The Grange
The American economy changed drastically after the Civil War. The population increased by 30% in the decade following the war. Railroad mileage increased by 111% and industrial and agricultural production mushroomed. With improved transportation and communication systems, the American economy consolidated into one unit, with farmers and businessmen seeking national markets.
This transformation created strains for several groups, but farmers were the first to join together in protest. New machinery, such as McCormick’s reaper, allowed farmers to produce larger crops with fewer men. But the machinery was so expensive that many farmers went heavily into debt to purchase it and the increased acres of land needed to justify such purchase. As production increase, prices fell. Corn prices dropped from a high of $.57 per bushel in 1867 to $.34 per bushel in 1876. In addition, farmers found that they were more and more tied into the national economy, dependent on grain elevators and railroads for their fortunes. They found, however that railroad monopolies favored big business, and Kansas farmers complained that they paid one bushel of corn to ship another bushel of corn to the east cost.
The Patrons of Husbandry arose out of this discontent. Popularly know as the Grange, this organization started in 1867 and found its greatest early strength in the midwestern states of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.
The original intent of founder Oliver Kelley was that the Grange would promote better farming methods and improve the intellectual and social life of isolated farm families. The Grange was designed as a “family fraternity,” to provide opportunities for all members. Women were given equal status and voting privileges in the Grange from the beginning. Special emphasis was placed on getting young men and women to join, for as one of the founders explained, “There is a time in the life of every farmer’s boy when he becomes disgusted with farm life. At or before that time I would admit him to the Order and try to educate him to a love of the occupation.” A few years later, Juvenile Granges were organized for children 5-16 years old.
But farmers were more interested in improving their lot politically and financially. Specifically, they wanted two things: cheaper transportation for getting their crops to market and lower prices on the supplies they purchased. The Grange constitution barred them from political action. Many Granges worked around this by adjourning the Grange meeting before beginning a discussion of political issues. They also unofficially supported candidates who worked to regulate railroad and grain elevator prices. A series of “Granger Laws” were passed in several states between 1869 and 1874. These laws set maximum charges for railroads and grain elevators and established regulatory commissions with broad powers.
This early success caused the Grange membership to swell. The Kansas State Grange organized in 1872. The Gardner Grange organized in 1873, the first in Johnson county. In the next few months, thirty-six Granges organized in the county, with a membership of 1200. By 1874, the Grange boasted 39,840 members in Kansas.
This increased membership led farmers to seek a solution to their second grievance — purchasing supplies at a lower price. Hoping to buy in bulk and eliminate the middleman, Granges throughout the country tried cooperative stores. Aaron Montgomery Ward insured the success of his new mail order business by becoming the “Official Grange Supply House” in 1872. He offered Grange co-ops special privileges and regularly printed testimonials from Grange officers in his catalogs. But many of these cooperative stores were financial disasters, and when they failed, Grange membership dwindled.
Johnson County, however, had a cooperative association that was a phenomenal success. Grangers organized the Johnson County Cooperative Association in July 1876 in Olathe. Shares in the Association were sold to Grange members only, and each shareholder had an equal voice in the management. Sales in the co-op stores were made at normal retail prices, with profits at the end of the year divided among the purchasers in proportion to the amounts they purchased. The stores stocked general merchandise, farm products and machinery. The capital stock of the Johnson County Cooperative Association increased from $850 in 1876 to over $40,000 ten years later. The Association had sales of nearly $270,000 in 1883. The Association erected a three-story building at the corner of Chestnut and Park in Olathe at a cost of $75,000. When this building burned in 1903, the directors voted immediately to replace it. The Association also operated branch stores in Gardner, Edgerton, Prairie Center and Stanley for a number of years.
With the success of these cooperative efforts, Johnson County dominated the state Grange at the turn of the century. Twenty-three Johnson County men and women held twelve state offices for a combined total of 102 years between 1885 and 1905. The state annual meeting was held in Olathe eight times in these two decades. Johnson County’s success spurred other Kansas Granges to establish their own co-op stores and, as a result, the Grange flourished in Kansas in the 1880s, even though it declined nationally.
The success of the co-op stores also led the Grangers in Johnson County to organize the Patrons' Cooperative Bank in 1883. This was the first such bank organized in the state, and for many years it was the only one.
The following year the Johnson County Cooperative Association formed a printing department and began publication of the “Kansas Patron,” the official Kansas Grange paper. This weekly was under the supervision of Johnson Countian George Black, who served as secretary of the state Grange. The paper continued in publication until the Olathe Grange building burned in 1903.
In 1889 the Johnson County Cooperative Association organized the Patrons’ Fire and Tornado Association to “mutually share each other’s losses” from fire, lightning, tornado and wind storms. Subscribers paid a small membership fee and were assessed proportionately whenever another member suffered a loss. By 1914 the original $50,000 subscribed had grown to over $18 million. Recognized as one of the leading insurance companies in Kansas, it also had a national reputation as an outstanding example of a purely Grange business organization. The company continues in Olathe today, as the Patrons Mutual Insurance Association.
Beginning in the 1880s, other organizations absorbed the Grange issues and began to assume national leadership in the farmers’ movement. While the Grange lost its political lead, it continues to provide the social and intellectual improvement first envisioned by its founders. The Morning Grange, Gardner Grange and Lexington Grange continue the tradition in Johnson County today.
--ALBUM vol. 3, no. 1 (winter 1990)