The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-04-04
Bv j. w. BARROW.


Organization In 1868 and Later.
Bv j. W. BARROW.
There died in Washington not long
ago Il man whose name was Il house
mold word. as we may say, in the
oranges of the United States. That
man was Oliver Ii. Kelley, one of the
founders of the Order of Patrons Of
uuSbandry. commonly known as the
grange, and its chief promoter and or
ganizcr in the days when the Order
was young
II is given to but few men to set in
motion great humanizing agencies and
Influences to be founders, builders and
organizers for humanity's sake. These
men must have the prophets vision
coupled with the prophets faith. They
stand ut the threshold of new eras and
their names mark epOchs in our his
tory They may dream dreams and
see Visions but they must bring things
| to pass. Such man was Oliver I'll.
Kelley. who conceived the idea of
|
operation with others brought to pass
the order of Patrons of Husbandry
If Father" Kelley were speaking
now his story would run something
ike this:
1T was On March %, 1868, that
meeting of the national grange was
held. There were six present. Not
much of Il national grange, was it?
They were the original seven founders
except f.. NJ Overwhelmingly, Will
liam Saunders, John TrimbIe. Rev. a.
&. GrUSh, W. NJ. ireland, j. X. Thomp-
son and mysPlf-but | always count
Miss Carrie Hall, my niece, the eighth.
was directed to begin the work OF Or
ganiYation outside Washington. The
national grange voted to give me let
ters of credit, but they were of little
use to me Pluck and perseverance
served me better. | was also voted Il
salary of $1,000 per annum and eX-
renSeS. but there was no money in the
treasury. and the national grange C9
| wished it to ne explicitly understood
that its officers (and that was all OF
them would not be held personally
responsible for the salary or expenses.
That was the condition of things iinan-
cially when | started out on the after
noon of April ;. 1865, to reap the har-
vest of members we had come to be-
lieve were ready for the gathering
With grip i'll hand ! said to Saunders;
Now I'm ready for the start
Start for where" he asked.
Il have Just bought ticket for Har-
risburg. my first stop. Then I'm going
to work on toward my home state OF
Minnesota. organizing oranges as go"
How much money have you gotF'
queried the treasurer of the national
grange. for that was Saunders official
tile.
Two dollars and Il half of grange
unlS," replied.
We'll" said Saunders encouragingly.
yen are fool to start on such trip
| with that amount of money
Cant help it," | replied Fool or
~ fool. you'Il hear from me, I'll make
this Order Il success or bust"
And 50 the great work began. To
he indUmitable energy and persever
lnce OF o. H. Kelley its ultimate sue
| less was largely due. In the same
month Kelley organized the first subor-
lnatp grange in the world at Fredonia,
- Y. grange still tloulishing and
having membership of over 800.
| From 1869 on the order grew rapidly.
| In 1872 over 100 subordinate oranges
were organized in one year, and the
Order had spread over twenty-five
| states. In 1871 the state grange of
Iowa was organized at Des MoineS.
and in the single year 1873 60 new
| oranges We're organized in that state,
| In 1875 there were 100000 members
of the grange in all the states, 1000
| subordinate oranges having been or
| ganZed the year previous. There were
1900 organizing deputies in the field.
During the first eight years of its his
tory the Order of Patrons of Husband
ry had issued 24,290 charters. Indi-
| ana was the banner state up to that
time, as 2,03G new oranges had been
organized within its limits Indiana
| naU then OU,UOU members Oh lHe grange,
Iowa 81 900 Illinois $4,000 and Ohio
$4,000. Strange to say, Missouri had
the largest enrolment in the Union
viz, S0000-and nearly every county
was organized Thus did the order
grow, and then almost as rapidly did
1t decline. But that's another story.
Suffice to say that it recovered itself,
got started again and today is really
stronger than ever.
Jan. I. 1918. was the anniversary of
Mr.. Kelley's birthday He died on
Jan. 20, 1918. His birthplace was Bos-
ton, Mass. Tracing history back to his
boyhood days, we find that his educa-
ton was received in the public schools,
with finishing course In Chauncey
Hall school, Boston. When twenty
one he went to Chicago as clerk in a
drug store, doing some reportorial
work on the side for the Chicago Trib-
une He remained there only six
months and then went to Peoria, H.,
where he became a telegraph operator.
He was present when Rufus Chad
wick installed the relay magnet and