The E.J. Lander & Co. Records, consisting of 161 boxes, are case files, that is, company loan files, Eastern Client files, and real estate files dating from 1902 to 1953 with the bulk of the material dating from 1916 to 1942. The files document the economic and agricultural climate primarily of northern North Dakota, except for Sheridan and Towner counties, and northern Montana west to Glacier and Lewis and Clark counties, but do not include Blaine, Dawson, and Garfield counties. The records include correspondence, land and property descriptions and inventories, legal documents, and paper on bondholders. The records describe land values, condition of crops and the income derived from their sale, besides income derived from New Deal programs designed to aid the farmer. They also contain personal, often poignant statements, explaining why a farmer was unable to meet a mortgage payment, or why an interest payment was vital to an eastern client. The processing of Lander & Co. records included surface cleaning of a majority of the records, which were stored in the company's basement in a full size bank vault, or in metal file cabinets. The files were removed from the basement according to directions from the company's long-time secretary. Original order was maintained within the files, which were intellectually analyzed and described on worksheets and control logs. The latter provided the basis for the searchable database that accompanies the finding aid. The database contains 1534 searchable loan records and 2039 client records. Lander & Co. provided land investments to approximately 650 eastern clients, some of whom had multiple investments with the company and are associated with many loans. Twenty-eight percent of these clients were from North Dakota, sixteen percent from Minnesota, and twenty-eight percent from Illinois, New York, and Wisconsin.
