Manuscripts Collection
Arthur Dwight Hyde was born at Pipestone, Minnesota in 1902. The family later moved to Illinois, where Hyde grew up. In 1928 he went to work in Minneapolis for General Mills, resigning in 1961 as an executive vice president. From 1961 to 1968 he was president of A. O. Smith Harvestore Products, Inc., a firm that manufactures metal silos.
In 1930 Hyde inherited a 440-acre farm south of Wilder and east of Heron Lake in Jackson County, Minnesota, which had been in his family since 1905. This property, which came to be known as Wilder Farms, was being farmed by tenants and managed by professionals in Minneapolis. In 1937 Hyde (with his business associate Eleanor C. Romhild) assumed management of the farm himself from his office in Minneapolis.
Wilder Farms was a cash grain operation until 1949 or 1950, when cattle feeding was begun. In 1952 Hyde formed Feeders, Inc., and the Wilder Farms properties were transferred to this corporate entity. The farm eventually grew to comprise more than 1500 acres and became a showcase for Harvestore brand silos. Around 1970 Hyde moved to Wilder Farms, building a new home for himself on the shores of Timber Lake.
In addition to Wilder Farms (its major subsidiary), the Feeders corporate umbrella also included several other subsidiary and related companies: Feeders of S. D., Inc.; ETOH Incorporated; and Daramac, Inc.
The collection documents the operation and management of a family farm corporation, and the growth and development of Wilder Farms from a relatively modest cash grain farm to a large mechanized farming and cattle feeding operation. It follows Hyde's growing involvement in the farm and its management, as well as his interest in innovations and new trends in agriculture.
The collection consists of financial records and subject files relating primarily to Feeders, Inc. and to Wilder Farms. It includes financial statements and corporate income tax returns, clippings, photographs, drainage systems maps, architectural and engineering drawings, invoices, receipts, correspondence, and memoranda. There is information about farm buildings and equipment, Harvestore silos, designing and installing drainage and irrigation systems, operating feedlots and raising beef cattle, insurance policies and coverages, farm managers and tenant farmers, and Hyde's operating partner Archie Forsberg. There are land acquisition and sales records, including an abstract of title with an appended document dating back to 1883. The bulk of the documents date from 1937 and beyond, the period of Hyde's active involvement in the operation and management of the farm.
There is information about a 1961 visit (sponsored by A. O. Smith Harvestore Products, Inc.) to Wilder Farms by a group of French farmers and businessmen, who came to inspect Hyde's Harvestore silos and automated cattle feeding system as a part of a larger American tour.
There is some information about Feeders subsidiaries: Feeders of S. D., Inc., which owned and operated a farming and cattle business near De Smet, South Dakota; ETOH Incorporated (Heron Lake, Minnesota), which was formed to construct and operate an anhydrous ethyl alcohol distillery (gasohol production plant) at Wilder Farms; and Daramac, Inc., which apparently was a hog-producing operation located at or adjacent to Wilder Farms. The records also include material about Hyde's personal finances and net worth.
Correspondence is scattered throughout the subject files. Correspondents include: Arthur D. Hyde; his son Maclay R. Hyde; Eleanor C. Romhild; lawyers; banks, particularly the First National Bank of Minneapolis and Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago; tenant farmers; property managers O. M. Corwin Company and the First Minneapolis Company; Barr Engineering Company; A. O. Smith Harvestore Products, Inc.; and officials (Hyde and Romhild) of Wilder Farms and ETOH incorporated.
These records are divided into the following three sections:
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should
Accession number: 14,804
Processed by: David B. Peterson, September 1994
Catalog ID number: 09-00038829
Includes federal returns, state returns, and work sheets.
Net worth, financial statements, cash flow, notes payable, notes receivable, general insurance, investment portfolio, real estate, and capital expenditures information for Feeders, Inc. and Daramac.
Includes financial statements and other information about Feeders, Inc., Wilder Farms, and A. D. Hyde's personal net worth.
Farm accounts and statements; bills, invoices, and receipts; record of corn purchases; records of cattle shipped to and butchered at packing plants; bank statements and account reconciliation sheets.
Includes Minnesota Farm Account books for farmers' use, prepared by the University of Minnesota Department of Agriculture and distributed by the University Farm Agriculture Bookstore. Books contain some comparative data from other farms in southern Minnesota.
Research paper by Arthur D. Hyde.
Includes some photographs.
Includes photographs.
Daramac, Inc. Farm.
Application submitted to the Farmers Home Administration for financial help in constructing a gasohol production plant at Wilder Farms.
Includes Hyde's testimony before the Minnesota Senate Committee on Agriculture.
A. D. Hyde.
Includes Feeders, Inc. statements of income and profit and loss, 1960-1964.
A group of some 100 French farmers, businessmen, and others visited Wilder Farms in the course of a tour of farms across the United States sponsored by A. O. Smith Harvestore Products, Inc., June 15 - July 5, 1961.
Includes photographs.
Includes some snapshot photographs.
Compiled by A. D. Hyde. Includes drainage system maps and feedlot diagrams.
Wilder Farms # 1.
Includes photographs and some slides.
Crop year 1943.
Crop year 1946.
Crop year 1941.
Offered for sale by Hoover Farm Real Estate Company.