200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



On returning to "Washington, Kelley took the other six immortals into 

 his confidence, and the seven set about developing the plan and con- 

 structing a ritual. It would be a long story to tell how, by two years' 

 labor in the intervals of their regular work, they constructed a consti- 

 tution providing for a national. State, county, and district organization, 

 and a ritual with seven degrees ; how the names — Patrons of Hus- 

 bandry for the body in general and Grangers for the subordinate chap- 

 ters — were finally hit upon, the latter being taken, not on account of 

 its etymological meaning (Latin granum), but from the name of a re- 

 cent novel. Sufiice it to say that on December 4, 18G7, a day still 

 celebrated as the birthday of the order, the seven assembled, and, with 

 an assurance almost sublime, solemnly organized themselves as the 

 " National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry." There was none 

 to dispute the title, and they enjoyed it alone for the next five years. 

 It is hard to tell just what were the expectations of these men. Kel- 

 ley has been called everything from an unselfish philanthropist to a 

 scheming adventurer. One can not but admire the pluck with which 

 he persevered through great discouragements, and the unselfish spirit 

 in which he and his fellow-workers surrendered control of the move- 

 ment when it had become a power in the land. Their first step was 

 to organize a mock Grange among their fellow-clerks and their wives, 

 to experiment with the ritual. The experiment proving satisfactory, 

 Kelley resigned his clerkship and started out to proclaim the Grange 

 to the world, armed only with a few dollars and a sort of introductory 

 letter from the other six to mankind at large. 



He was not a success as a lecturer. Moreover, he made the mis- 

 take of laboring in the larger towns, instead of in the country. The 

 four or five Granges that he coaxed into life at once proceeded to die, 

 and he finally reached Minnesota penniless, but not discouraged. 

 Even while the six at Washington were becoming faint-hearted, and 

 writing to him that the landlady was pressing them grievously for 

 hall-rent, and that it would be wise to give up the whole business, he 

 could issue the circular with which I began, dilating upon the success 

 of the order and the distinguished agriculturists at Washington who 

 founded it. At his home, near Itasca, he worked on furiously, now 

 dodging a creditor, again obliged to postpone answering letters for 

 want of means to buy postage-stamps, till finally signs of success 

 began to appear. He had organized a few Granges in Minnesota, and 

 was able to detect a growing interest in other States. The prime 

 necessity now was to encourage this feeble beginning, and by all 

 means to keep it under the delusion that it was pai*t of a powerful 

 national organization. To this end every cent that could be earned 

 or borrowed was used in distributing photographs of the founders, 

 along with a mass of circulars and documents purporting to come from 

 the national office at Washington. Every important question was 

 ostensibly referred by Kelley to the Executive Committee at the same 



