The History ofIllinois FarmersUnion

The Illinois Farmers Union officially became a part of the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America during a meeting in March 28, 1907 but it had its roots in several organizations that dated back more than 20years. The predecessor organizations included:

·         The Farmers Mutual Benefit Associating (FMBA)., established in the southern part of the state in 1886, operated effectively for several years and then dwindled in importance until 1901 when it started new growth.

·         The Farmers Social and Economic Union, which was established on April 27, 1900, was chartered by the state on May 17 the following year.

·         The Farmers Relief Association formed in southernIllinois and enjoyed solid membership growth.

·       The American Society of Equity, which was established in 1902 and existed as both a farm origination and as a creator of farm cooperatives inIllinois and adjacent states. The American Society of Equity merged with National Farmers Union in 1920.

·         The Farm Social and Economic Union was organized as a result of an election at a form Grange Hall in April, 1900. The hall was being used a s place for meeting s and elections inSomerset Township inJackson County.

This latter group led directly to formations of the Farmers Union inIllinois. A Participant at theSomerset Township meeting complained that fa5rmers were victims of the economic “trusts”” that controlled their fate. W.D. Crews, a farmer and a high school teacher, suggested that farmers create a trust of their own. A second meeting was scheduled at theBrush Creek School to talk about a farmers’ trust. A.J. Cross, who was presiding at the session, appointed Crews and an active workers I the FMBA, Charles Piper, to explore whether an existing farm organization would suite the needs of the Illinois farmers and report within two weeks.

Crews and Piper mad ea number of contacts by letter but found no appropriate group and recommended that theIllinois farmers start a new organization. Their report was received at a meeting on April 27 at theBrush Creek School, where Crews was a teacher. Crews suggested the name and emblem, the four-leaf clover for the new organization. A total of 46 members from five townships became the organization’s original founders electing A.J. Cross as president, E.B. Hunter as vice president, Jacob Miller as secretary, Piper as business agent and Crews as organizer.

Six township units, later know as Locals, were soon organized and theJackson County organization was created. Organizing work then spread to nearbyWilliamson County and others adjacent areas. Early in 1901, the Illinois State Union was organized and membership work spread into neighboringMissouri and Indiana. By autumn of 1902, the state unions ofIllinois,Missouri andIndiana were merged into a “Temporary National Union”, known as Farmers Union, with headquarters established at Murphysboro.

A newspaper was established to be the official organ of the Movement in late 1902. The newspaper was named the Union Farmers, and Crews was designated to edit it. He did this for 12 years form 1902-1914, It is believed that there was some early exchanged of newspapers and communications in September 1902 between the Illinois-based group and the leaders of the Farmers Education and Cooperative Union of America inTexas. That would explain how the two groups developed along similar paths.

In April 1906, the Farmers Social and Economic Union, the Farmers Relief Association and the Farmers Mutual Benefit Association consolidated under the Farmers Union name. W.A. Bain of Franklin County, Illinois, was elected president of the combined unit. Bain appointed a committee to explore a merger with National Farmers Union. Immediately, the new unit sent a delegation of three officials to the National Farmers Union’s convention atTexarkana in September 1906, asking that theIllinois group be allowed to merger. The NFU convention authorized the President and the national board to investigate their quest and to act if they regarded it proper. The national board made a favorable report in and a meeting was held at Marion,Illinois, on March 27-28 to achieve the merger.

A.H.  Evans was chosen the first president of the Illinois Division of NFU, with Bain as vice president and E. B Hunter as secretary. They would be reelected in each of the next two state conventions.

In the 1920’s, when the National Farmers Union was seeking passage of the Capper-Volstead Act and other legislations allowing farmers-owned Cooperatives a stronger voice in marketing, the Illinois farmers were working a parallel path with state statutes. Following enactment of Cooperative Marketing Act of 1923 by the Illinois Legislature, Illinois Farmers Union developed a farm marketing agreement under which it would serve as the principal selling agent for the producer., The 3,500-word contract with the farmer “appoints the Union his sole agent and the Union agrees to act as such for the purpose of handling and marketing all of the producer’s merchantable grain, livestock , poultry and dairy products…for the period of ten years.”

The document further stipulated that “the producer hereby agrees to deliver to the Union or to such local livestock shipping association, produce exchange, grain elevator, or other local agencies, as may be designated by theUnion for marketing by it. All of the farm products, produced by or for him during the term of this agreement.”

From the distance of nearly 80 years, the Illinois Farmers union contract appears to have been ahead of tits time. In many regards, it sought to do contractually the first-state marketing now conducted by the National Farmers Organization (NFO) with support from Farmers Union members. On another level, the contract addresses historic problems for cooperative enterprises in spelling out delivery right and delivery obligations for both the producer and for the marketing firm. In the latter regard, it was similar to New Generation Cooperative ventures the National FarmersUnion has helped start in the 1990’s and first few years of the decade that achieves the same goals through closed memberships.

The original Contract provided for the Farmers Union to sell commodities,” at the best price obtainable… and to pay over to the amounts received thereby as payments in full to the producer” after deducting the cost of doing business. At the end of each year, and surplus remained after costs were to be returned to producers in proportion to the volume of products delivered.

