There will be an organizational meeting on April 9th at 6:30 at 20658 County Highway 34 in Dodge Center, the location of the Green Shack, to explore forming a Grange chapter in Dodge County. There is currently the Zumbro Valley Grange in the Byron area. Members were present at the Dodge County Business Expo to spread awareness of the organization.
The Grange was founded on December 4, 1867, in Washington, D.C., by Oliver Hudson Kelley and seven men and one woman, Caroline Hall. The commissioner of the Department of Agriculture commissioned Oliver Kelley, after a personal interview with President Andrew Johnson, to go to the Southern states and to collect data to improve Southern agricultural conditions. In the South, poor farmers bore the brunt of the Civil War and were suspicious of Northerners.
Kelley found he was able to overcome these regional differences as a Mason, and with Southern Masons as guides, he toured the war-torn countryside in the South and the outdated farming practices. He witnessed a lack of progressive agriculture, where illiterate farmers were using a system of farming that was the same as that handed down by generations gone by. He saw the need for an organization that would bring people together from across the country in a spirit of mutual cooperation.
The Grange came from the Latin word meaning a farm house with outbuildings, a barn or granary. Because of the founders involvement with the association of Free Masons, the organization took on a similarity to the Mason movement in the beginning. The motto of the Grange is from a Latin phrase "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity". The Grange became the first nationwide agricultural advocacy organization in the United States, founded to unite farmers socially, economically, and politically. Its rapid growth in the 1870s made it a major force behind cooperative farming efforts and early regulatory reforms, especially those targeting railroad monopolies.
In the 1800’s the Grange membership swelled to over 800,000 when over a third of the population were farmers but fell dramatically after the turn of the century as the percentage of farmers on the land decreased. Today the organization is on the rise as membership has increased to about 140,000 nationally.
The Grange is a non-profit family-oriented organization that advocates for rural America and agriculture and promotes the welfare of our nation and all of the people.
