Summary Information
Title: Farmer's Union Cooperative Shipping Association (Greenwood, Wis.) Records Inclusive Dates: 1929-1971
Creator: Farmer's Union Cooperative Shipping Association (Greenwood, Wis.)
Call Number: Eau Claire Mss AW
Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (3 archives boxes)
Repository: Housed at the Area Research Center, William D. McIntyre Library, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Library-Archives Division
Archival Locations: UW-Eau Claire McIntyre Library / Eau Claire Area Research Ctr.
Abstract: Records of a non-profit association which bought, sold, and transported livestock for its members, and which affiliated with the Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association in 1931. Included are minutes, correspondence, annual reports, auction sales records, tax returns, and other records.
Language: English
Search Terms/Subject Terms
- Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association
- Agriculture, Cooperative—Wisconsin
- Livestock—Wisconsin—Cooperative Marketing
- Greenwood (Wis.)
- Greenwood Shipping Association
Biography/History
The Farmer's Union Cooperative Shipping Association, known also as the Greenwood Shipping Association, was founded at Greenwood, Wisconsin, on December 3, 1929. Located in a small town in west-central Wisconsin, the co-op functioned as a non-profit association that bought, sold and transported livestock for its members. By 1931 it affiliated with the Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association, Milwaukee, to which it shipped livestock for sale. Equity opened regional markets, first for direct shipments to packers and later as auction markets. The Farmer's Union Cooperative shipped primarily to the Stratford and Altoona markets. These records best document the coop's part in Equity's auction marketing system.
In 1966 the members of the Farmer's Union Cooperative voted to join with other area sales co-ops that were members of Equity Cooperative to form the Equity Stratford Livestock Marketing Cooperative. The last meeting of the Farmer's Union Co-op, at which the directors determined what property and records to turn over to Equity Stratford, was recorded on January 28, 1967.
Scope and Content Note
The records primarily document the 1950s and early 1960s and are divided into three series: Administrative, Financial, and Published Material. Within the ADMINISTRATIVE series, the Record Book is the best source of history for the cooperative. Minutes from annual membership and quarterly directors meetings are recorded from the birth of the organization to its dissolution in 1966. The volume also provides an undated listing of members. Scattered documents comprise the Equity annual meetings file while clippings, correspondence and undated administrative documents, including a draft of bylaws, constitute the Miscellany file.
The Ledger in the FINANCIAL series is indexed and lists the expenses and income of the co-op from 1950 to 1966. The 1954 Federal Census of Business is a copy of the co-op's return. Composing the largest portion of this series are the Sales reports, records indicating the prices received for various types of livestock by individual farmers. They note at which auction the animal was sold as well as the association fees and other expenses deducted.
The Equity Livestock News Round-Up and the Wisconsin Council of Agriculture Cooperative Newsletter constitute the PUBLISHED MATERIAL series. The issues contained within the files are for scattered months during the years listed.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Acquisition Information
Presented by Ernest Elmer, Greenwood, Wisconsin, 1977. Accession Number: M77-267
Processing Information
Processed by Vivian Laflamme and Joanne Hohler, February 1983.
Contents List
| Series: Administrative | |
| Box/Folder 1/1 | Record book, 1929-1971 |
| Box/Folder 1/2 | State of Wisconsin, Secretary of State, annual report of co-operative associations, 1945, 1951-1955 |
| Box/Folder 1/3 | Annual report of domestic corporations, 1956-1965 |
| Box/Folder 1/4 | Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association, annual meetings, 1963, 1968-1969 |
| Box/Folder 1/5 | Miscellany, 1944-1966, undated |
| Series: Financial | |
| Box/Folder 1/6 | Ledger, 1950-1966 |
| Box/Folder 1/7 | Annual financial statements, 1933, 1935-1937, 1940- 1950, 1952-1966 |
| Box/Folder 1/8 | Exempt cooperative association income tax returns, federal, 1943-1945, 1947-1960 |
| Box/Folder 1/9 | Employer's quarterly federal tax returns, 1953-1954, 1958-1959 |
| Box/Folder 1/10 | 1954 census of business, federal |
| Box/Folder 1/11 | Members who sold livestock at Altoona and Stratford markets, ca. 1963 |
| Box/Folder 1/12 | Association fees, 1963-1964, 1966 |
| Sales reports | |
| Box/Folder 1/13 | November, 1953 |
| Box/Folder 1/14-15 | December 1957; January 1958 |
| Box/Folder 2/1-3 | January, March 1961; January, November 1962; 1963 |
| Box/Folder 3/1-3 | 1964-1966 |
| Series: Published Material | |
| Box/Folder 2/4 | Equity Livestock News Round-Up, 1963-1966, 1971 |
| Box/Folder 2/5 | Wisconsin Council of Agriculture Co-operative Newsletter, 1963-1965 |