In effect, the Illinois Farmers Union had a cooperative marketing scheme that would have created a farmers trust right under the legs of big markets inChicago. But the quest for market power caused Farmers Union organizers to set too high a standard. The contract was to become operable when 55 percent of the producer in a give area, or market, enrolls in the marketing contract, a goal never reached.

Illinois Farmers Union was one of eight state Farmers Unions organizations in 1925 to join in the Corn Belt Committee of farm organizations that was formed atDes Moines,Iowa. The first Illinois Farmers union official o gain status as an officer in the National Farmers Union was Edward E. Kennedy ofKankakee. Kennedy became NFU’s National secretary in 1931 after having spent 14 years in the Farmers Union inIowa andIllinois. He held ever office in the Farmers Union except that of state or national president.

Kennedy came into the national picture at a time when the organization was severely split, with a majority opposing the Federal Farm Board and intimately, the New Deal efforts to combat the depression in agriculture. Instead, Kennedy and his backers inIllinois were aligned with the Cost-of-production approach to farm legislation, while a substantial minority was favorable to the Roosevelt Administration and the Farmers National Grain Cooperation created by the Federal Farm Board. The faction Kennedy joined included NFU President John A. Simpson,Iowa’s Milo Reno, and Simpson’s successor, Edward H. Everson ofSouth Dakota.

An effective spokesman and skilled writer, Ed Kennedy became managing editor of the National Union Farmer, in 1934. He expounded the programs of Farmers Union vigorously and game large amounts of space in the newspaper to full reprints of speeches given by E. H. Everson, himself, and other Farmers Union officials.

Illinois was host to the NFU convention for the first time on November 19-20, 1935. IT was held atKankakee, the home of Community of Secretary Kennedy.Illinois would host another national conventions inSpringfield, in 1959, andChicago in 1965

As theRoosevelt farm programs became effective, the Everson Kennedy-Reno attitude lost favor with rank and file farmers in the mid 1930’s, but rhetoric against the New Deal became even bitterer. In the 1936 presidential election campaign Kennedy endorsed the third party candidacy of Senator William Lemke ofNorth Dakota. At the same time, Kennedy was a strong adherent of Father Coughlin and his anti-Semitic message on radio that overshowed the Lemeke Campaign. 

Kennedy was left out of step with the mainstream public and with Farmers Union members when FDR won the 1936 election in a landslide, losing onlyVermont andMain and with Electoral College votes to Senator Alfred Landon Lemeke and other splinter party candidates were not a factor in the election.

The 1936 NFU convention elected James Graves ofOklahoma to succeed Kennedy. The pro-New Deal states in the Northwest did not challenge Everson in 1936, but there were able to replace him with NFU Vice President John Vesecky in 1937. The split in Farmers Union so seriously injured the organization  that membership inIndiana andIllinois dropped below charter requirements in 1938. Some of the few remaining members in the two state aligned themselves with Kennedy’s attempt to promote a Farmers Guild organization.

A nucleus of few counties continued in the Farmers Union during the 1940’s inIllinois andIndiana. The appointment of Ezra Taft Benson as Secretary of Agriculture by incoming President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 sparked fears of terminating the federal farm programs. The prospect created a climate favorable for Farmers Union resurgence in theCorn Belt states.

Tony T. Dechant, NFU secretary, combined withWashington bus trip for members with organizational efforts and hadIllinois, Indiana Utah, and Virginia ready for chartering in 1954. When the chartering Convention was held in September that year inSpringfield, Ralph Brady of Anna was elected state president, Irving Phillips was elected vice president, and Joe Callahan was elected chairman of the board of directors.

Bradley established a state headquarters inSpringfield and continued in that office until 1961. He was at that time a member of the NFU executive committee. Incoming Governor, Otto Kerner appointed Bradley as State Commissioner of Agriculture.

Joseph Martin of Buckley, a long-time worker in the Farmers Union, was elected to fill out the unexposed term.  John W. Rees, who had severed briefly as Illinois Farmers Union executive secretary, was elected state president in 1962. Rees had spearheaded the drive to get final and complete separation of the Extension Service from Farm Bureau officials. Rees was also among the 127 farm leaders from 50 organizations that participated in the Farm Leaders Conference inSt. Louis,Missouri. Farmers Association. Rees was a member of NFU’s feed grains subcommittee that worked with Secretary Orville Freeman in developing that segment of the 1962 Farm Bill.

Ray Watson served as state president during the last half of the 1960s decade. He also served on USDA advisory units during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. Watson let the effort to expand Farmers Union Membership and stressed the importance of stronger support levels for soybeans and feed grains.

Harold Dodd of Laomi became state president in t1974. He became a member of the NFU Executive Committee in 1980, vice chairman of that committee in 1983, and chairman in 1986. As chairman, he was called upon each year to present major testimony for NFU inWashington on Capitol Hill.

TheIllinois organizations has been led during the past decade by John Little, who was elected state president in 1990, Larry Quandt, who was president from 1993-2003, Gordon Stine.of whom presided from 2003-2006 and our current president Bryan Sharp

 
 
 

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