GRANGE: THE DIFFERENT FRATERNITY

The Grange recently wrapped up its 135th year and at that age it remains as one of America's most long-lasting and successful fraternities. There are some important reasons why this organization has stayed on the American scene for so long, while, over the same period of time, hundreds of other fraternal organizations have come and gone.

In the November 2002 Washington State Grange News we examined the general concepts and structures underlying all fraternal organizations, including the Order of Patrons of Husbandry commonly known as the Grange. We also looked at distinctive characteristics of all fraternities, qualities that set them apart from other associations.

Among the most common elements appearing in all fraternities are these: The attempt to form solid friendship and allegiance between members that resemble those ties existing between family members; dedication to community service as well as mutual helpfulness between fraternal members; and, in many cases, establishment of business institutions (primarily mutual insurance companies) that provide benefits to members. The Grange has excelled in delivering all of these benefits throughout its many years of service to Americans. But the way the Grange has delivered those services, the audience that has enjoyed them and the range of activities have been markedly different from most of the nation's other fraternities.

In order to track reasons for the Grange's success in providing fraternal benefits for 135 years, we need to peek back into the dreams of its founders. At the time the Grange came into being there were already many fraternal groups in operation, the most notable being the Masons and the Odd Fellows. However, these and other fraternities were male-dominated groups and they were, in large part, confined to the towns and cities. The Grange from its onset appealed to another constituency, farmers and others who lived in the countryside. For all practical purposes, the Grange was the first secular organization that catered to their interests and lifestyle and its evolution was controlled by the unique needs of those rural residents.

The principal founder of the Grange, Oliver Hudson Kelley, was already a seasoned activist for rural causes when he established the fraternity in 1867. Thomas A. Woods' marvelous biography of Kelley [1] reveals some previously unknown information about the Minnesota farmer and his efforts to organize local cooperatives and educational endeavors that would benefit those in agriculture -- long before he joined with others in forming the Grange. Unlike relatives in town, 19th century farmers had few resources for education, recreation or economic self-help before the Grange came on the scene.

Early on, the Grange went far beyond the role assumed by most fraternities by focusing on education that would help members -- mainly farmers and their families -- improve their lot in life. When the Grange was formed, agriculture was just beginning its emergence from subsistence farming into the industrial, mechanized farming that we have today. New machinery innovations were coming out each month, implements that would make the farmers' life easier and more profitable. Kelley saw Grange halls around the nation as logical places where farmers could learn about the emerging technology (much like Grange halls in Washington state are today being used to acquaint people with computers and the Internet). From its beginning the Grange, unlike most other fraternities, included women and young people and Kelley envisioned educational opportunities for those members as well. Other fraternities focused mainly upon their ritualistic work, which at that time included men only; public schools assumed the educational role for townsfolk.

Recreation and social events were mostly nonexistent for rural residents at that time -- unless they took the wagon into town. Here the Grange fulfilled another role by providing places in rural areas -- the thousands of Grange halls that dotted the nation -- where farm families could gather for fun. The Grange not only had regular business meetings that attracted interest, but members created their own entertainment by staging plays, group dinners, dances and other social events. Even the Grange's ritualistic work drew enthusiastic participation by members if for no other reason than it was an opportunity to socialize while being involved in worthwhile activity.

Economic self-help and legislative involvement were the two most distinctive Grange activities that set the fraternity far apart from all others. Many fraternities, especially those associated with ethnic groups on the East Coast, formed mutual insurance arms, many of which survive today as mutual insurance companies. The Grange followed that pattern as well and mutual insurance companies organized by our fraternity continue to provide coverage to a significant portion of our population.

Where the Grange departed from the fraternal model adopted by other organizations was its interest, dating from the Grange's opening days, in helping members help themselves by organizing cooperatives. While mutual insurance companies are cooperatives, early Grange members saw many other opportunities for cooperatives to make

their lives better. Kelley's pre-Grange co-ops helped his Minnesota farm neighbors buy the latest machinery at a discount by pooling their orders together. Likewise, they sold their crops as a unit through marketing cooperatives. Farmers today, all across America, continue to enjoy benefits from doing business cooperatively: Our farm supply co-ops (such as CHS Cooperatives and their affiliated Grange Supply Stores) have enabled farm families to purchase needed items at the lowest possible cost. Marketing co-ops still help farmers get the best prices for their crops by pooling their commodities with those of their neighbors and selling them together.

Early Grangers didn't stop with those efforts, though. Co-ops were formed to process milk and butter; package and sell eggs; pack and distribute fruit; manufacture dynamite used on the farms; run wire and sell electricity; manufacture tractors; refine fuel; and so on. No other fraternity can claim a comparable wide breadth of commercial activity that was designed specifically as a benefit to its members.[2]

Nor can any other fraternity point to more than 100 years of intense involvement in legislative affairs. Early on, Grangers realized that with their new fraternal group they had strength in numbers. In many ways farm families were then at the mercy of the townspeople -- the merchants, the bankers, commodity brokers and managers of the railroads. While the co-ops gave a measure of independence to rural residents, they had their limitations. Grangers realized that in order to make the most dramatic improvements in their way of life they needed to steer their Grange into the halls of government. In a non-partisan manner they devised methods of adopting legislative policy on the local level, advancing it up within the organization through the county, state and national levels. Then as a body they went to lawmakers and presented their case for honest, just and equitable legislation.

One of the earliest causes taken on by the Grange was an attempt to break the strangle hold on farmers by the railroads. Legislation was enacted in several states, due to pressure from the Grange, that sought to regulate freight rates that had been unfair. These early Granger Laws, as they were termed, paved the way for our modern system of checks and balances that regulate business practices in the U.S. The need for this governmental power, envisioned first of all by Grange farmers in the 1870s, is all too apparent today with continuing malpractice by corporations such as Enron and WorldCom.

regulation of our shorelines; assisting farmers by lobbying for equitable tax structures for agriculture; and working with lawmakers to seek solutions to our crumbling and outdated transportation systems.

What began as a farm organization in 1867 has grown into an institution that continues to stress the fraternal, family-like social ties binding members to one another. Longtime members cherish the tradition emphasizing the fraternal love and fellowship that underlies all the legislative work and economic self-help programs. That tradition, they say, does make us different -- as different from trade associations as our legislative and co-op programs set us apart from other fraternities. Those differences make the Grange a unique American institution that will continue to have a prominent role into the 21st century.