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Ralph C. Lasbury, Jr.
Collection:
The Shade Tobacco
Growers Agricultural Association
Windsor
Historical Society
96
Palisado Avenue, Windsor, CT 06095
©
2005 Windsor Historical Society
Creator:
Lasbury, Ralph C., Jr.
Dates:
1943-1984
Extent:
5.5 linear feet
Accession #:
1983.36, 1984.62
Location:
Document Storage shelf 3D and 3E
Biographical
Ralph C. Lasbury, Jr. was born September 4,
1906, in the Broad Brook section of East Windsor,
Connecticut. He was the second child of Ralph C. Lasbury
and Eloise Thrall. Lasbury Senior was one of Connecticut’s
important broadleaf tobacco growers. At one point, he had
500 acres of broadleaf growing.
As a young boy, Ralph C. Lasbury, Jr. worked
tobacco every summer. After high school, he went to Rollins
College in Winter Park, Florida. He then worked for his
father at the South Windsor Tobacco Company.
In the early 1930’s, Mr. Lasbury worked for
Henry Trumbull in Plainville, Connecticut. He developed a
type of humus for tobacco beds and received much praise from
the shade tobacco growers.
In 1939, he was appointed as the first Chairman
of the Connecticut Marketing Authority in Hartford. He held
that position until 1978. The Connecticut Regional Market
in Hartford was one of his major accomplishments.
Mr. Lasbury was appointed to the Farm Labor
Committee of the State Defense Council in 1941. He and a
number of tobacco men, including William S. Fuller, Albert
Newfield, Lamarr Monroe, and Charles Huntington, developed a
code of standards for tobacco workers. Hours, housing, and
sanitary conditions were included in the unprecedented code.
On November 30, 1942, Mr. Lasbury was hired as
Executive Director of the Shade Tobacco Growers Agricultural
Association. The first offices were established at 148
State Street in Hartford, Connecticut.
One of his first duties was to develop a
workable labor program. His program included the
establishment of attractive youth camps, adult guidance
proposals, and a “day-haul” system so that local teachers
and students could earn extra money. Also, many corrective
regulations were drawn up. These became the basis for the
Farm Labor Law of 1947.
Mr. Lasbury’s job as spokesman for the tobacco
growers brought him to the State Legislature. He also went
to Washington to participate in Congressional hearings on
tobacco labor and production problems.
One of Mr. Lasbury’s proficiencies was his
public relations work. He and the Association produced a
documentary film on shade tobacco. The film served as a
teaching tool for the public and the sales people of the
cigar industry.
The 1960’s saw more contributions by Mr. Lasbury
to the industry. He established the first state licensed
hospital in the United States for migrant agricultural
workers. In 1968, Senator Harrison Williams of New Jersey
inspected the Windsor Labor Camp and said that the
association’s operation was the “most enlightened” of any
employer group he had seen in the country.
In 1968, Mr. Lasbury retired. Upon Lasbury’s
retirement, Gerrit Krot, president of the Shade Tobacco
Growers Agricultural Association, said that “no man in
contemporary American agriculture contributed more to the
industry’s welfare.”
Besides his work in the Association, he had many
other interests. Lasbury was the first president of the
Connecticut Morgan Horse Club. He served as a director of
the Connecticut Antiquarian and Landmarks Society. He was
an avid trout fisherman and fox hunter and collected antique
duck decoys.
Ralph C. Lasbury, Jr. died of a heart attack on
March 18, 1979, in Winter Park, Florida. He was 72. When
he died, he left his wife, Cecilia Chase Lasbury; two sons,
Ralph C. Lasbury and Joshua C. Lasbury; and two daughters,
Cecilia Johnson and Abigail Fitzgerald.
Scope
and Contents
The
collection documents a significant portion of the
professional activities of Ralph C. Lasbury, Jr. over a
period of fifty years as the head of Connecticut regional
agricultural marketing and employer groups. Minutes,
correspondence, reports, leases, fiscal reports, copies of
state legislative activities, and newspaper articles
document the establishment, opening, and operation of the
Connecticut Regional Market, a venue for the sale of
Connecticut agricultural commodities. It also contains
minutes, correspondence, membership lists, reports, and
negotiations on behalf of the British West Indies Employers’
Association. Lasbury represented the interests of tobacco
growers, traveled extensively for the Association’s
executive committee, and met regularly with Caribbean
governmental officials.
