Friday, May 29, 2009

Patrons of Husbandry

The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry is a fraternal organization of farmers, by farmers and for farmers that provided for "the intellectual, social and financial improvement of the farmer and his family". Granges provided information on sound farming practices, banded together to lower exorbitant freight rates on railroads, and campaigned for Rural Free Delivery of mail.

The first Grange in Maine was founded in 1873. By the early 1900's there were over 500. Today that number has dwindled to around 150. Jeff Kirlin over at The Thing of the Moment and I have vowed to get photos of all the remaining Granges in Maine this summer! (Right Jeff?).

So without further ado (or explanation) here are 12 Granges:

Readfield Grange

Leeds Grange

Richville Grange

West Baldwin Grange

North Jay Grange

Starling Grange, North Fayette

Sidney Grange

Enterprise Grange, Richmond

Wales Grange

Winthrop Grange

Manchester Grange

Androscoggin Grange, Greene

5 comments:

jkirlin said...

One of the earliest Grange Rules was: Never HDR a Grange. I read it in Grange Rules: 1902.

Turnbill said...

I suppose TtV'ing them is okay?

Lisa/knitnzu said...

What, no Augusta grange? Which I only know about because they had some yard sale when there was similar over at St. Paul's, and I got a WHOLE BOX OF KNITTING BOOKS (all nearly brand new) for cheap.

Murph said...

I suppose someone's gotta dress Kirlin and take him out. Might as well be you! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hey Kirlin...so far Bill is kicking your Grange Hall butt. You'd better get posting.