By Kimberly Mayer
I may be the last person on island to get to know the Grange. In the rural town in Connecticut where I grew up, #199 Grange was a large colonial building in the landscape, as formidable and mysterious to me as Knights of Columbus, Elks Club, Shriners and the Masonic Temple. I thought them all men’s clubs. Secret societies complete with handshakes, robes, hoods and who knows what? I never entered any of them. The official name of the Grange is National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. You can imagine the thoughts that went through a 13-year-old’s mind with the word “husbandry.”
Many miles and many years later, along comes my good neighbor on San Juan Island and what does he do in moving here but join the local Grange #966. “I’m channeling my great grandfather, James William Abert Wright,” he told me at the time. In the aftermath of the Civil War, JWA Wright left a decimated Alabama for the San Joaquin Valley, the breadbasket of California. And there, as an educated man, teacher, lawyer, writer and later editor at the San Francisco Daily Evening Post, he became an early Grange organizer. The Declaration of Purposes of the National Grange, a treatise which was adopted by the St. Louis session of the National Grange in 1874 and still stands today, was penned by my neighbor’s great grandfather, JWA Wright.
As a young girl I was wrong about so many things. For one, women have always been admitted membership and held leadership roles in the Grange. Even before they had the right to vote nationally, women enjoyed full vote and voice here. Turns out the Grange was progressive. As the most powerful farming organization in the country, it was a significant force in the national struggle for women suffrage.
In the Connecticut town where I grew up, Grange #199 no longer exists. Membership has declined nationally, but Washington, it turns out, has the largest membership of any state.
The mission statement of San Juan Island Grange #966 is “To support a resilient community of growers, makers, and keepers; to foster social and political engagement; and to maintain our hall as a home for celebrations and programs.” Today this is expressed in gamer nights, workshops, meetings, Repair Fairs and Monday Night Contra Dance — where my neighbor is a regular. Back in the day, the social isolation of farmers is something the Grange always addressed. In the advancement of agriculture, the Grange valued the needs of family members. Halls were designed with a stage for musicians, an open floor for dancing and benches along the walls. Meeting, greeting, courting, socializing and raising families.
One doesn’t even have to be a farmer to join The Grange.
