In 1902, Alabama native Isaac Newton "Newt" Gresham was a Rains County farmer and newspaper editor. Wanting to help local farmers organize to benefit from farm prices, he called a meeting in a nearby barn that summer. With an initial membership of ten neighbors, the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America was founded. At first a secret organization, the idea soon spread throughout the South and West, and the union eventually became a national organization. Gresham and his wife, Ida May, were the parents of four children.