494 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



AS A PATRON OF HUSBANDRY. 



In the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, therefore, it is 

 not strange that he easily saw the means for carrying out 

 his favorite idea, namely, a citizenship in which the laboring 

 men of the country should be so educated and enlightened 

 that corruption or wrong-doing should be all but impossible. 



His own Subordinate Grange was among the first and 

 most successful in the State; and to his careful study of the 

 work in hand, and his firm and temperate discipline and 

 counsel, is due much of the credit for the wonderful growth 

 and success of the Order in Iowa. 



At the third annual session of the State Grange, a va 

 cancy occurring in that body, Colonel Smedley was almost 

 unanimously elected as Master. At the fourth annual ses 

 sion, when the regular election was held, the members of 

 the State Grange showed their appreciation of his earnest 

 zeal and ability by giving him two hundred and thirty- 

 seven out of two hundred and sixty-eight votes on the first 

 ballot, and thereafter making his election unanimous. 



Colonel Smedley is said to have given the unwritten work 

 and the laws and usages of the Order of Patrons of Hus 

 bandry more careful study than almost any other individual 

 in the country. Bringing to the task a full and abiding 

 faith in the integrity and usefulness of the Order as a means 

 of ameliorating the condition of his fellows, he has labored 

 in that organization with indefatigable industry and con 

 spicuous ability, to the end -that no legitimate means should 

 remain unemployed to render success certain. As evidence 

 that the efforts of himself and his co-laborers have not been 

 in vain, and as incentive to the faithful spirits now holding 

 the &quot; tug oar &quot; in other States, Iowa may justly and proudly 

 point to her muster-roll of Granges, numbering nearly a 

 quarter of the entire list of the United States. 



