As a co-operative company, the Manitoba Wheat Pool and later the Manitoba Pool Elevators was member controlled. In order to run the company successfully members needed to be educated and kept updated about the companies financial and organizational situation. Annual reports were one of the many ways the Pool tried to do this. See fonds level description of RG 4 for complete history/bio of MPE.
Scope and Content
Sub-series MPE B.7 consists of annual reports. There are two complete sets of annual reports, one for archival storage and one for use by researchers. Neither set contains a report for 1931. Reports from 1926 until 1928 are Manitoba Co-operative Wheat Producers, Ltd. Reports, 1929 - 1930 are Manitoba Wheat Pool Reports. All reports subsequent to 1931 are Manitoba Pool Elevators.
Archival set: (1) Bound Copies, MPE Annual Reports Vol. 1 1926 - 1949; MPE Annual Reports Vol. 2 1950 - 1959; MPE Annual Reports 1960 - 1969; (2) Individual MPE Annual Reports 1970 - 1998
Reserch set: Individual MPE Annual Reports 1926 - 1930, 1932 - 1998
C. J. Barnes was born in Brandon, Manitoba in February 1884. His parents were native Nova Scotians who arrived in Brandon in the early 1880s. In 1884, the family settled on a homestead near the present town of Lauder. This homestead was sold in 1899, and the family moved to farm in the district of Medora. C. J. Barnes took over the operation of this farm in the early 1900s. He farmed until 1924. Barnes was educated in schools in the Truro School District and the village of Lauder. He was active in the original Territorial Grain Growers' Association.
Custodial History
This fonds was accessioned by the McKee archives in 1997. Prior custodial history is unknown.
Scope and Content
Fonds contains a pamphlet written and published by C.J. Barnes titled Seventy Years in Southwestern Manitoba. The pamphlet contains an account of life in rural southwestern Manitoba from the 1880s through to the 1940s. The pamphlet is based on a variety of sources including diaries written by Mr. Barnes' father. Fonds also includes some hand-drawn maps not included in the published version of the pamphlet, as well as four letters c.1962, between C.J. Barnes and Rev. Robert Harvey in his capacity as a columnist for the Brandon Sun.
