The Papers of Fred Stover document Stover's long career as an outspoken liberal farm and peace activist. Most of the materials in the collection consist of Stover's long train of correspondence, to and from fellow farmers, union members, and (especially in later years) political and social leftists. One box of the correspondence consists of a selection of letters and articles written to Stover in his capacity as editor of U.S. Farm News. Various speeches and addresses made by Stover are also included in the collection. Series II of the collection deals with the various organizations with which Stover was involved over the years: the Iowa Farmers Union (both during and after its connection with the National Farmers Union), the parallel farm organizations Iowa Farmers Association and U.S. Farmers Association, and the Progressive Party (of which Stover was an important and visible figure during its formative years in the late 1940s). Many of Stover's writings are in draft form. Stover had a tendency to dash off drafts of letters, speeches and articles on the backs of envelopes, to leave them undated or untitled, and often to leave it unclear whether the item in question was, in fact, an article, a speech, a letter, or something else altogether. These drafts have been collected here but are only arranged roughly, by date when the date can be determined. Other materials in the collection include material relating to Stover's pre-union career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, assorted photographs and audiovisual materials, and photocopies of documents from Stover's FBI file, which were obtained by Des Moines Register reporter Thomas Knudson in the 1980s. Historical Note: The development of the various farm organizations with which Stover was involved can seem complicated at times. In 1917 the state of Iowa chartered a branch - the Iowa Division - of the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union (aka the National Farmers Union). The NFU was founded in 1902 as a populist grassroots agricultural movement, devoted to giving smaller farmers a political and economic voice. It was a progressive, consistently left-of-center group, albeit with conservative pockets. Throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s the NFU was a firm supporter of New Deal programs and other progressive legislation designed to provide farmers with economic opportunities such as price parity. It strove to protect small farms from increased corporate farm expansion. The FECU - Iowa Division (aka the Iowa Farmers Union) - under the leadership of Fred Stover broke with the national organization in the early 1950s over tensions produced by the Cold War. The increasingly conservative, pro-government stance of the NFU under President James G. Patton was strenuously opposed by Stover and his defiantly progressive, New Dealer, anti-Korean War IFU. In 1952 Stover broke away from the NFU and incorporated a new, leftist agricultural movement, later called the Iowa Union Farmer Association. In February 1960 this group officially changed its name to the U.S. Farmers Association. At the same time, Stover attempted to maintain control over the original IFU. In March 1954 the national organization revoked the IFU's charter, and Stover struggled with the NFU over rights to the organization and its name. He claimed that as a corporation chartered by the state of Iowa, the NFU had no authority to dissolve the Iowa Farmers Union. A court case was instituted by the NFU in 1955, and Stover lost the right to use the name "Iowa Farmers Union" or its original logo. In November 1955, the IFU changed its name officially to the Iowa Farmers Union. It changed again in October 1959 to become the Iowa Fraternal Union. At the group's September 1962 convention the members voted to change the name once more, to the Iowa Farmers Association. The IFA operated in tandem with the U.S. Farmers Association, sharing membership, dues, and an official journal, the U.S. Farm News.

5/2008: 8 boxes (8.0 linear feet) deaccessioned and transferred to Iowa State University: all IFU-related materials

8/2008: MsC 220 (Fred Stover Progressive Party Papers) deaccessioned and integrated into MsC 165.

AV materials moved to IRA Cool Storage

Iowa Farmers Union Twenty-Third Annual Convention photograph is in Map Case 13, Drawer 17.jlr