Oliver Kelley lays the groundwork to build…

Oliver Kelley lays the groundwork to build a new foundation for American agriculture through the organization of the Grange, of which he is the first secretary, on November 15, 1867.

The first Grange is Potomac Grange #1 in Washington, D.C., still extant as of 2019.

Kelley, born in Boston, had moved to the Minnesota frontier in 1849, where he had become a farmer.

In 1864, he had gotten a job as a clerk for the United States Bureau of Agriculture President Andrew Johnson had commissioned Kelley to go to the Southern States and to collect data to improve Southern agricultural conditions.

In the South, poor farmers, who had borne the brunt of the civil war, were suspicious of northerners like Kelley.

Kelley had found he was able to overcome these sectional differences as a Mason.

With southern Masons as guides, he had toured the war-torn countryside in the south and had been appalled by the outdated farming practices.

As he traveled throughout the country, Kelley had built partnerships that developed into the seven original founders of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry.

He had seen the need for an organization that would bring people from the north and south together in a spirit of mutual cooperation and, after many letters and consultations with the other founders, the Grange was born.