Title: Kenneth W. Hones Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1927-1959

Creator:

• Hones, Kenneth W., 1898-1972

Call Number: Mss 361; Tape 645A

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes) and 1 tape recording

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Kenneth Hones, president, 1933-1959, of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, including organizational records, correspondence, a tape of John Baker II's speech to the 1954 convention, convention and meeting records, financial records, membership lists, and publications of the Union; and correspondence and financial records of William E. Sanderson, WFU secretary-treasurer from 1930-1934, and administrative assistant to Congressman Merlin Hull, 1934-1952. Includes information on the WFU's youth program and Kamp Kenwood; on Communists in the Union, including a legal file concerning National Farmers Union Northeastern Division President Archie Wright, and correspondence from Fred Blair, Wisconsin State Chairman of the Communist Party; and material of the Committee for a Better Wisconsin Farmers Union, which opposed Hones' leadership.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00361

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Kenneth W. Hones was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and raised on the dairy farm near Colfax which he managed in his adult years. Hones joined his first local cooperative at age 18, and from this early period was a strong advocate of farmers' cooperatives. He first became active in the Farmers Union when he was elected as the first president of the Colfax local in 1928, before the issuance of the state charter.

The Northwest Organizing Committee of the National Farmers Union began grassroots organization in Wisconsin in 1927. Three years later the developing Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) received a charter from the national organization. Officially called the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Equity Union of America, Wisconsin Division, it advocated increased government support for farm programs, increased agricultural education, publicly owned utilities, especially for electrical power, a publicly controlled banking system, and a national system of accident and life insurance.

Two men rose quickly to prominence in the WFU: William E. Sanderson and Kenneth W. Hones. Sanderson, born August 17, 1902, in Dunn County, signed on as a Farmers Union member in 1927, joined the Dunn County local and became that chapter's secretary when it organized in 1930. That same year he was elected the first secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin chapter. He resigned this post in 1934 to become the administrative assistant to Congressman Merlin Hull, a position he held until his death in 1952. Throughout his Washington career, Sanderson maintained his ties with the WFU and worked for legislation embodying the goals of the organization.

Hones was a member of the 1930 Board of Incorporators which officially established the Wisconsin branch of the Farmers Union, he was elected that same year to the first state convention in Menomonie. Elected state president in 1933, Hones held that office until 1959 when he resigned. The single most important aim of the WFU, as he saw it, was to establish security for the family farmer. Also of great significance for his tenure as president of the WFU was the creation of the youth program, which culminated in 1951 in the construction of the youth summer camp, Kamp Kenwood, located on Lake Wissota. During the 1950's Hones and the Farmers Union, on a local and national level, became embroiled in the great “Red Scare.” Hones vehemently opposed the membership of any communists in the Farmers Union, and his efforts to purge communists from the WFU provoked much controversy and bitter political fights within the organization.

Hones' other activities included an appointment to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1934-1938; the secretaryship of the Colfax Co-op Creamery for eleven years; membership on the original board of directors of the Chippewa Farmers Union Co-op in 1947; and membership on the Federal Land Bank Board and the Board of the Production Credit Association. Hones died in Chippewa Falls on June 10, 1972.

The Kenneth W. Hones papers deal almost exclusively with the Wisconsin Farmers Union during the period of Hones' presidency, 1933 to 1959. They include organizational records, correspondence, minutes and speeches from state conventions and county meetings, a legal case file, financial records, membership lists, WFU publications, newspaper and periodical articles, and a few personal papers of William Sanderson. A tape recording of speeches from the Wisconsin Farmers Union conference held October 24, 1954 is also available.

The Organizational Records consist of the WFU constitution, by-laws, articles of incorporation, and correspondence relating to the founding of the Wisconsin Farmers Union. Included is the 1927 correspondence of the executive committee of the Northwest Division of the National Farmers Union concerning the foundation of a Wisconsin chapter. Also filed here are copies of the preamble to the WFU constitution, and revisions to the constitution down to 1954.

The WFU Correspondence file is separated into two sections. The first is correspondence of William E. Sanderson with the WFU, mainly from 1935 to 1937, though a few letters date to 1951. The larger body of the correspondence, however, is that of President Hones, covering the years 1945 to 1958. Most of Hones' file deals with organizational and leadership problems within the WFU. Of special importance is correspondence relating to the purge of communists from the WFU (including letters and circulars from Fred Blair, Wisconsin state chairman of the Communist Party) and correspondence dealing with the dissatisfaction of some WFU members with Hones' leadership.

The WFU meetings segment consists of minutes and speeches, 1936-1958. These are concentrated in the years 1948 to 1958 with a few pieces of earlier dates. Of special interest are the circulars and resolutions of the Committee for a Better Wisconsin Farmers Union, composed of the farmers dissatisfied with Hones' leadership.

