The Granger Movement and a Selection of Odds and Ends

My area of the country has old Grange Halls everywhere. 

I pass one heading towards the We-Lik-It ice cream stand, there is one on the way to Lowe's although maybe that was sold and turned into a church, and this one is on the way to the Post Office.  The Grangers have pie sales before the holidays!  Other than that I am not really familiar with what they do nowadays.  I somehow thought of it as a 4H for adults with a social component.

I found a book from 1900 to skim that was interesting to me as it is Connecticut.  

The Connecticut Granges: An Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the Patrons of Husbandry : Sketches of the State, Pomona, and Subordinate Granges of Connecticut, with Valuable Statistics, Notices of Prominent Members, Portraits, and Illustrations



This illustration is shown full size at the bottom of the blog. A library of Congress image originally, this version seems color enhanced and cleaned up a bit.

I found this image after I got the inaccurate idea that J.A. Everitt had something to do with the Grange movement.  I don't think he did.  The Grange movement is interesting though!  Wikipedia will get you filled in, and there is a ton of stuff on the web, both old and new, if you want more.

I had fun poking around eBay for Grange ephemera!  You could try to collect Grange ribbons; they'd make a jolly display with  pleasant feelings attached.

Search Sample:

This first one has a great lithograph, "I Feed You All".

The Grange Movement, 1875 | The Gilder Lehrman Institute ...

www.gilderlehrman.org/.../...

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

The Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was founded in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of ...

The next one is from a search in BOOKS.  There are many there.

The Granger Movement: A Study of Agricultural Organization ...

Solon Justus Buck - 1913 - ‎Read - ‎More editions

Interesting Illustrations - The Farmer Feeds Us All

The third power: farmers to the front -  self published in 1903 and later editions were self published for years.  

These illustrations are from the 1907 edition.  I was so surprised to see them!!  The earlier copies I had viewed were without any illustrations.  

I wish I could find more information about the man.  I have come across more than an average number of court cases involving him - he is sometimes in the wrong, and sometimes in the right.

One snippet from Floral News, or some industry magazine like that, said he was the first seedsman who was sent to jail to serve a term!  Can I find any info about that?  No.  (At least not at the level of search I am interested in doing :-)

This first illustration is odd.  The rest are good, rather folky, propaganda.   The sincere message he tries to convey in the series comes through.  I wonder what he would have said about the reason for adding them at this late date.

Bye-bye Summer - Some OK Seed Packets

I expected J. A. Everitt Seed Co. to have interesting seed packets since their catalog illustrations have so much personality.  This tomato packet is the only one with a bit of flare, and it isn't anything too special.  However, as fall progresses it is nice to remember the spring garden when it was full of promise and the seed packets littered the kitchen.  Not long before seed catalogs for next year arrive!

These are all OK Seeds.  Later the packets were not marked OK.

                                

 

 

A. I. Root's Early Thoroughbred Potato

It appears that seedsman were allowed to preface a new variety developed and named by others with their own company name.  Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions.  It is hard to compare potato illustrations...especially when Everitt's is strangely depicted.  Is it baked (not likely)?  But the skin in curling off. Zombie potato!!

Nice use of the ruler detail under the pedestal above...
A. I. Root was a respected company :-)  

The Christopher Columbus Muskmelon!

I was delighted to find this just before Columbus Day!  The 1894 J. A. Everitt catalog has great illustrations.

Farming Politics, Spite, Perseverance and J.A. Everitt, Seedsman

I finally found some papers that smooth out the lumps in what I had found about Everitt and the Equity Society. 

The following is from a Agricultural Commons paper, The Agrarian Tradition in American Society by Clinton B. Allison, Harold F. Breimyer, Walter N. Lambert, Frank O. Leuthold and Joe A. Martin.

"The American Society of Equity (1902) was organized in Indiana by J. A. Everitt. His aim was to develop a farm organization for "controlling production and prices of farm products." Many of Everitt's ideas were put into effect by the Federal Government in years following the existence of the organization. 

The Equity developed a plan for "monthly crop reporting" and "storing grains on the farm" during surplus periods. Wheat was the leading item held from market for a "set price" although similar goals for tobacco in Kentucky and Tennessee were made. The organization however, did not advocate government action. 

Everitt presented his ideas through the magazine, Up-to-Date Farming, of which he was owner and publisher. By 1906 the organization was represented in 12 Midwest states. There was a "commodity" section and an "organizational" section. 

In 1907, a split in the organization on regional lines occurred and Everitt was voted out of office as president. Membership continued to shift to more Western states and became essentially a "wheat belt" organization. Membership in 1912 was 40 thousand with the leading states being Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Equity was a leader in establishing marketing cooperatives of all types in the 1910's. Although attempts were made to transform the Equity into a political organization, the Equity never shifted its purpose. By 1917, the Equity had declined substantially. It formally amalgamated in 1934 with the Farmers' Union. However, the "Equity Cooperative Exchange" formed by the Equity was a leader in cooperative marketing."

The following article from the Country Gentleman illustrates the campaign to oust Everitt.

Everitt's naming his own paper as the official organ of the society was a bit iffy by today's standards...

This seems a good review of J.A.'s book.

And this next is just funny.