The Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association grew out of the agricultural unrest of the 1880s in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Farmers who felt that they were being taken advantage of by merchants and brokers formed
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
s for buying implements and household supplies, and storing and selling crops. Many of these cooperatives in the state of
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
joined to form the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association. The association grew to include local cooperatives in other
Midwestern
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
states. The association sent delegates to the Southern
Farmers' Alliance
The Farmers' Alliance was an organized agrarian economic movement among American farmers that developed and flourished ca. 1875. The movement included several parallel but independent political organizations — the National Farmers' Alliance and ...
convention at
Ocala, Florida
Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida.
Home to ...
in December, 1890. After that, the association effectively became part of the Farmers' Alliance movement.
Fred G. Blood was an organizer with the FMBA prior to his election to the
Illinois House of Representatives
The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...
.
See also
Ocala Demands
The Ocala Demands was a platform for economic and political reform that was later adopted by the People's Party.
In December, 1890, the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, more commonly known as the Southern Farmers' Alliance, its a ...
References
*{{cite book, last1=Blackmar, first1=Frank W., title=Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. Vol. I, date=1912, publisher=Standard Publishing Co., location=Chicago, page=632, url=http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1912/f/farmers_mutual_benefit.html, accessdate=22 August 2014, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612124602/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1912/f/farmers_mutual_benefit.html, archivedate=June 12, 2013, chapter=Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association
Economic history of the United States