Patrons of Husbandry
The Patrons of Husbandry or the Grange was an organization established in 1867 to improve agricultural methods and promote farmers’ social and economic needs in the United States. Grange was founded by Oliver Hudson Kelly, who was an employee in the Department of Agriculture. The organization was formed following numerous problems faced by farmers during the late 1860s and ’70s[1]. Farmers were faced with issues like expensive railroad charges to transport crops, costly farm machinery, costly charges in grain silos, high mortgage and interest rates, swarms of grasshoppers, and falling prices of farm products.
The membership to the Patrons of Husbandry had increased tremendously to more than 1.5 million members in the early 1870s. The members usually met in the halls they had built; the halls also acted as a social place for dancing and quilting bees. Patrons of Husbandry members merged their money to purchase farm machinery communally, which they shared among themselves[2]. Members also built their grain silos to circumvent the high charges of the railroad companies.
The Grange organization tried to persuade the government to regulate the extravagant railroad charges. In 1871, farmers in Illinois successfully lobbied their government to pass a law fixing the maximum rates that could be charged by railroad and grain elevators. Wisconsin and Minnesota later adopted a similar bill[3]. In 1877, the regulatory legislation was challenged in the Supreme Court. In a famous Granger court, Munn v. Illinois, where the constitutionality of the Illinois law setting the maximum charges, was challenged. Chief Justice Morrison Remick Waite, however, upheld the legislation.
The popularity of Grange began to decline in 1873, and by 1880, the membership had fallen to 100000 members. The movement rebounded in the 20th century, now called The National Grange.
Bibliography
Carlson, Allan C. The new agrarian mind: The movement toward decentralist thought in twentieth-century America. Routledge, 2017.
Bourne, Jenny. In Essentials, Unity: An Economic History of the Grange Movement. Ohio University Press, 2017.
Smith, Ralph. “The Early Granger Movement in the Southwest.” In Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science, vol. 22, pp. 168-170. 2015.
[1] Carlson, The new agrarian mind
[2] Smith, The Early Granger Movement in the Southwest
[3] Bourne, In Essentials, Unity