AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 177 



ing the above society to the Juvenile Grange, write to 

 Prof. T. C. Atkeson, Morgantown, W. Va., Overseer of 

 the National Grange, or to C. M. Freeman, Tippecanoe 

 City, Ohio, Secretary, for the Manual of the Juvenile 

 Grange. Juvenile Granges must be organized under the 

 special charge of a Subordinate Grange. 



LESSON LV 



THE GRANGE 



Let us learn something of the greatest farmers' or- 

 ganization in the world the Grange, or the Order of 

 Patrons of Husbandry. 



The following facts about the Grange were submitted 

 by Prof. T. C. Atkeson, Master of the West Virginia 

 State Grange and Overseer of the National Grange: 



Origin of the grange. "The idea of a farmers' 

 fraternal organization originated in the mind of Oliver 

 H. Kelley, a Minnesota farmer, while on a trip through 

 the southern states in 1867, soon after the close of the 

 great Civil War, where he had been sent by President 

 Johnson to see what might be done to rebuild the dev- 

 astated agriculture of that great agricultural region. 

 Mr. Kelley was a high degree Free Mason, and naturally 

 his idea of a farmers' organization took the form of a 

 secret society. Soon after his return to Washington, 

 where he reported to the Department of Agriculture, he 

 paid a visit to his niece, Miss Carrie A. Hall, who re- 

 sided in Boston, and outlined to her his proposed farm- 

 ers' organization. Miss Hall suggested that farmers' 



