The Ontario Argus. (Ontario, Or.) 1???-1947, 1914-02-05
THE GRANGE
Conducted by
}. ". DARROw. Chatham. n. r..
RevietD
GRANGE HISTORY.
A Glance Backward Recalls For.
gotten Events.

Suffering Farmers In the Early Days
OF the order-An educational ven-
ture In North Carolina.
In April, 1874. the Mississippi river
overhowed Its banks, carrying disaster
and suffering to large number of
farmers In Louisiana and Alabama,
many of whom were Patrons of Hus
bandry. The executive committee Of
/ The national grange sent $1,000 of the
grange funds to relieve the stricken
farmers and later expended about S3,.
600 In purchasing -four and bacon,
which were distributed TO the suffer
ing Patrons through the masters Of the
state oranges. Nearly every grange
state contributed to their needs, some
giving ns much MS 5000
added to this calamity to the farm
crs came the grusshopper plague. and
again the national grange sent about
sli. 900 to the masters of state oranges
In Iowa. Minnesota. Dakota. Kansas
and Nebraska TO relieve the wants Of
| Patrons. Later $1,000 was sent to Ar
kansas Patrons and $1,000 to the Kan
sns state grange to enable it to pay its
dues to the national grange. During
| the following year other contributions
were made. which brought these fra
tcrnal gifts up to $4,000 for the year
! following
In 1876 the state grange of South
Carolina received from the national
grange treasury the sum Of $1,000 to
nld sufferers from u prolonged drought,
nnd special loan made To the Ne
hruska state grange amounting To $780,
900 was made u donation on account
of the continued distress In that state.
The contributions of the Ohio state
grange along about this period amount
rd Ia nearly $4,000.
These were the days when the ma
tionnl grange treasury was plethoric.
nnd IL was 50 because of the rapid In
crease In the number Of oranges. In
January. 1874. 2.iiO new oranges were
organzcd: In February. 2.23o; In
March. 2.O2i; IN April. LAST, and from
that time on the decline was notable.
ON Jan. I. 1919. there were 2l,697
oranges IN the United States.
The grange has always given its
best cffort, to the advancement of ed
untional interests \ notable illus
ration occurs In the history or the or.
urr IN the snUihrrn states, whore the
.rpugc was M one time stronger In
numbers than IN any other part of the
country Uut I'm the southern states
schools were very Inadequate, The
state grange ~ North Carolina rec
commended that the subordinate
oranges Interest themselves In csuih-
fishing local schools, ana II found prnc.
ricubc II was advised that primary
lud even hlgh schools bc established
In connection with county aud sub
ordinate oranges, The national grange
proceedings of 1882 state that grange
schools were established by Subordi-
nate oranges Ia some parts of l.ouisi-
ana. North Carolina and Alabama and
possibly In some other southern states.
The grange fair now so deservcdly
popular In some states, is no new Idea.
As early as 1872 local grange In Mis-
sissippi held II grange fair and In
1875 u state grange fair was held In
Alabama. Grange fairs were early
very popular In New England, as they
even now are. 4 grange crop report
Ing system was organized In 1874, au-
thorlzcd by the national grange, hut
as the oranges did not respond very
actively IL was not continued after
1879. although the reports were said to
be- of very considerable value.
The stamping grounds of the Order |
In 1874 and 1879 were the states of In |
diana aud Iowa, There the great bat |
ties of the grange in It's various activi- |
ties We're fought; railway legislation,
grange stores, grange business agen- |
cies aud cooperative schemes and poll |
tics. each and all had their times of /
greatest success, and then came dire /
failure. These states had about the 1
same number of oranges, the high wa
ter mark having been reached I'm Janu-
ary, 1879, with about 2,0O0 oranges in |
either state, There We're 100000 mem
hers of the order i'm Iowa nj that time
Missouri was also I'm the 2,OO0 grange
class, though with somewhat fewer
members. As early ms 1872 Iowa had
gone into the business of grange co
operation ON a large scale, According
to the published proceedings of the
Iowa state grange of that year, third
of the grain elevators in the state
were either owned or controlled 10y the
grange IL il said that 5uOO,OOO bush
els of grain and immense numbers of
hogs ana cattle had been sold in Chi
'ago 10y grange agents, and i'm the pur-
,haSes of farm implements il is said
hat the farmers of the state were saw
"a $500 ,oo0. aud IL was reported Ia the
state grange that year that the agent
,f the Order had done business of
iaOOoo0 and effected a saving of L.
'er cent on family supplies and 20 per
'eut ON agricultural implements.
But the past is only of benefit 10 the
present iu this respect as warn.u- /
which thc grIugc of the present must