Farmer’s organization begun as a social group that developed
economic programs to increase the buying power of farmers.
In 1867 Oliver H. Kelly and six others developed the idea
of a farmers’ organization titled the National Grange of the
Patrons of Husbandry, later simply called the Grange. The
founders believed that the primary benefits of this organization for farmers should be social and intellectual, but by 1871
the group had become political and phrases such as “cooperation” (among Grange members) and “down with monopolies” were being heard at meetings.
The Grange started to grow vigorously in 1873 because an
economic panic started that year that particularly affected
farmers. Many farmers felt threatened by capitalistic changes
after the Civil War such as larger railroad and industrial corporations. Organizational growth was strong in the northern
Midwestern states and parts of the South, and more than
1,150 Granges were organized that year, compared with 132
in 1871. Membership peaked in 1875.
The two main forms of Grange activity centered on securing cheaper transportation rates for farmers, especially
through the push for governmental regulation of railroads,
and the introduction of cooperative schemes for farm products, supplies, and implements. Later, businesses advertised
to Grangers in agricultural periodicals. Montgomery Ward, a
department store, billed itself as the “original Grange supply
house.” Some Granges operated their own banks and offered
mutual life and fire insurance policies. By 1876, some proposals even existed for international economic cooperation
with other farming organizations.
Some Granges tried to cooperatively market crops with
varying degrees of success during the last three decades of the
nineteenth century. Most economic activity of the Grange
centered around various schemes of cooperative buying and
selling as a way to enhance the economic power of small individual farmers. These cooperative stores handled merchandise and farm implements for Grangers, but these business
operations, successful or not, were never considered the main
reason for the order’s existence. By the late 1870s, many farmers left the Grange and joined the Farmer’s Alliance, a more
politically active group.
—Lisa L. Ossian
References
Buck, Solon Justus. The Granger Movement: A Study of
Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic, and
Social Manifestations, 1870–1880. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1913.
Nordin, D. Sven. Rich Harvest: A History of the Grange,
1867–1900. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1974.