The Gilded Age and Populism: Oliver Kelley and the Grange

The Gilded Age and Populism: Oliver Kelley and the Grange

Matthew H. Butkowski

Lake Shore High School

The Gilded Age and Populism: Oliver Kelley and the Grange

The Gilded Age was a time of peace with underlying conflicts, such as corrupt business

tycoons due to the government hiding it up and being paid to allow it to keep going, among these

were problems that effected farmers. Along came an American agriculturalist by the name of

Oliver Kelley, who founded the Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry and devoted himself to

improving conditions for farmers. Upon doing so, he brought the plights of the farmers into the

public spotlight. He was a born leader, active in local agricultural societies and dedicated to

ensuring that the area's new farmers benefited from each others' experiences. (Roberts, 2012).

In the year 1864, Kelley was a clerk for the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture and in 1865 he traveled

South, a trip in which he attempted to aid agricultural reconstruction. Kelleys main objectives

when creating the Grange were to establish national solidarity among the farmers and to provide

them with educational and recreational opportunities for farmers.

After a short trip to the South, Kelley began to ponder about creating a national union of

farmers to unite the North and South after the Civil War. Thus, Kelley returned to Washington

D.C., where he was serving as a clerk for the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture. There, he gathered a

small group of friends and associates, with which he founded the Order of the Patrons of

Husbandry, otherwise known as the Grange in 1867. Kelley was always one who wanted to

adopt the newest methods of his trade (farming) and have at his disposal the newest and best

tools to do it with. However, the government at the time was turning away from farming and

attempting to push towards industry, leaving the farmers at the mercy of what came to them. So-

called robber barons such as Jay Gould would attempt to corrupt the railroad businesses, making

it more expensive on the farmers to ship their products. Additional enemies of the farmer

included Cornelius Vanderbilt, the owner of a railroad tycoon which would charge heavy prices
The Gilded Age and Populism: Oliver Kelley and the Grange

for farmers to ship goods. Given the opportunity to speak with them, Kelley may have asked

What good are your schemes doing for the people?, including the farmers. Kelley and his

friends in the Grange sought to oppose their actions, and vied for the regulation of railways as

common-carriers by the states (https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-

s-history-textbook/the-gilded-age-1870-1900-20/the-agrarian-and-populist-movements-155/the-

granger-movement-833-6995/) by bringing the issue into the public light and having the

government help them rid of the corrupt railroad tycoon affecting them. Indeed the question was,

why was the farmer being held back, but not the corrupt businessmen? Why had the government

turned its back to the farmers, who had started the growth of the nation, and allow the tycoon

owners to do what they may?

What Kelley had originally planned to be a small unionization of farmers was now a

movement to change the economic conditions of the farmers involved in it. This was called the

Granger Movement. The Grange soon had many local units called granges, and many members

joined soon. These local units soon spread nation-wide. Under Kelleys leadership, the Grange

pushed for lower prices to ship their goods as well as solve economic abuses. The granges

sought to correct these abuses through cooperative enterprise.

(http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/granger-movement.html). Kelley was the first

secretary of the Grange, and created multiple granges in the Middle West and the South. Kelley

publicized his and other farmers ideas by writing newspaper articles that were increasingly

critical of manufacturing and processing monopolies that fixed prices at rates unfair to farmers

and of railroads with exorbitant freight rates (Roberts, 2012). In addition, Kelley also wrote a

book titled Origin and Progress of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry in the United States.

As leader of the Grange, Kelley fought for a multitude of rights for farmers, among these
The Gilded Age and Populism: Oliver Kelley and the Grange

included cooperative purchasing ventures as a means to obtain lower prices on farm equipment,

supplies, and tools. Farmers who gathered at local Grange Halls often voiced similar complaints

about the high rates charged by warehouses and railroads to handle their grain, and they began to

organize for state and federal controls over these pivotal economic issues. The Grange smartly

recognized the importance of including women, who often proved to be the organizations most

dedicated members (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/oliver-kelley-organizes-the-

grange). The women of the Grange shared a domestic focus as well as being concerned with the

need to reduce the drudge work of farm womens work through more efficient and up-with-the-

times methods. Kelley and the members of the Grange (formerly known as grangers) also

advocated for the pooling of savings as an alternative to dependence on corrupt banks, which

was an early form of credit union, and cooperative grain elevators to hold non-perishable crops

until the correct time to sell provided itself.

The Granger movement proved to be somewhat successful. Led by Kelley, they were

partially successful in the establishment of stores, grain elevators, and mills. Additionally, the

grangers secured the support of the upper Mississippi valley, especially in the states of Illinois,

Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Kelley and his grangers established the Granger laws there,

which maximized railroad rates and established state railroad commissions for administering the

new legislation. In addition, there was also legislation covering warehouses and elevators. The

Grange thus evolved into a major political force which embodied the farmer, whose demands

were now given more attention due to the massive success of Kelleys organization. The Grange

gained additional political power through their success in the Supreme Court case of Munn vs.

Illinois. The verdict held that grain warehouses were in fact private utility in the public

interest, meaning that they would be made able to be regulated by public law. This case marked
The Gilded Age and Populism: Oliver Kelley and the Grange

the peak of the Granges political power, and it continued to grow in membership. The Grange

also was a major contributor to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1877, calling for the federal

regulation of railroads to control the aforementioned unfair shipping rates.

By 1878, Oliver Kelley stepped down from his position in the Grange in order to devote

himself to land promotion (marketing property for sale on the open market). However, this

proved unsuccessful financially for Kelley, and he returned to Washington D.C. in 1905 and took

a pension from the National Grange that same year. In the years following 1876, the Greenback

party, the Farmers Alliance, and most notably the Populist party, took up the protests of farmers

and agrarians, and the Grange soon fizzled out. However they continued to exist, primarily in the

East and New England, and have still existed up to the present day. Even if the Grange never

fully accomplished its goals, they were adopted by other (and possibly more able) political

parties. Indeed even these parties may not have sprung up if it werent for Kelleys publicity of

farmers plights, problems, and protests. Oliver Kelleys spark of ignition to publicize the

farmers demands ultimately ended in a success in that it was seen as one of the first major stands

of the political power of the farmer and his demands, as well as inspiring more able bodies to

take these ideas and further bring about change to the conditions of the farmers in the U.S..

"Encourage them to read and think; to plant fruits and flowers,beautify their homes;

elevate them; make them progressiveI long to see the great army of producers in our country,

turn their eyes up from their work; stir up those brains, now mere machines ... set them to think,

let them feel that they are human beings, and the strength of the nation, their labor honorable,

and farming the highest calling on earth."

-Oliver H. Kelley
The Gilded Age and Populism: Oliver Kelley and the Grange

Works Cited

Granger Movement. (2012). Retrieved March 01, 2016

Oliver Kelley organizes the Grange. (2009). Retrieved February 29, 2016

"Oliver Hudson Kelley." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved February

29, 2016 from Encyclopedia.com

Roberts, K. (2012, March 27). Kelley, Oliver Hudson (18261913). Retrieved February 29, 2016

The Granger Movement - Boundless Open Textbook. (n.d.). Retrieved March 01, 2016

United States. National Park Service. (n.d.). Oliver Hudson Kelley. Retrieved February 29, 2016

Tinsley, K. A. (1993). Women of the Grange: Mutuality and Sisterhood in Rural America,

18661920. Retrieved March 01, 2016