Tri-State Tobacco Growers Association
Administrative History
The Tri-State Tobacco Growers Association was formed in 1921 as a cooperative of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina tobacco farmers in response to the falling prices for their crop following World War I. In joining the cooperative, farmers contracted to send their crops to the association, which would, in turn, grade, redry and sell the tobacco to manufacturers. At its peak, the cooperative boasted more than 90,000 farmers among its membership. The cooperative folded in 1925, largely due to membership dissatisfaction with the service.
Sydney D. Frissell served as the publicity officer for the Tri-State Tobacco Growers Association and was also a graduate student in rural social economics at the University of North Carolina, where he made a study of cooperative marketing.
Research locates an instructor of sociology named B. D. Tillett at the University of Georgia in 1936. In that year, Tillett was appointed an associate professor in the university's Department of Rural Organization and Markets. He seems likely to have been the Boone Dowdy Tillett who received a master's degree in agricultural economics at North Carolina State University in 1924, with the thesis "Development and Marketing of Tobacco."
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Tri-State Tobacco Growers Association Study
This collection contains a typescript draft of a study and history of the Tri-State Tobacco Growers Association, written by S. D. Frissell and B. D. Tillett, including general background history of tobacco and agricultural cooperative efforts, together with research data on tobacco farming statistics.