Chapter 11  -  Davenport’s Four Granges and a New Town Hall

The Granger movement swept the farm counties of the United States in the 1870s, especially in the Midwest and New York State and even extended into the recently defeated southern states.  The movement reached Davenport well after its neighboring towns and then struggled until the hard times of the 1930s.  When at last it took firm root, the Davenport Grange became perhaps the most important and widely supported social-economic institution in the town’s history.  This is the story of that grange—and of how Davenport ended up with a town hall of its own.

The Davenport Grange.  In Davenport, one important accompaniment of the Great Depression was the founding of Davenport Grange No. 1516 on August 19, 1931.  This was to become, as just noted, one of the town’s more important and long-lived social, fraternal and economic institutions.   One important purpose of the Grange was to act as a lobbying voice for legislation beneficial to farmers.  It established a strong voice both in Washington and Albany.  Information and debate on upcoming legislation filtered up and down through regional and local Granges.

The Davenport chapter was part of this national organization, formally known as The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, in existence since 1867.  (Indeed, there had been two earlier Davenport chapters as well as an East Meredith chapter, of which more below.)  The National Grange was much more than an effective advocate for the farmer. It was also a fraternal order with roots in Masonry, and it was a strong social group that provided a wealth of activities for its members.  It promoted such worthy causes as farmer education and competitions, rural free mail delivery, parcel post, rural electrification, improved farm-to-market roads, dairy cooperatives and stringent dairy laws, mutual insurance, and farm price regulation.  From its earliest days, women were full voting members, and the Grange became an early advocate of women’s rights and suffrage.  The National Grange opposed the intemperate consumption of alcohol, the manufacture of margarine, and any lowering of tariffs on imported farm products.[1]

The 1931 Davenport Grange (formally known within the Grange hierarchy as a “Subordinate Grange”) was organized by a Delaware County field agent (a Grange Deputy Master), W.L. Cleveland of Bloomville.  Twenty men and women attended the organizing meeting in Davenport’s IOOF Hall.  These charter members undertook the formal “Grange obligations.”  Harry Hebberd became the first Master and Mrs. A.H. Potter the first Secretary.  Other women officers were Effie Calhoun, Lecturer; Irene Boyes, Treasurer; Mrs. I.H. Chambers, “Ceres”; Mrs. A.Z. Barkley, “Pomona”; Mrs. H.T. Hebbard, “Flora”; and Mrs. Henry McCulley, Lady Assistant Steward.

The Davenport Grange prospered and became a major focus of community life.  By 1936 its membership had reached nearly 200, including most Davenport residents and business leaders of consequence.  For five years after its founding it had continued to meet in the IOOF Hall.  Then, in search of a home of its own at a more central location, the Grange purchased from Blanche Baldwin Looney a piece of the Gurney Ham land, where the Town Hall later stood in 2000.  Ground for a new building was broken on August 20, 1936.  The new building was designed for meetings, social functions, and an activity center for younger members.  (Initially the age limit for members was 18 for boys and 16 for girls, later lowered to 14 years for both.  Still later, Juvenile Granges were created for Members’ children below 14 years of age.)  Farmers brought machinery and tools, worked evenings for months to come as well as any days that could be eked out of a busy week.  Bob Jones and Howard Rogler directed the job.  Members donated all labor.  Ray Rider and Carl Schulz drove teams of horses pulling scrapers to prepare the foundation.  Others who worked hard were George Hillis, Art Ham, Gurney Ham (shingler), Alton Potter, Bob Chambers, Bob Sawyer, Mac Cook, Ernie Sloan, Harold and Fred Sloan, and Eddie Mickel.  Most lumber and other construction material were purchased from Hanford Mills in East Meredith.  Pouring cement began the last week of December 1936.

 New York State Grange Master Raymond Cooper dedicated the new Davenport Center Grange Hall at the March 1937 meeting.  Spirits were high and ambitious plans were put in place to pay off the rather large indebtedness.  The lady Grangers accepted their full share of the burden by sponsoring ham, turkey, roast beef, and chicken and biscuit dinners.

