Ten Rains County Neighbors Started a Farmers' Union

Isaac Newton "Newt" Gresham arrived in Rains County in early 1902 as both a farmer and a newspaper editor. He took over the Point Times, but his larger project began with nine neighbors. On August 28, the ten men founded the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America.

His goal was practical. Farmers could join forces on prices and other money problems. Party fights, he believed, should stay out of the group. The union made him its general organizer. In 1903 he moved to Emory and started the Farmers' Union Password, the group's official newspaper.

A national convention met in December 1905 and made Gresham national organizer. He died the following April while his work was carrying him across the South. A monument was unveiled at Point in 1907.

Today a historical marker stands at Lone Star Cemetery on County Road 4525, one mile northwest of Point. It fixes a national farm movement to a small Rains County place: ten neighbors, one organizer, and a newspaper voice that reached well past the county line.