THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 535 



coming the opposition of those who are unacquainted 

 with its nature and principles. In this work, Mr. 

 Thompson has been eminently successful. He has 

 travelled through twenty-four States of the Union,, in 

 behalf of the Order, delivering lectures and public 

 speeches nearly every day sometimes as often as six 

 times a week and has successfully planted the 

 organization in scores of communities where it is 

 now thriving and growing rapidly. Soon after enter- 

 ing upon the duties of his office he organized the 

 State Granges of Ohio and Michigan, and has per- 

 formed a similar duty for several others since then. 

 His personal popularity has done much to win friends 

 for the Order wherever he has gone ; and his eloquent 

 and unanswerable appeals in its behalf have made its 

 success assured wherever he has spoken. 



But these labors do not constitute Mr. Thompson's 

 only services to the Order. To him it owes its beautiful 

 and impressive ritual or unwritten work. In January, 

 1871, Mr. 0. H. Kelley, appreciating Mr. Thompson's 

 peculiar fitness for the task, applied to him to devise 

 an unwritten work for the Order. Mr. Thompson at 

 once applied himself to the matter, and called to his 

 aid an intimate friend, Dr. D. H. Roberts, who assisted 

 him materially in perfecting the work. When com- 

 pleted, Mr. Thompson presented it to Greenwood Prairie 

 Grange, No. 41, where it was tried and found success- 

 ful. On the 20th of May, 1871, the work was exem- 

 plified to the North Star Grange, No. 1, at St. Paul, 

 Minnesota, now the oldest Subordinate Grange in the 

 country, and on the 13th of September, 1871, it was sub- 

 jected to a still more searching test, by an exemplifica- 

 tion to the Iowa State Grange. It was received with 



