Processed by: Archives Staff ; machine-readable finding aid created by:Eric Weig
Burley tobacco cooperatives records
1904-1923
University of Kentucky Special CollectionsLexington, Kentucky 40506
Organized by name of cooperative: Burley Tobacco Growers Company, Kentucky Tobacco Redrying Company, Burley Loose Leaf Tobacco Sales Association, Burley Tobacco Society, Burley Tobacco and Insurance Company, Strater Brothers branch, Burley Tobacco Company, Inc. Arranged thereunder by assigned numbers.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Burley tobacco cooperatives records, 1904-1923, 1M47M62, Special Collections, University of Kentucky.
4 cubic ft. (66 packages, 430 pieces in 10 boxes) 100 vols.
The Burley Tobacco Society was founded under the auspices of the American Society of Equity in the "Burley belt" of Kentucky in the early years of the twentieth century to combat the tobacco trusts which controlled prices. Under the moderate leadership of Clarence Le Bus, a tobacco grower from Cynthiana, Ky, it was able to bring its members temporary relief from low prices. In 1910, the Society formed the Burley Tobacco and Insurance Company for the purpose of manufacturing, marketing and insuring the tobacco crops of its members. At the height of its activities, the Company owned 17 warehouses and the Strater Brothers tobacco factory in Louisville, Ky, which manufactured several brands of chewing and smoking tobacco. By 1923, the Company had divested itself of its storage facilities, sold its manufacturing interests to the R. J. Reynolds Company, and been dissolved.
The collection includes materials from the Burley Tobacco Growers Company, the Kentucky Tobacco Redrying Company, the Burley Loose Leaf Tobacco Sales Association, the Burley Tobacco Society, the Burley Tobacco and Insurance Company and the Strater Brothers Tobacco Company branch of the Burley Tobacco Company, Inc. It contains articles of incorporation, minutes of boards of directors' and stockholders' meetings, stock registers, cash books, general daily statement books, purchase and stock ledgers, leaf purchases books, warehouse receipt books, a record of averages paid for various grades of tobacco sold at the Lexington warehouse of the Burley Tobacco Company, shipping records, storage ledgers, credit journals, bank books, letterbooks, etc, covering the period from 1909-1923.