Arrangement
Each
series and folder is arranged chronologically. Folders in
Series II are also marked with an earlier sequential
numbering system that is independent of the current Box and
Folder numbers.
Series
I. Regional Marketing Authority and Connecticut Marketing
Authority, 1943-1966
Series
II. British West Indies Employers’ Association, 1951-1969
Series
III. Regional Labour Board and British West Indies
Employers’ Association joint meetings, 1970-1983
Series
IV. Personal correspondence, 1946-1948, 1983-1984
Series
V. Photographs, 1944-1952
Box
and Folder Lists
Series I. Regional Marketing Authority and Connecticut
Marketing Authority, 1943-1966 (File E)
1.1 1943-1945
1.2 1946
1.3 1947
1.4 1948
1.5 1948 cont’d
1.6 1948 cont’d
2.1 1949
2.2 1949 cont’d
2.3 1950
2.4 1950 cont’d
2.5 1950 cont’d
3.1
1951
3.2
Publicity on opening Nov. 16, 1952
3.3
1952
3.4
1953
4.1
1954
4.2
1955
4.3
1956
4.4
1957
4.5
1958
4.6
1959-1960
5.1
1961
5.2
1962
5.3
1963
5.4
1964
5.5
1965-1966
Series II. British West Indies Employers’ Association,
1951-1969 (File D)
6.1
B.W.I. Employers’ Association, membership list, 1958
and 1963
6.2
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, miscellaneous
correspondence to and from members, 1951-1952
6.3
B.W.I. Central Labour Organisation, correspondence to
and from Harry Edwards
6.4
Jamaican trip, R.C.L. work papers and expense
account, Feb.-Mar. 1951
6.5
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, miscellaneous
correspondence, 1951-1960
6.6
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, William Meranda,
Transporation Representative
6.7
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, minutes of the
organizational meeting, Nov. 5, 1951
6.8
Meeting of Employers of B.W.I. workers, Beaver Dam,
Wisconsin, Sept. 14-15, 1951
7.1 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, R.C.L. work folder
and meeting, Jamaica, Dec. 1951
7.2 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, publicity for
meeting in Jamaica [1951]
7.3 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, 2nd
regular meeting material, Feb. 4-8, 1952
7.4 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, 3rd
regular meeting material, list of members and Negotiating
Committee, April 20-22, 1952
7.5 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, R.C.L. work folder,
Feb. 1952
7.6 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, 4th
regular meeting, Sept. 8-9, 1952
7.7 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, meeting expenses and
bills, 1952
7.8 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, Jamaica, Nov. 29,
1952
7.9 Resort Airlines, Inc., miscellaneous letters to
Civil Aeronautics Board, 1952
7.10 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, 5th
meeting, Jan. 1953
7.11 B.W.I. material, 1953
7.12 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, 6th
meeting, Washington, D.C., April 9-10, 1953
7.13 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, Beaver Dam,
Wisconsin, Aug. 25-29, 1953
7.14 Reception for B.W.I. officials, Oct. 13, 1953
7.15 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, meeting, Washington,
D.C., Nov. 23-24, 1953
7.16 Jamaican Gleaner (Royal Supplement): Queen
Elizabeth’s visit, Dec. 1953
8.1 B.W.I. Regional Labour Board and Employers’
Committee meeting, Barbados, Feb. 22, 1954
8.2 B.W.I. trip, miscellaneous materials, Feb. 1954
8.3 R.C.L. work folder, B.W.I. Work agreement, 1954
8.4 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., April 25-27, 1954
8.5 Predesignated workers – argument with Jamaica,
April 1954
8.6 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee conference with Hon.
