818-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 1, 1997
Grange Celebrates 125-Year History
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Fanning Staff
READING (Berks Co.) As
part of its historic celebration of its
125 th anniversary convention, the
Pennsylvania State Grange held a
several-hour-long pageant depict
ing its history, in the auditorium of
the Scottish Rite Cathedral in
Reading on Oct. 25.
The pageant traced the history
of the rural organization its
development out of a need for
adequate representation for rural
Pennsylvanians, and out of a need
for a sense of community.
At one time, almost all Ameri
cans were familiar with communi
ty story telling and pageantry as a
means of keeping one’s communi
ty’s history alive and well
remembered, even if historians
and book writers have sometimes
taken issue with the accuracy of
those stories and skits.
And while the practice lingers
on in some rural communities in
events with names that are similar
in theme to, “old home days,” it
has largely disappeared among
those in the vast new neighbor-
From the left, Steve Mohn, Berks County Pomona master,
passes the torch to a period-garbed bon Evans, chairman
of the Pennsylvania State Grange 125th Anniversary
Committee.
Pa. State Grange Region C players portray women pro
testing for equal constitutional rights.'
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From the left, Beth Downey, Sandy Blair, Betty Norris, Janet Fishv ~ and Hedy
Chaffee hold up a sign made this summer by youth attending the Grange youth camp.
Norris was instrumental in starting the camp 50 years ago.
hoods of strangers in the look-a
like homes that characterize urban
and suburban sprawl.
Perhaps those communities
in ways far removed from the
sense of community that remains
in the older and more isolated vil
lages and towns will develop
their own types of community sto
ries (other than about each other).
It seems there can be no mistake
in observing that all people rely on
some form of local story telling to
maintain a sense of community
goals, fellowship and perspective.
It is a common form of human
communication.
Sharing knowledge and opin
ions of commonly known stories,
histories, and landmarks, is part of
how we gauge each other, and in
many cases, fra better or worse,
decide who is friend and who is
not
S lories bind people together
because they offer a common
thread: something each can assess
for himself and determine where in
his life the needle passes through,
pulling that thread of shared
history.
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From the left, Dina Zug is game show host in a Pa. State Grange Jeopardy-like game
while contestants are Judy Pressler, Bill Cameron, and Susan Snyder.
They give a context
For the apparently disconnected
urban and suburban dwellers, per
haps the glut of globally marketed
Hollywood-style movies has
already replaced small town
pageantry and storytelling as a bin
der of the community.
Or perhaps the shared stories are
the daily horror and shock reports
that guise as useful! news, but dis
appear from memory within
minutes or hours, rarely lasting
days or weeks.
But to rural Pennyslvanians and
those rural at heart, the stories of
local and rural histories are often
retold and recounted.
Tales of events and happenings
of heroic efforts and tragic calami
ties (according to the perspective
of those who keep the stories)
serve as the human interest of the
stories, though .the deeds them
selves are deemed important
because of the impact they had on
the community.
Who from Johnstown has not
heard of the Johnstown Flood?
Who from Chicago has not heard
of the great Are and Mrs. Brown’s
cow?
For the Pennsylvania State
Grange, the history started more
than 125 years ago, with one of the
original Grange founders Oliver
Hudson Kelly credited with visit
ing Pennsylvania to build know
ledge of and support for establish
(Turn to Pago B 19)
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While Betty Diamond stands on the stage and leads the
audience in a song, pianist Fern Kulp plays accompianment
to “Old MacDonald Had A Farm.”
Gordon Hiller, past master of the Pennsylvania State
Grange, milks “Bessie,” played by Jessie White, in a skit
about the introduction of oleomargarine in 1874 to the
United States and how it competed against butter, and
therefore dairy farmers.