EXCELSIOR FRUIT GROWERS ASSOCIATION:

The Excelsior Fruit Growers Association was first organized in 1900 as a voluntary cooperative association for the marketing of fruit, and was incorporated in 1913. Stock was issued and each member was required to have at least one share. The Association maintained branches in Excelsior and Hopkins, Minnesota.

Changes in the state laws governing cooperatives brought about a revision and updating of the articles of incorporation and bylaws in 1934. This was also done in 1945 when the state laws were again changed.

There was a big increase in fruit growing in the years immediately following World War II, but in the decade of the 1960s metropolitan expansion had taken up so much of the land on which fruit had been grown that business decreased and the Association began operating at a loss. The corporation was formally dissolved in 1969. A complete history of the Fruit Growers Association is filed in the first folder of Box 1.

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Correspondence, minute books, annual and financial reports, grower and customer lists, tax returns, legal documents, stock certificates, ledgers, journals, and records of fruit receipts and sales, primarily 1934-1969, of a fruit-marketing cooperative in Excelsior and Hopkins. The correspondence includes discussions of marketing problems, especially World War II sugar rationing and price controls.

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The records are organized in four series:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Prefered Citation:

[Indicate cited item and/or series here]. Excelsior Fruit Growers Association Records. Minnesota Historical Society. See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 11,241; 993-100

Processing Information:

Processed by: Bonnie B. Palmquist, May 1995

Catalog ID number: 1718210

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The correspondence pertains entirely to the business of the Association, the marketing of fruit raised by its members. It also discusses the problems connected with marketing, particularly during World War II when sugar rationing and price controls resulted in a heavy correspondence with government agencies as well as with senators and representatives from Minnesota.

On these questions, there are letters from the following: Henrik Shipstead, 1941, 1942; Joseph Ball, 1941, 1942, 1947; Walter Judd, 1943; Edward Thye, 1945; Eugene McCarthy, 1965 (on minimum wages for farm workers); William A. Pittenger, 1941, 1945; Oscar Youngdahl, 1942; Harold Knutson, 1942; August H. Andreson, 1942, 1943, 1947; Clark MacGregor, 1965 (on minimum wage); W. E. Hustleby, District Director of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1941; Prentiss M. Brown, Administrator of the Office of Price Administration, 1943; Chester Bowles, Administrator of the Office of Price Administration, 1945; Lotus Coffman, President of the University of Minnesota, 1936.

Mention is also made of fruit freezing (1945) and the use of carbon dioxide to improve the shipping quality of fruit (1937). Two certificates of copyright for labels for crates of strawberries and raspberries are dated August 15, 1940. There are also lists of stockholders, customers, and growers (1913-1968).

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The minute books document the Association's board meetings and provide evidence of the Association's management decisions. Articles of association are included within the first volume. The second volume contains an amended version of the Association's articles.

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The accounting and financial records provide detailed data on daily receipts and fruit shipments. There are no accounting records prior to 1913, and very few between 1913 and 1932. A new system of bookkeeping was set up in 1934, and records are quite complete thereafter and include audit reports (1932-1961); operating statements (1910-1934); annual reports (1949-1968); cash books and journals (1930-1968); sales journals (1932-1968); daily growers receipts (1931-1942); daily sales reports (1931-1960) and ledgers (1916-1968). The ledgers include a customer ledger (1960-1967), a growers ledger (1959-1968), two bound volumes of general ledgers (1916-1934), and unbound general ledger sheets (1958-1968).

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The miscellaneous legal records include deeds to property, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and dissolution papers (undated, 1900-1969). Other materials included within this series are annual reports to the United States Department of Agriculture (1949-1968), federal and state income tax returns (1943-1968), growers contracts (1925-1966), cancelled stock certificates (1913-1969), and one bound stock certificate record book listing certificate numbers, valuation, and stockholder names (1913-1968). The contracts are further arranged by branch office and alphabetically by grower therein.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Agricultural wages -- Minnesota.

Cooperative marketing of farm produce -- Minnesota.

Fruit -- Cooperative marketing -- Minnesota.

Fruit Trade.

Price regulation.

Rationing -- United States.

Sugar.

Places:

Hopkins (Minn.).

Excelsior (Minn.).

Documentation:

Corporation records.

Stock certificates.

Tax returns.

Persons:

Andreson, August H. (August Herman), 1980-1958.

Ball, Joseph H. (Joseph Hurst), 1905-1993.

Bowles, Chester, 1901-1986.

Coffman, Lotus Delta, 1875-1938.

Judd, Walter H., 1898-1994.

Knutson, Harold, 1880-1953.

McCarthy, Eugene Joseph, 1916-2005.

MacGregor, Clark, 1922- .

Pittenger, William Alvin, 1885-1951.

Shipstead, Henrik, 1881-1960.

Thye, Edward John, 1896-1969.

Youngdahl, Oscar Ferdinand, 1893-1946.

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