Ernie Russ and his band (and later on, the St. Onges from West Davenport) played at weekly square dances.  Hundreds of young and old were loyal supporters of the dance.  Charlie Van Pelt, the Davenport constable (from 1947 to 1971) was just as loyal in his efforts to prevent disturbances from marring the evening’s entertainment.

 

 

Grangers (men, women, and children) worked hard to free themselves from debt, but they did not neglect other projects seen as equally important.  Among other activities, younger members prepared exhibits for and participated in numerous fairs, including those of the Pomona Grange in Delhi (the next higher level in the Grange hierarchy), the Delaware County Fair in Walton, and the New York State Fair at Syracuse.  These all were designed to teach lessons in responsibility and independence. 

Older members strove to achieve the several degrees of the fraternal order, seven in all.  They discussed the latest developments in animal husbandry, the ups and downs of milk prices, and developments in two especially important Grange offshoots, the Grange League Federation  (G.L.F.) and the Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association (later, Dairylea).  The latter organization grew out of an attempt to organize dairymen in 1898, and after its founding in 1906 it became one of the nation’s big dairy cooperatives.  Together with the New York State Grange and the State Farm Bureau Federation, it organized in 1919 the G.L.F., “one of the great co-operatives of the world.”[2]  It was from the local G.L.F. outlets in Oneonta, Stamford and Bloomville that Davenport’s Grange members could buy feed and other supplies cheaper than from the commercial market.

The Davenport Grange gave birth in 1937 to Davenport Juvenile Grange #399.  Under its first Master, Arthur Hillis, Young Grangers (those under fourteen years) were exposed to new friendships in a much wider world of activity.  Young people spent many hours grooming and practicing the methods of competitively “showing” sheep, calves, cattle, and horses.  Those youngsters with other interests sought instruction and competition in projects such as butterfly collecting and sewing.  They developed poise and public speaking abilities in plays and other performances on the stage in the new Grange Hall.

 

 

The Granger movement and earlier Davenport granges.  Oliver Hudson Kelly and six others founded the national Order of the Patrons of Husbandry after the Civil War at a time of struggle between a fast-expanding agriculture and monopolistically inclined railroads and other middlemen.  Initially a “secret society, with passwords, secret signals and other covert means of identification,”[3] it seemed to thrive best at times of commercial downturns and farmer hardship.  National membership grew slowly until the panic of 1873 and is said to have reached an all time peak by 1875.  (Early membership numbers are sketchy and contradictory.) 

The Granger movement, as the Patrons were called, reached New York State in 1873 and Delaware County the year after.  There followed over the next two years the organization of fourteen Delaware County granges.  Hobart, Bloomville, Roxbury, Delhi, Kortright, Stamford, Bovina, Mountain Grange at Cabin Hill (below Delhi), and Andes Grange were organized in 1874; Pleasant Valley Grange at East Meredith, North Harpersfield, Franklin, Cold Spring Grange at Deposit, and Halcottville Grange, in 1875.[4]  By 1893 when Grange membership was first tabulated, Delaware County had seen organized fourteen more granges, but fourteen chapters had by then disbanded.  Total Delaware County membership was 382, or about 27 per chapter.[5]

The high turnover rate among Grange chapters was typical throughout the United States.  Membership numbers very much reflected economic times, the vigor of local leadership, and the reputation of the National Grange.  (Some early business ventures of the National Grange were ill advised, and membership fell to a low point before the beginning of the 1900s.)  Individual chapters followed the pattern of most dues-paying voluntary organizations, coming and going in response to changes in community cohesion and the management efforts of a relatively few leaders.

