262 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



of these failed, either through bad management or failure to 

 practise some of the essential features of the system, but many 

 of them had long and successful careers and were probably 

 efficient factors in preventing the total extinction of the order 

 of Patrons of Husbandry in the latter seventies and early eighties. 

 A brief survey of the operations of these cooperative associations 

 in different parts of the country will be of value. 



In the states of the Middle West large numbers of Patrons' 

 cooperative stores were established in the years 1874 and 1875, 

 often, however, without the essential feature of the Rochdale 

 system, division of profits in proportion to purchases. 1 As a 

 consequence of this and other factors most of these establish- 

 ments were short lived; some, however, were reorganized on 

 the Rochdale plan, and a few which were exceptionally well 

 managed survived and continued to do business for a number of 

 years on their original plan of selling at cost. 



In Ohio it is said that there was at one time a Grange store 

 in practically every county in the state; but no record has been 

 found of any of them continuing in business for more than a 

 few years. Just at the close of the decade, however, a " Cin- 

 cinnati Grange Supply House " was established under the aus- 

 pices of the state grange to take the place of the state agency 

 which was being closed out. This corporation was organized 

 on the Rochdale plan so far as the laws of Ohio permitted. It 

 was intended that it should serve as a general supply house 

 for the granges and cooperative stores of Ohio, Indiana, Ken- 

 tucky, and West Virginia and should lead to the establishment 

 of tributary stores all over the Middle West. By this time, 

 however, the enthusiasm and class spirit which the Grange had 

 engendered among the farmers of the West had largely passed 

 away and the house does not appear to have done a very exten- 

 sive business at any time. In 1883 a branch house was estab- 

 lished at Cleveland, which was not a success, and in 1886, as 

 a result of bad management, faulty organization, and lack of 



1 Prairie Farmer, xliv. 43, xlv. 97, 139, xlvi. 21, 75, 107 (1873-75); Industrial 

 Age, March 7, 1874, p. 7; Western Rural, xiii. 196, 356 (1875); Illinois State 

 Grange, Proceedings, iv. 17 (1875). 



