BORIS DRASIN PAPERS, 1933-1940

Summary:Papers of settler Boris Drasin relating to his activities in connection with Roosevelt, NJ, including his role as chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee of the Hightstown Colony, which represented the settlers during the process of trying to set up the factory and build the houses; and as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Workers' Aim Cooperative Association.

This series comprises four sub-series: correspondence and documents arranged chronologically, undated correspondence and documents, Yiddish documents, and Certificates of Incorporation and Bylaws of the various associations. The correspondence comprises letters received and copies of letters sent by Drasin in his various capacities. Correspondents include Benjamin Brown, officials of the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, Resettlement Administration, and Farm Security Association such as J.O. Walker and Will Alexander, ILGWU counsel Elias Lieberman, Tripod factory manager Samuel Herzlinger, architect Alfred Kastner, and community manager Walter Simon. Other documents in this series are press releases, lists, invitations, broadsides, notes and receipts. Of particular interest are correspondence expressing Drasin's original interest in the colony, statements of the colony's cooperative principles, and documentation of the incorporation of Jersey Homesteads as a borough in 1937.

This series also includes correspondence and documentation related to the operation of Consumers Wholesale Clothiers, Inc., 1938; correspondence and notes documenting the attempt by the Industrial Association, led by Drasin, to attract another factory to the site after Tripod failed in 1939; and statements by the Jersey Homesteads Settlers Association, formed in 1940 to try to preserve the community.