. Bound volumes of data have been counted as one item. Undelivered stock, dividend checks, and letters (Folder 390) were randomly sampled and approximately 10 percent of the material was retained.
This collection is open for research use.
The correspondence files for 1970 through 1972 (folders 81-251) could not be used without permission until 10 years following the date of each individual folder, except that in no case could the restrictions extend past December 31,1982.
[Item Description]. Cage 368, Yakima Valley Grape Producers Records. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The records of the Yakima Valley Grape Producers were donated to the Washington State University Libraries by the organization through General Manager, Robert Thompson in September 1977 (77-57).
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.