SHOW NOTES FOR
EPISODE 5: HOME, HOME ON THE GRANGE
Links:
National Grange
website: www.nationalgrange.org
Listing of Idaho
State Granges: http://www.grange.org/idahostate/index-of-granges/
TRANSCRIPT FOR
EPISODE 5
If youÕre like most
local residents, if you were asked to name the industries that built Sandpoint
and its environs, you might name timber and lumber and railroads, which spring
readily to mind. Today we could add tourism. But you might not have thought of
farming, or considered Bonner County a thriving agricultural center, yet it
was! Throughout most of the twentieth century, farms blanketed the area.
At one time there
were over eighty dairy farms in the county. Today there is one. Large-scale
farms and their attendant institutions—the county fair, 4-H, the
granges—have waned considerably from their robust mid-twentieth-century
numbers. As times have changed and new development has replaced much of the
former farmland, preserving and honoring a vanishing way of life becomes ever
more imperative.
At the museum, the
question came up, ÒWhat exactly is a grange?Ó The museumÕs archives yielded a
bushel of information.
A grange (an archaic word for Òfarm,Ó
related to ÒgranaryÓ) is a community service organization with special interest
in agriculture-related issues. The National Grange movement was founded in 1867
in Washington, D. C., when seven men formed the Order of Patrons of Husbandry
(commonly known as the Grange), led by William Saunders, Superintendent of
Propagating Gardens within the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Today the National
Grange is Òa nonprofit, non-partisan, fraternal organization that advocates for
rural America and agriculture,Ó according to its statement of purpose. Rural free mail delivery, the cooperative
extension program, and farm credit are typical Grange-backed projects for the
benefit of farmers.
The Idaho
State Grange organized in 1908. Bonner CountyÕs earliest
grange, Freeman Lake, opened in 1919. Granges opened thick and fast
during the hard times of the 1920s and 1930s; Selle, Edgmere, Westmond, Colburn,
Elmira, Kootenai, Laclede, Pend Oreille, Sunny Glen, Pack River, Glengary, Hope, and Clark Fork Granges all opened during
this period. In all, the county boasted nineteen
granges, with new ones forming as late as the 1960s. The
last--Snow Valley--opened in 1965.
For
decades, granges labored to improve farm-related education, economic
development, and legislation. In 1935 they were instrumental in bringing
electricity to local farms through FDRÕs Rural Electrification Program (REA). (Northern
Lights, Inc., had the distinction of being the first REA project west of the
Mississippi.) Selle Grange started the CENEX Co-Op
Gas & Supply in Sandpoint. During World War II, granges participated in war
bond drives, scrap iron drives, and Red Cross training. They issued
scholarships and performed countless acts of service to the community, from
building projects to baby showers.
The granges were also
hubs of local social life, thanks in large part to the grange
halls—simple, roomy wooden structures which functioned as community
gathering places for meetings, parties, and dances. Occasionally they filled in
as temporary schoolhouses or churches.
However, from
the late 1960s on, interest in both farming and in joining fraternal
organizations waned. Today only three Bonner County granges—Edgemere, Blanchard, and Clark Fork—are still listed
on the Idaho State Grange website.
As granges have
closed, some halls have been torn down, others put to new uses. Oden Hall is an
example of a former grange hall repurposed as a community center. The Selle Grange Hall still stands near the intersection of
Coburn-Culver and Shingle Mill Roads. Others dot the community, often
resembling one-room schoolhouses.
Thankfully, local
agriculture has not faded entirely from the scene. A burgeoning number of
small-scale growers, CSAs, goat farmers, and berry-gatherers are responding to
increasing demand for fresh, locally sourced produce. Are these new-style
farmers joining and forming granges? So far, it appears not. But with its
strong history in grassroots activism, community service, and pulling together
in the interests of agriculture, the grange movement may see a
resurgence yet.
Do you have a
grange-related story or memory to share? WeÕd love to hear it. The museum is
currently closed due to the COVID-19 virus in the spring of 2020. However, we
still have staff and volunteers working on various projects. You can email us
at info@bonnercountyhistory.org, visit our website at bonnercountyhistory.org,
call is at 208-263-2344, or find us at the Bonner County History page on
Facebook.
Portions of this
episode, written by Jennifer Leo, originally appeared in Sandpoint Magazine.