ORGANIZATION 63 



had been organized: five in the North Atlantic division New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 

 vania; five in the South Atlantic division Virginia, West 

 Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; four in the 

 North Central division Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, and Dakota; 

 six in the South Central division Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas; and two in the 

 Western division Oregon and California. 1 



THE ST. Louis SESSION AND THE CULMINATION OF 

 THE ORDER, 1874 



Such, then, was the scope of the order of Patrons of Husbandry 

 at the beginning of 1874, when everybody was looking forward 

 with interest to the approaching session of the National Grange. 

 This meeting, distinguished as the seventh annual session, was 

 held in St. Louis from February 4 to 12, 1874, and was the most 

 representative gathering of farmers which had ever taken place 

 in the United States. It was, moreover, the most important 

 and harmonious of all the meetings of the National Grange, 

 during the decade. The body of members present at this 

 meeting and entitled to vote was not large forty-five in all, 

 including twelve women but these members represented 

 thirty-two state and territorial granges, having jurisdiction over 

 more than ten thousand subordinate granges and somewhere 

 in the neighborhood of half a million members. 2 With such a 

 backing it was but natural that considerable interest should 

 attach itself to the action of the leaders, who were expected 

 at this time to formulate the purposes and principles of the 

 movement. 



This they did in a fairly sane and conservative though badly 

 arranged document, which has stood from that time to this as 

 the avowed platform of the order, and the principles of which 

 have been largely incorporated into the platforms of every 



1 Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 422; National Grange, Proceedings, vii. 21 

 (1874); National Grange, Monthly Bulletin, September i, 1874. 



2 National Grange, Proceedings, vii. 8-10 (1874) ; Darrow, Patrons of Husbandry, 

 41. 



