552 
American Agriculturist, June 14, 1924 
Our Patrons of Husbandry 
An A. A. Wednesday Evening Radio Talk Broadcast from WEAF 
T HE Civil War had just closed, and the 
plans for building up the agricultural 
and industrial life of the reunited Nation 
were being shaped and tested. 
Isaac Newton, Secretary of Agriculture, called, 
from his Minnesota farm, Oliver Judson Kelley, 
who later in the grange work of the nation became 
familiarly known as Father Kelley. Kelley had 
been in the agricultural department at Washing¬ 
ton and later bought and went upon his farm in 
the State of Minnesota. Coming to the Capitol, 
Kelley spent some months without a definite 
mission though Newton had planned 
to send him upon a mission into the 
South to discover the actual facts as 
to agricultural conditions. The hatreds 
engendered by the War were still rank¬ 
ling in the hearts of the southern farm¬ 
ers, and though Kelley was a farmer 
himself, he was received with much 
hesitation by the poverty stricken 
farmers and planters of the south¬ 
land. 
While on this trip Kelley conceived 
the idea of a farm fraternity, and feel¬ 
ing that it would be many years before 
politicians could restore the proper 
feelings between the North and South, 
felt that a farm fraternity was the an¬ 
swer to the condition and returning 
to Washington, where he found em¬ 
ployment in the Post Office Depart¬ 
ment, he began to acquaint his friends 
with his plans. 
It was here that he formed the ac¬ 
quaintance of William Saunders, J. R. 
Thompson, John Trimble, W. M. Ire¬ 
land, A. B. Grosh, and F. M. McDow¬ 
ell, which group, with himself, became 
known as the “Seven Founders of the 
Order.” 
After some discussion the order was 
called the “Patrons of Husbandry.” 
The local lodges or societies were called 
granges, a designation now frequently 
applied to the whole organization. The 
years 1866*, ’67 and ’68 were eventful 
years in the history of the new farm 
fraternity. In 1868, Mr. Kelley with 
much enthusiasm started North to 
try his hand at erecting granges in the 
field. At Fredonia, N. Y., on April 
16th, 1868, Father Kelley succeeded in 
establishing the first subordinate 
grange. From there he went up into 
his Minnesota home and established a 
few granges with the cooperation and 
assistance of his niece, Miss Carrie A. 
Hall, who recommended the admission 
of women upon absolute equality with 
men and the creation of certain defi¬ 
nite offices in the granges which should 
be reserved for her. After eleven 
granges had been organized in Min¬ 
nesota, the first State Grange was 
formed in that State with representa¬ 
tives from the eleven granges. 
Deputies for the extension of the 
Order were appointed and the work 
went on apace. 
In 1869 the Second National Grange 
met in Washington, I). C. At the end 
of that year 38 granges had been established and 
the Order may be said to have really begun. These 
years were hard ones for the farmer and his eco¬ 
nomic conditions were not unlike those of the 
present day. The downward trend of prices inci- 
By S. L. STRIVINGS 
Master, New York State Grange 
and ever down. In the midst of this economic 
stress, farmers in the mid-west felt that the Order 
of Patrons of Husbandry was their guiding star 
and that under its standard they could speedily 
gain their economic independence. In many of 
these States the Grange thus became an economic 
agent and less attention was paid to the real prin¬ 
ciples upon which the structure was founded. 
During these years growth was increasingly 
THE MAGNIFICENT VIEW YOU DISCOVERED ON YOUR 
TRIP LAST YEAR— 
And liked so much that you drove sixty miles out of your way to show it to your 
friends this year 
pyrighted 1924 by the New York Tribune. Inc. 
Darling in tbe New York Tribune. 
The Ad on the Fence 
I LOVE my country's rocks and rills 
And feign would move from off her 
hills 
The billboard ads for liver pills. 
I love to gaze on some old barn 
That stands by wood or rock or tarn. 
I love its curves and graceful lines. 
Its weathered boards from oaks and pines. 
I love its silo, cribs and mows. 
Its Plymouth Rocks and brindle cows. 
My farm-born heart with pleasure swells 
When I inhale its rich, ripe smells. 
But O I hate to see its back, 
Exposed to road or railway track, 
In glaring paint give doubtful dope 
On someone’s double-action soap. 
Or urge relief from human ills 
By chewing sixteen-horsepower pills. 