East Davenport Grange No. 772 was organized in 1892.  The first Master was Benjamin Johnson and the first Secretary, Mrs. A. J. Van Dusen.  Johnson was a leader with some local reputation.  He had already served as Town Assessor, Commissioner of Excise, and Overseer of Highways.  Later, in 1894 and 1895, he served as an Overseer of the Poor.  Before the new grange was established, some Davenport farmers had presumably joined nearby chapters in Kortright Center, East Meredith, and perhaps North Harpersfield. 

Thus, about the beginning of the 1900s Davenport was the home of four fraternal organizations.  These were the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Grange, and, for women alone, the IOOF offshoot, the Rebekahs.  For the nation as a whole, this time was the heyday of such societies.  “Virtually no ethnic or religious group was immune from the lodge.”  There were organizations for native whites, immigrants, and blacks.  “A conservative estimate is that one-third of adult males in the United States were members in 1910.”[6]

It is not known what became of Davenport’s first grange.  By 1915 it had apparently relinquished its charter, for in that year a new Davenport Grange was organized, No. 1384.  J. Willis Graig was the first Master and Edward Rodebaugh, the first Secretary.  So far, no information has been uncovered about the activities and membership of this second Davenport grange.  Its formation could have been inspired by the early success of West Kortright Grange No. 1352, formed in 1914, that for a number of years “did a thriving business in the feed and grocery lines.”[7]

 What is likely is that the members of both the Davenport and Kortright chapters supported the major milk strike of October 1916.  In that month the Dairymen’s League attempted to set a minimum price for milk, to last for the following six months.  New York’s milk dealers had already refused to recognize the League and to honor its price-setting authority.  An eleven-day strike brought the dealers around.  The League then evolved from a bargaining agent for dairy farmers to a more solidly established cooperative in which member farmers eventually pooled their milk and received monthly payments from the re-named Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association.  These accomplishments did not come easily.  An eighteen-day strike occurred in January 1919, and bitter struggles with the dealers began in 1921 over milk pooling.  To circumvent opposition among milk dealers and creameries, the Association in the early 1920s began to build and purchase its own processing plants such as the smaller milk-station west of the Sheffield Creamery in Davenport Center, the Dairymen’s League Creamery.[8]

 We know nothing of the history or demise of Davenport Grange No. 1384.  It apparently suffered the fate of so many other chapters, fading slowly away as initial enthusiasm waned and as its founders tired of never-ending organizational and inspirational responsibilities.  In any event, the chapter had surrendered its charter by 1931 when, energized by another set of economic events (this time the Great Depression) and by a new set of community leaders, Davenport’s Grange No. 1516 became reality.  This third Davenport “subsidiary grange,” as noted in the preceding section, managed to prosper and survive for over fifty years, a tribute to its important social role in a town of declining farms and dairy cow numbers.

Local grange rivalries and an unexpected schism.  Membership in a specific grange chapter was determined as much by location as by town of residence.  Some Davenport Center farmers and businessmen undoubtedly belonged to the early Pleasant Valley Grange of East Meredith.  The West Kortright Grange had almost disbanded in the 1920s but had revived and even purchased a building of its own in 1929.  Its eighty members in 1939 included at least a few names from Davenport.[9]

 When Davenport Grange No. 1516 made its 1937 move to a more central location, a number of its Fergusonville and Davenport village members were not enthusiastic.  Although some strongly supported the move and retained their membership (the George Hillis family is the principal example) others began to think about establishing a new chapter nearer home.  With the help once again of the grange’s County Deputy, Wilber L. Cleveland of Bloomville, forty-five of these reluctant movers organized the Charlotte Valley Grange No. 1553 on April 10, 1937.  Its first Master was Osborne McMorris; its first Secretary, Bert S. Riddell.[10]

 The split was a tribute to the substantial grange interest in Davenport and East Meredith and to the community’s ability to support two chapters.  But a discordant note came when the decision to split was not made public until the very eve of moving to the newly built Grange Hall in Davenport Center.  Bert Riddell has been given public credit for the Charlotte Valley chapter’s organization, and it is likely that his wife, Rose, known for her strong will and not always accommodating views, was a force in the background.  On the other hand and to be fair, it is possible that the organizers of the breakaway grange chapter simply withheld their announcement in order not to dampen their fellows’ enthusiasm for creating a new home.