Bustamante, New York, June 10, 1954
8.7 William A. Bustamante, Chief Minister, visit to
Connecticut, June 15, 1954
8.8 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, Aug. 26-27, 1954
8.9 B.W.I. Regional Labour Board meeting, Washington,
D.C., Nov. 15, 1954 and Kingston, Jamaica, Jan. 10-12, 1955
8.10 Proposed B.W.I. agreement: Florida Fruit and
Vegetable Growers and Shade Tobacco Growers Agricultural
Association, Inc., 1955
8.11 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., April 13-14, 1955
8.12 Party to meet: Hon. Florizel A. Glasspole, Charles
Greaves Hill, Harry F. Edwards, April 30, 1955
8.13 B.W.I. Employers’ meeting, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin,
Sept. 1, 1955
8.14 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., Nov. 29-30, 1955
8.15 Miscellaneous correspondence, 1955-1959
8.16 Miscellaneous material from Jamaican trip, Jan.
6-14, 1956
8.17 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., April 24-25, 1956
8.18 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, Aug. 22-24, 1956
8.19 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Jamaica, Jan.
1956 [out of date sequence]
8.20 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., Dec. 6-7, 1956
9.1
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Jamaica, Jan. 6,
1957
9.2
Thank you notes for Regional Labour Board meeting,
1957
9.3
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., April 24-25, 1957
9.4
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, Sept. 12-13, 1957
9.5
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., Dec. 9, 1957
9.6
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Jamaica, Jan.
1958
9.7
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., May 1-2, 1958
9.8
Luncheon for guests from the Caribbean, Sept. 11,
1958
9.9
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Wisconsin, Sept.
25-26, 1958
9.10
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., Dec. 3-4, 1958
9.11
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Jamaica, Jan.
1-11, 1959
9.12
John S. Mordecai, C.M.G., visit with R.C.L., Mar. 17,
1959
9.13
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., May 3, 1959
9.14
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Beaver Dam,
Wisconsin, Sept. 1, 1959
9.15
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., Dec. 14-15, 1959
9.16
50% Transportation Payment for Jamaican workers
9.17
Jamaican trip, Jan. 9-17, 1960
9.18
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., May 19, 1960
10.1 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, Sept. 8-9, 1960
10.2 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington,
D.C., Dec. 5-6, 1960
10.3 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Regional
Labour Board trip, West Indies, Jan. 1961
10.4 Norman Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica, visit to
Washington, April 1961
10.5 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Washington,
D.C., June 5-6, 1961
10.6 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting (cancelled),
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Aug. 1961
10.7 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Washington,
D.C., Dec. 6-7, 1961
10.8 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting with Asst.
Sect. of Labor Holleman, Washington, D.C., Jan. 29-31, 1962
10.9 B.W.I. Employers’ Association Executive Committee
meeting with Robert Goodwin, U.S. Dept. of Labor,
Washington, D.C., June 8, 1962
10.10
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington, D.C., Jan.
8, 1962
10.11
Dinner for Sir Alexander Bustamante, Premier of Jamaica,
Washington, D.C., June 27, 1962
10.12
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington, D.C., Dec.
6-7, 1962
10.13
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee and Regional Labour Board
meeting, Jamaica, Jan. 14-15, 1963
10.14
B.W.I. Employers’ Committee meeting, Washington, D.C., May
27-28, 1963
10.15
B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Windsor, Connecticut,
Dec. 12-13, 1963
10.16
B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Jamaica, Feb. 2-7,
1964
10.17
B.W.I. Employers’ Association problems, 1964
11.1 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Washington,
D.C., April 13-15, 1964
11.2 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Washington,
D.C., Nov. 16-17, 1964
11.3 B.W.I. Employers’ Association and Regional Labour
Board meeting, Jamaica, Feb. 15-16, 1965
11.4 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting at Jamaican
Industrial Development Corp., New York, June 28, 1965
11.5 B.W.I. Employers’ Association and Regional Labour
Board meeting, Jamaica, Jan. 24, 1966
11.6 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Barbados,
Jan. 22, 1967