Around yon curve the engine scoots, 
And wayworn travelers press their snoots 
Against the dusty window-panes, 
While tired eyes and weary brains 
Drink in the peace of hills and plains. 
Forgetting cares and lack of cash. 
They gaze on fields of succotash. 
Green growing groves where dryads roost 
And babbling brooks their spirits boost. 
To keep these haunts for nymphs and Pan, 
The bilious billboard let us ban. 
—BOB ADAMS. 
rapid. In January, 1873, the first delegated 
session opened at Georgetown within the District 
of Columbia representing eleven States. At this 
session a full set of national officers were chosen 
and the Order started upon its mission as a full- 
dent to the close of the war caused great distress fledged national organization. Dudley A. Adams 
among the grain farmers and the rapidly increas- of Iowa was chosen National Master at this ses- 
ing production due to the opening of vast tracts sion and Father Oliver H. Kelley was continued 
of new 1 lands as well as the improvement of farm in the office of National Secretary. It w as dur- 
machinery caused a rapid fall in the prices of ing these years that inflation began to manifest 
wheat and grains. itself in all lines of industrial life and the new 
Many held on to wheat hoping for a restora- farm organization found challenges a plenty tor 
tion of the war prices, but the trend was down all its energies. 
At St. Louis the following year there was 
drawn up a “Declaration of Purposes,” so sound 
and fundamentally secure that it has not been 
changed during the years, but has remained as 
the basic document as basal as the Declaration of 
Independence for the States. It was the voice of 
free agriculture, north, south, east and west met 
for the first time upon a plane of common service 
with ideals for the national weal and a justice for 
agriculture which had never before been known. 
The years of rapid growth in the West and 
South followed these years and later a period of 
decline and then up again until to-day, 
after more than fifty years, the Patrons 
of Husbandry stands as the greatest 
organized agency for rural better¬ 
ment ever yet conceived. Founded 
upon the necessities of agriculture it 
has commended itself to men and wom¬ 
en of the nation since its birth. Never 
asking for agriculture what it was not 
willing to accord to others, firm in the 
belief that the welfare of each was 
bound up in the happiness and pros¬ 
perity of all, it has blazed a trail in 
better home life and higher ideals 
which has been of incalculable good 
during the more than half century of 
its existence. 
The Grange, as it is familiarly called, 
is a fraternity with the usual ritualism 
of such an organization. While it 
can hardly be said to be a secret order, 
yet its ritualism provides enough of 
ceremonial secrets to enable the dis¬ 
tinguishing of a member from one 
not in good standing or non-member¬ 
ship. 
The teachings of the Grange are 
indissolubly linked with the farmer’s 
home and his work. The household 
and home as well as the field and the 
farm come in for their share of con¬ 
sideration in all the ritualism and 
teachings of the Grange. While pri¬ 
marily a farmers’ fraternity, it has 
never been bigoted, but to all those in¬ 
terested in agriculture who have gen¬ 
erous hearts and open hands to help 
the needy raise the fallen and aid in 
making the labors of this life cheerful 
it says w’elcome to the Grange. 
By this it will be seen that students, 
pastors, teachers, and men and women 
in many vocations outside strictly 
farm lines are admitted to Grange 
membership. The teachings of the 
Grange while neither sectarian nor 
political, are of the highest order. 
The whole fabric of its ritualism is 
founded upon the things ol the farmers 
life and work. There are seven degrees 
in its ritual. Four are given in the 
subordinate Grange, one in the County 
Grange, one in the State Grange and 
one in the National Grange. These 
degrees symbolize Spring, Summer, 
Autumn and Winter, and are emblem¬ 
atical of these periods in human life- 
The Fifth Degree, as well as the Sixth 
and Seventh are named from the three 
graces, Pomona, Flora and Ceres and 
the ceremonial attendant upon these degrees 
typifies somewhat of the beauty of the ceremonm 
rites of the ancient Greeks and Romans as the\ 
honored these goddesses of their polytheistic voi- 
ship. Pomona is the patron of the fruits oi au¬ 
tumn, Flora of the flowers of spring, and Ceres oi 
the ripened grains. _ . . . 
At the present time the Grange is organized l m 
33 States and has a membership of well toward a 
million. In New York State we have 902 subor¬ 
dinate Granges and 53 Pomona Granges. e 
have about 500 grange homes and halls m the 
(Continued on 'page 563) 
