The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-04-11
"Father" Kelley
Passes Away

household word. as we may say, IN
the oranges of the United States.
hat man was Oliver FL. Kelley. one
Of the founders of the Order OF
Patrons of Husbandry. commonly
known as the grange. and its chief
nrumoter and organizer in the days
when the Order was young.
1t is given to but few men to set
in motion great humanizing agen-
cies and infiuence-to be founders,
builder and organizers for human
tvs sake. These men must have
the prophets vision coupled with
the prophets faith. They stand at
the threshold of new eras, and their
names mark epochs in our history.
They may dream dreams and see
visions, but they must bring things
to pass. Such man was Oliver II.
Kelley, who, conceived the idea OF
great farmers organization and
in cooperation with others brought
to pass the Order of Patrons OF
Husbandry.
If "Father" Kelley were speaking
now his story would run something
like this:
ut was on March %. 1868, that
meeting of the national grange
was held. There were six present.
Not much of national grange, was
it? They were the original seven
founders except F. M. Mcdowell
namely, William Saunders. John
Trimble, Rev. A. B. Grosh, W. M.
Ireland, J. R. Thompson and myself
but | always count Miss Carrie
Hall, my niece. the eighth. | was
directed to begin the work of or
ganization outside Washington.
The national grange voted to give
me letters of credit but they were
of little use to me. Pluck and per-
severance served me better. | was
also voted a salary of $4,000 per
annum and expenses, but there was
no money in the treasury, and the
national grange CD wished it to be
explicitly understood that its Off
ces (and that was all of them)
would not be held personally re-
sponsible for the salary of expenses.
That was the condition of things f.
nancially when started out on the
afternoon of April 8. 1868. to reap
the harvest of members we had
come to believe were ready for the
gathering. With grip in hand /
said to Saunders:
Now I'm ready for the start
Start for where?' he asked.
Il have just bought ticket for
Harrisburg, my first stop. Then
I'm going to work on toward my
home state of Minnesota, organi-
zing oranges as / CO.
How much money have you
got?' queried the treasurer of the
national grange, for that was Saun-
ders' official title.
Two dollars and half of grange
funds. | replied.
WELL said Saunders encourage
ingly. you are a fool to start on
such a trip with that amount of
money
Can't help it," l replied. Fool
or no fool, you'll hear from me.
I'll make this Order success or
bust
And so the great work began.
To the indonitable energy of O. H.
Kelley its ultimate success was
largely due. In the same month
Kelley organized the first subordi-
nate grange in the world at Fredo-
ria. N. Y. grange still flourish
ing and having a membership of
over SOC. From 1869 on the Order
grew rapidly. In 1872 over LOO
subordinate grangas were organic
ed 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 652 new oranges
were organized in that state In
1875 there were 100000 members
of the grange in all the states