In any event, Charlotte Valley Grange No. 1553 grew rapidly.  From its initial membership of 45, it had expanded to 127 by the time the 1939 Official Directory was published.  Many of “East” Davenport’s better known citizens were members.  These included Graigs (7), Hebbards (9), Hubbards, MacArthurs, McMorrises (5), Mores (7), Riddells (4), Tabers, Scotts (6), and Van Dusens.

This offshoot chapter continued to meet in Odd Fellows Hall but eventually suffered the familiar fate of declining interest and eventual disbandment.  It had vanished from the Davenport scene by 1973.

The rebirth of Davenport’s Grange Hall.  Davenport Grange No. 1516 enjoyed its new hall for over forty years.  By 1984, the number of farmer members had fallen drastically.  Families had dispersed and general membership had dwindled.  The West Kortright and the Charlotte Valley Grange chapters had already dropped by the wayside. Decision-making time for the Davenport Grange had at last arrived. 

The remaining active members voted to sell the Grange Hall. The Town of Davenport agreed to buy the hall for a price of $5,000.  The building was to be renovated to assume a new life as the Davenport Town Hall, and the Grangers would reserve the right to hold meetings in their old hall.

On November 1, 1984, the Grange’s Ralph Hillis signed an agreement with the Town marking the end of an era and the beginning of a new life for the building that held fond memories for literally thousands of area people.  Since the middle of the Great Depression these folk had jammed themselves inside the Hall’s four walls for meetings, for an evening of fun, for two hours of dancing, or for participation in a political caucus.  The children and grandchildren of those who had helped raise the structure would now use the rejuvenated building, reminded of its proud past and supportive of its continuing benefit to the whole town.

The Grange Hall changed hands formally ten months later, in September 1985.  Hours of planning by a hard working Town Board led eventually to a new foundation 140 feet to the west of the original site and a little more distant from Route 23.  Ronald Burns began the foundation in the fall of 1986, and Mr. Dexheimer and his crew moved the old building, which was then raised on jacks high above the new foundation.  Many sidewalk supervisors arrived to watch and to take pictures of a “Town Hall on the Move.” 

 

 

Ronnie Beers constructed new offices and a meeting room under the old building, with the former Hall becoming the second floor of a two-story structure.  Volunteers then did much of the finish work.  Virginia and Leslie Sanford, Ray Christensen, Louie Frank, Gurney Ham (as he had in 1937), Sandy Keator, and others finished and painted walls, put in windows, cased doors, laid tile, installed bathroom plumbing, and undertook dozens of other chores.

Meanwhile, the local post office in Lester Whipple’s home had unexpectedly closed (for illness) in November 1986.  After considerable effort on the part of Town Supervisor Ray Christensen and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the U.S. Postal Department agreed to open a new post office in the new Town Hall complex.  Davenport Center mail service resumed on August 10, 1987, with the completion of the necessary postal space.

Davenport’s Highway Department under the direction of Supervisors Ronnie Doroski and Gary McCulley undertook extensive site grading.  This included an upper and an extensive lower parking lot.   A driveway now ascended behind the building to provide level access to the second floor, now the newly created Davenport Historical Center.  The entire building was fully handicap accessible. 

 

 

The life of Davenport Grange No. 1516 had now come full circle, born, almost abandoned, and now reborn for the benefit of the greater community.  The most recent change came in the year 2000 when the Davenport Historical Society was able to add an air-conditioned and humidity-controlled vault to the second floor.  This vault now houses the historical records of the town under the Historical Society’s protection as the Davenport Historical Archives.

As a final gesture of goodwill, the Grangers returned to the Town, by way of the Davenport Historical Society, the original purchase price of $5,000.

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