Grangers

Grangers

In 1867 Oliver H. Kelley founded the “The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry”,

the national grange. The group was originally established for social and educational

purposes. Yet it expanded as the local granges became political forums and increased in

number as channels of farmer protest against economic abuses of the day. The granges

sought to correct these abuses through cooperative enterprise. Oliver H. Kelley, an

avowed “book farmer”, advocated experimentation, advanced methods, and increased

communication among farmers. After viewing first hand, the wretched conditions in the

post Civil War south, Kelley founded this group of whom headquarters was his home for

its first 2 years.

The grangers ...