11.7 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Windsor,
Connecticut, Mar. 26-27, 1968
11.8 B.W.I. Employers’ Committee bulletin regarding
U.S. Employment Service vs. B.W.I. contract, 1959-1960
11.9 B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Jamaica,
April 17-19, 1968 and 1969
11.10
B.W.I. Employers’ Association meeting, Windsor, Connecticut,
Dec. 13, 1968
11.11
B.W.I. labor news commentaries by Edward P. Morgan, American
Broadcasting Network, 1958-1959
11.12
Sir Alex Bustamante, correspondence, 1965-1967
11.13
Regional Labour Board, correspondence with members,
1951-1965
11.14
Regional Labour Board, copies of contracts and corrections,
undated
11.15
Harold O. A. Dayes, correspondence, 1955
11.16
Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, correspondence
regarding exchange of B.W.I. workers, 1958
11.17
Regional Labour Board, correspondence with Sir Hugh Foot,
Governor of Jamaica, 1951-1957
11.18
Lady Sylvia Foot (Mrs. Hugh), correspondence, 1952-1959
11.19
Hurricane Janet, British West Indies, correspondence, 1956
11.20
Party in honor of Sir Hugh Foot, Hartford, Connecticut,
Sept. 29, 1954
12.1
Sir Stephen Luke [folder empty as of 6/2/2005]
12.2
Herbert G. MacDonald, correspondence, 1952-1967
12.3
Miscellaneous correspondence, 1962-1967
12.4
Hon. Norman Manley, correspondence, 1955-1957
12.5
Meranda Company, miscellaneous materials, 1961-1963
12.6
Arthur Pickwood, correspondence, 1954-1955
12.7
Donald Sangster, correspondence, 1956
12.8
George Scott, correspondence, 1951
12.9
Beryl Scott (Mrs. George), correspondence, 1952
Series III. Regional Labour Board and British West Indies
Employers’ Association joint meetings, 1970-1983 (File F)
12.10
33rd meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, April
20-22, 1970
12.11
34th meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, April
26-28, 1971
12.12
35th meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Jan
31-Feb. 2, 1972
12.13
36th meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, May
2-4, 1973
12.14
37th meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, April
22-25, 1974
12.15
38th meeting, Barbados, April 14-18, 1975
12.16
39th meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, April
5-9, 1976
12.17
40th meeting, Kingston, Jamaica, August
24-25, 1976
12.18
41st meeting, St. Mary, Jamaica, Mar
28-April 1, 1977
12.19
42nd meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, April
3-9, 1978
12.20
43rd meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Jan.
15-19, 1979
12.21
44th (Special) meeting, Kingston,
Jamaica, May 24-25, 1979
12.22
45th meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, April
14-18, 1980
12.23
47th meeting, St. Lucia, Jan. 19-23, 1981
12.24
48th meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, April
19-23, 1982
12.25
49th meeting, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Jan.
17-20, 1983
Series IV. Personal correspondence, 1946-1948; 1983-1984
12.26
Correspondence, 1946, 1948; list of Shade Tobacco
Growers Association members mid 1940’s
12.27
Correspondence (photocopies) regarding donation of
the collection to Windsor Historical Society and processing
of the collection; original 1984 version of the finding aid
Series V. Photographs, 1944-1952
12.28
Photographs of Ralph C. Lasbury, 1944, 1945, 1952
Custodial history
When the Lasbury Collection was donated to the
Windsor Historical Society in 1983, it also included 23
scrapbooks and a photo album. These scrapbooks were
compiled by Mr. Lasbury’s secretary Doris Rockwell from
1941-1968. They contain newspaper clippings, photographs,
and correspondence relating to the Shade Tobacco Growers
Agricultural Association’s labor programs and the
tobacco-growing and cigar-making industries in Connecticut.
The photo album contains images of the processing of tobacco
in warehouses. In 1997 the scrapbooks and photo album were
transferred to the Luddy/Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco
Museum in Windsor, Connecticut.
Related Materials
Subject
files: Businesses -- Tobacco
Scrapbooks and photo album at the Luddy/Taylor Connecticut
Valley Tobacco Museum in Windsor, Connecticut.
Subject Terms
Tobacco
industry – Connecticut
Migrant
agricultural laborers -- Connecticut
Shade
Tobacco Growers Agricultural Association, Inc.
British
West Indies Employer’s Association
Florida
Fruit & Vegetable Association
Regional
Labour Board of the Caribbean
Lasbury,
Ralph C., Jr., 1906-1979
Bustamante, Alexander, Sir, 1884-1977
Caradon,
Hugh Foot, Baron, 1907-
Manley,
Norman Washington, 1893-1969
Mordecai, John, Sir, 1903-
Administrative history
Collection processed and finding aid compiled by Stephen E.
Simon, June-July 1984.
Revised
by Barbara Goodwin, June 2005
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