Early This Century,

The Grange Was A Mainstay Of Community Life

By Jan Howard

The Grange, or The Patrons of Husbandry as it was also known, flourished with the agrarian economy of the south and west, and eventually spread north to New England. It found fertile ground in Newtown and flourished here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

O.H. Kelley of the Department of Agriculture founded the Grange in December 1867, after a tour of inspection of farming conditions in the south. It developed rapidly during the next ten years in the south and west, and both farmers and their wives were enrolled as members. Local granges were controlled by state organizations, which in turn had national affiliation.

Although the Grange was not expressly a political organization, it had great influence in securing legislation against high railroad fares, trusts, and “hard” money. Its influence also secured the elevation of the Department of Agriculture to a cabinet office, the passage of the act for founding agricultural experimental stations, and the Interstate Commerce Commission.

State Deputy J.H. Blakeman of Housatonic Grange in Stratford organized the local Pohtatuck (later spelled Pootatuck) Grange No. 129 on March 9, 1892.

 There were 19 charter members, including Mr and Mrs Zalmon S. Peck, Mr and Mrs S.J. Botsford, Mr and Mrs W.C. Johnson, Mr and Mrs Reuben H. Smith, Lemuel Glover, W.H. Glover, J.J. Schermerhorn, H.C. Beers, A.O. Bierce, C.B. Johnson, L.M. Johnson, Fred Chambers, E.S. Lovell, and two others not mentioned in the records.

   Zalmon S. Peck was the first master. Other officers were S.J. Botsford, overseer; R.H. Smith, lecturer; H.C. Beers, steward; A.O. Bierce, assistant steward; W.C. Johnson, chaplain; W.H. Glover, treasurer; J.J. Schermerhorn, secretary; E.S. Lovell, gatekeeper; Mrs Z.S. Peck, ceres; Mrs S.J. Botsford, pomona; Mrs R.F. Smith, flora; and Mrs W.C. Johnson, L.A. steward. For a while a purchasing agent was elected annually so there was an attempt made for cooperative buying.

The organizational meeting was held in Fireman’s Hall over the Savings Bank in the Sanford Building. A committee was appointed to locate a permanent meeting place as the hall was not suited to Grange needs.

Deputy Blakeman, aided by S.C. Lewis, assistant steward of the Connecticut State Grange, installed the officers.

  The first class of the Pohtatuck Grange initiated in 1892 included Mr and Mrs C.E. Beers, George A. Northrop, E.F. Northrop, Homer W. Baldwin, Mrs J.J. Schermerhorn, C.M. Parsons, Mrs Walter Glover, Letty J. Stoddard, and Mrs E.L. Johnson.

Grange members were very active, participating in many educational and social activities and community service projects. They visited and received visits from neighboring granges, such as Harmony in Monroe and Housatonic in Stratford.

 Meetings were held in homes until a room over L.C. Morris’ store was leased. The Grange met there for over 20 years, enlarging it twice to meet the needs of its growing membership.

In 1914, the Grange meeting hall with all its contents was destroyed by fire. With some difficulty, a new meeting place was found and lost property replaced. The Grange met in various locations through the years, including the Hawley Manor Inn.

A New Grange Hall

 In June 1944, a new Grange Hall was dedicated on Church Hill Road next to what is now the Blue Colony, with Master Charles F. Hawley and past masters taking part in the dedication. When the building was removed to make way for I-84, the Grange began meeting on the second floor of the Masonic Hall in Sandy Hook.

Longtime resident Caroline Stokes remembers square dances held at the Church Hill Road building, and the good works the Grange did in the community.

 Audrey Gaffney, who has been a Grange member for 65 years, still attends meetings though there is no longer a Newtown Grange. “We stopped meeting in Newtown about 1991,” she said. Mrs Gaffney moved to Newtown in 1938 when her husband, the late Vincent Gaffney, began teaching vocational agriculture at Newtown High School.

Grange meetings have certain ceremonial functions, she explained. There is a secret word to enter and a salute, which is one clap of the hands. A meeting begins with a ceremonial march to open the Bible, and ends with the closing of the Bible.

One ceremony centers on the conferring of degrees. Mrs Gaffney explained there are four different degrees, symbolizing the four seasons. Members, who are called “brother” and “sister,” are not considered patrons until they take the fourth degree. “We had to do certain requirements to become members,” she said.

  On the night degrees are conferred, candidates process two by two around the meeting room, stopping before various officers, where they answer questions. There are also songs and music. Officers wear specific sashes and badges, and women officers wear robes suitable to the degree and season of the year.

In May 1926 degrees were conferred on ten candidates, May Platt, Louise Perry, Margaret Joy, Margaret Crowe, Raymond Platt, Russell Platt, John Victor Visney, John Vlassco Visney, Stephen Donasaeur, and Herbert Mayer.

Meetings consist of the usual roll call, minutes, old and new business, and reports of committees. They might also include a literary or musical program, a lecture, updates on legislation enacted in Hartford, papers presented on a current topic by members, or debates on a particular issue. A representative of the town, such as the first selectman, might speak to the group.

In March 1927 there was a lively discussion on a bill in the legislature that provided for part of the tax paid for automobiles and gas to be applied for upkeep of roads other than those maintained by the state.