The Legal Case File, 1946-1958, includes stenographic minutes of the United States District Court of New York containing testimony about the rumored Communist sympathies of Archie Wright, president of the North-eastern Division of the National Farmers Union. Also found here are documents pertaining to court suits brought against the Union, especially by members of the Committee for a Better Wisconsin Farmers Union.

The Financial Records are divided into two groups: those dealing with the National Farmers Union; and those dealing with the Wisconsin Farmers Union. In the national financial records are quarterly reports from December 31, 1957 and June 30, 1958, and an insurance report dating from roughly the first quarter of 1958. The fragmentary state financial records consist of only a few miscellaneous pieces of scattered dates, 1948 to 1958, which deal with local cooperatives and the Farmers Union Insurance Corporation.

In the file of Membership Lists there are two lists of WFU cooperatives, a list of the WFU local board members' names, and a list of delegates to the 29th annual convention of the Pure Milk Products Cooperative in 1958. The WFU Publications section contains assorted Wisconsin Farmers Union pamphlets, booklets, and educational materials with dates ranging from 1934 to 1957. Included are an informational booklet on the WFU correspondence course for youth; a printed booklet relating to Kamp Kenwood, the WFU summer youth camp; a photo album, with typed text, on Kamp Kenwood; and a series of miscellaneous printed or mimeographed pamphlets relating to the WFU and its concerns. Filed here is one pamphlet from the Committee for a Better Wisconsin Farmers Union.

The Newspaper and Periodical Articles, 1934-1959, are from a wide variety of printed sources. The articles fall basically into four categories: those relating to communism or alleged communist infiltration of the Farmers Union; those relating to William Sanderson's death in 1952; those dealing with the struggles between Hones and the Committee for a Better Wisconsin Farmers Union; and those dealing with Hones personally, including his retirement in 1959.

William E. Sanderson's Personal Papers, 1945-1950, include income tax returns and related personal correspondence. They provide a relatively complete picture of Sanderson's financial situation for the years indicated.

For further information on Kenneth W. Hones and the Wisconsin Farmers Union see the following sources held by the Archives Division of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin:

1. Blair, Fred Basset, papers and additions (Wis Mss WI; Mss 234)
2. Ellefson, Norval, interview and abstract, 1975 (Tape 551A; SC 1113)
3. Farmers Educational and Cooperative Equity Union of America, Wisconsin Division, Records (Mss 407); Minutes, reports, by-laws, conventions, audits (Micro 40); and Convention speeches (Tape 645A)
4. Farmers Union, interviews with Frank Karstens et al., 1963 (Tape 312A)
5. Gleiter, Lois Linse, interview and abstract, 1974 (Tape 586A)
6. Long, Jean Stillman, interview and abstract, 1974 (Tape 589A; SC 1115)
7. Sanderson, William Edward, papers (File 1940; File 1950) and in the John A. Becker papers (Wis Mss CO)
8. Segerstrom, Rangnar and Margaret, interview and abstract, 1976 (Tape 581A)
9. Uphoff, Mary Jo (accession number M75-194)

See also the following held by the Library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin:

1. Crompton, John Alvah. The National Farmers Union: A Study in the Resolution of Ideology and Practice. Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1958.
2. --------. The National Farmers Union; Ideology of a Pressure Group. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1965.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Kenneth W. Hones, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, July 27, 1971. Accession Number: M71-197

Processing Information

Processed by Paul Rood (Intern), Joanne Hohler, and Mark Shale, July 25, 1977.

Mss 361 Box   1 Folder   1	Organizational Records, 1927-1954
	WFU Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   2	William E. Sanderson, 1933-1951
Box   1 Folder   3-4	Kenneth W. Hones, 1945-1958
Box   1 Folder   5	WFU State Conventions and County Meetings, 1936-1958
Box   1 Folder   6	Legal Case File, 1946-1958
	Financial Records
Box   2 Folder   1	National Farmers Union, 1957-1958
Box   2 Folder   2	Wisconsin Farmers Union, 1948-1958
Box   2 Folder   3	Membership Lists, 1958 Scope and Content Note: Lists of union cooperatives and local boards, and of delegates to the 29th annual convention of the Pure Milk Products Cooperative, 1958.
Box   2 Folder   4	WFU Publications, 1934-1957
Box   2 Folder   5	Newspaper and Periodical Articles, 1934-1959
Box   2 Folder   6	William E. Sanderson Personal Papers, 1945-1950
Tape 645A	Recording of Wisconsin Farmers Union Conference, Madison, October 24, 1954 Note: Transcript of address of main speaker, John Baker II, is filed in box 1, folder 5, and also has been filmed as part of Micro 40, Farmers Educational and Cooperative Equity Union of America, Wisconsin Division Records.