ORGANIZATION 41 



a New Englander who had settled on a farm near Itasca, 

 Minnesota. In 1864 he secured a position as clerk in the agri- 

 cultural bureau and in January, 1866, he was appointed to 

 travel through the southern states in order to gather information 

 for the department. 1 On his trip through the South, which 

 lasted three months, Kelley was struck by the lack of progressive 

 spirit among the agricultural classes. A Mason, and apprecia- 

 tive of the benefits of fraternity, he came to the conclusion that 

 a national secret order of farmers was needed for the furthering 

 of the industrial reconstruction of the South and the advance- 

 ment of the agricultural class throughout the country. On 

 returning, Kelley went to Boston, where he discussed the idea 

 with his niece Miss Carrie Hall, to whom is given the credit 

 for first suggesting the admission of women to full membership 

 in the order. The following summer Kelley spent on his farm 

 in Minnesota, but in June, 1867, he received a clerkship in the 

 post-office department at Washington and set about developing 

 his plans. 



W. M. Ireland, another clerk in the post-office department, 

 was interested in Kelley's ideas and the two began planning a 

 ritual for the order. Later in the year they enlisted William 

 Saunders, a clerk in the agricultural bureau, into the ranks of 

 the " founders," and as he was about to attend a meeting of 

 the United States Pomological Society at St. Louis in August, 

 Kelley gave him a written outline of the proposed order to 

 circulate among the farmers with whom he might come in con- 

 tact. This circular 2 set forth the deficiencies of existing agri- 

 cultural societies and county fairs, and proposed the establish- 

 ment of a secret order of farmers, modeled on the Masonic 

 order, with the usual equipment of degrees, signs-, and pass- 

 words, the object being to advance agriculture and bind the 

 farmers together. Women were to be admitted to the order 

 with separate degrees and the dues were to be as low as one dollar 

 for each degree. This outline was circulated by Saunders while 



1 See Kelley, " Origin of the Order," in The Connecticut Granges, 1-7, for a some- 

 what humorous account of the way in which this appointment was secured. 



2 Printed in full in Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 17-20. 