Mrs Gaffney particularly remembers discussions about a controversial proposal for a highway to replace Route 25. “There was a big discussion about that,” she said. “It got the people to go to those meetings.”

There were fun events as well as educational offerings at the local Grange, she said.

“Everybody’s birthday would be recognized,” Mrs Gaffney said. Through the years, there have been Christmas programs, dances, clambakes, and Grange anniversary parties, such as its 30th celebrated in the parlor of the Congregational Church.

Entertainments

Minstrels were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of which was described in a January 1899 Bee as “one of the best local affairs given in town in a long time. Charles G. Peck was heartily encored on his solo and responded with a song.”

In September 1933 a mock trial was held at St Rose Casino, which drew an audience of nearly 200. The victim was A.P. Smith, who was sued for $100,000. According to a story in the October 6 Bee, attorney Earle W. Smith was the prosecutor, while Mr Smith, the Bee editor, was defended by “attorney” Edward S. Pitzschler. Attorney Smith kept the audience roaring with laughter with his witticisms, The Bee wrote. The mock trial netted the Grange $40.

Debates were held, with members taking pro and con positions. Robert W. Tiemann, Paul V. Cavanaugh, Robert Mitchell, and Raymond Hall debated “Factories should be allowed in the Borough of Newtown” in December 1926. The decision was to the affirmative side by a slim margin.

In 1894 the local Grange sponsored the Fourth of July celebration, and in October held a fair in Town Hall with exhibits of farm products, a ladies’ industrial department, exhibits by merchants and manufacturers, and cattle and horses. The fair was so successful it was held annually until it merged into the Newtown Agricultural Fair.

Mrs Gaffney said there is still a Grange fair held in Durham. She remembers the local fair, where members would enter their animals, canned goods, and present demonstrations. “I did one about how to cut up a chicken,” she said.

There were children’s nights, such as in June 1917 when a program arranged by Emma Mitchell and May Hoyt featured a piano solo by Esther Rupf, a recitation by Donald Mead, and a violin and mandolin duet by Helen Mead and Earle Smith. A play, Search for Happiness, featured Connie Houlihan, Elizabeth McCarthy, Ethel Peck, Florence Ferris, William Leonard, Evelyn Peck, Vivian Kennedy, Esther Rupf, Ethel Collins, Irene Corbett, Cora Northrop, John Northrop, Charles Carlson, Elizabeth Carlson, DeForest Glover, Dorothy Kennedy, and Kathryn Crowe. Superintendent of Schools Leo Hickson spoke on the “Problems of our schools and how the Grange may help to solve them.”

Mrs Gaffney said she often played the piano for musical events. She remembers duets with Florence Patterson of Sandy Hook. “We would sing two songs at the opening of the meeting,” she added. Then the chaplain would say a prayer and announce the names of members who might be sick or who had died.

Mrs Gaffney said the local Grange would provide food and personal items at Thanksgiving and Christmas for less fortunate residents. She said members still make caps and mittens for children. The Grange also offered plays and dramas to benefit local organizations, such as the library.

There were agricultural programs, such as a daylong institute on poultry in March 1906, and talks on dairy farming, tuberculosis in cattle, care of fruit trees, and the moral influence of the farm on Town Hall, and canning demonstrations. In April 1896, the president of the agricultural college at Storrs (now UConn) made a presentation. 

Members presented papers on a variety of subjects, including the origin of Arbor Day, consolidation of school districts, whether girls should have an equal education with boys, and in 1897, “How to Keep Christmas” by Ezra L. Johnson. In 1911, a paper discussed the advantages of automobiles to the farmer.

Community pride was reflected in a paper presented by John J. Northrop in March 1899. Newtown, he said, is “one of the most beautiful country villages in all of New England, especially in summertime.” He mentioned picturesque drives, land that was “the best in the state” for farming, schools, water company, electric lights, streams, lakes and ponds, and the “great” Housatonic River as some of the town’s attributes.

The Grange proved its patriotism during wartime. During World War I, lectures were presented on “war breads” and substitutes for sugar. On July 22, 1919, Miss Charlotte Minor read a paper on “The part our members played in the war, those who went, those who stayed home.” Those at home, she said, were “learning to make good war breads so that our boys might have the nourishing wheat flour,” finding substitutes for meat, and attending Red Cross meetings.

In May 1929 the Grange purchased flags for soldiers’ graves.

At one time there were 80 members of the Newtown Grange, but its membership decreased through deaths, moves out of town, and other causes, such as the decrease in farms in the community.

Though the Grange no longer has a meeting place in Newtown, the following Granges exist in Fairfield County: Redding, Harmony in Monroe, Farmill River in Huntington, Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Trumbull, Norfield in Weston, Cannon in Wilton, and Pokono in Brookfield.

 Fairfield County Pomona No 9, organized in 1895, meets six times a year at various Grange halls. Past grand masters of the county Grange from the Newtown Grange include the late Robert K. Mitchell and Mary Leah Benson.

Today, the remaining granges function much as they did a century ago, holding meetings, sponsoring fairs and social gatherings, and continuing to do good works in their communities.

(Information for this story was found in The New Modern Encyclopedia published in 1952, and Johnson’s history of Newtown.)