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About The Bend bulletin. (Bend, Deschutes County, Or.) 1917-1963 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 1957)
4 The Bend Bulletin, Wednesday, August 21, 1957 Inquiring Reporter Easily Chases Down Information About Central Oregon's 'Secret' Farm Organization Fred Shepard Tells Grange History, Aims By DON II. MC.GINS Bulletin Staff Writer This summer Bend was the host city for one ol the largest conven tions in point of attendance in Its history. It was rfhe convention of the Oregon Patrons of Husbandry, commonly known as the Grange. An inquiring reporter asked 15 or 20 people during the convention lo tell him about the Grange, lie had heard the name often during his life and had read news about it every once in a while. About ail he knew was that the members were farmers and had halls. And that is about all he found out in his 20 casual interviews with persons he met at restaurant coun ters, on the street and in an eve ning group or two. A large percentage of those who had been asked at random said the Grange was a secret organization and no one except the members knew anything about It. Others had an idea It was strictly social. They had read about parties given at this or that hall. Some said it was a body of farmers who traded In formation and work among each other. All of the activities of the organ ization were reported and publish ed, of course. But there was littlo information about the history and aims of the order. McAllstcr Points the Wny The reporter happened to meet Jim McAllster, the county agent. He figured he'd find pay dirt there. "Sure, I know a lot about the Grange," said Jim. "But there's somebody in your own town that knows more. You ask Fred Shep ard." The original purpose of the re porter was not to find out about the Grange, necessarily. It was to learn whether he was more igno rant about it than the average run of people. He had accomplished that purpose. He wa right with p -Ah 1i ..A few FRED AND EDNA SHEPARD Grange veteran and w!f them. So he had wrung the sweat out of his shirttal, as the saying goes, and had gone to the movies, Ignorance wasn't bliss but it seem, ed to be popular. Some time later along came the job of gathering material for the annual fair edition of The Bulletin. This edition always has information in it about agriculture and other prime Industries of Central Oregon that are Important In the lives of the people here. He remembered what Jim had advised and he went to Fred Shepard, a Granger from way back. Kelly Started the Orange Shepard Is a county commission er, along with "Penny" (The Rev erend D. L. Penhollow) and Char lie Allen County Judge C. L. Allen, that is. Fred has lived some years, 33 of them as a member and officer of the Grange. With his wfe, Edna, he farmed in the Tum alo area. They raised a family and took an active part in community life and welfare before and after coming to live In Bend. In their white home set well back in a green lawn at 1175 Roosevelt avenue Fred Shepard readily gave information about the history, pur poses and accomplishments of the Grange. What he didn't recall off hand from an unusually good mem ory, Mrs. Shepard supplied. The National Grange was started back In early reconstruction days following the Civil War, during the administration of President An drew Johnson. Its founder was Oli ver Hudson Kelly. He found rural conditions pretty bad while he was journeying through the South. The idea came to him of starting' a fraternity for farmers. Kelly was a 33rd degree Mason. ' lie got his friends together and . they worked out a farmers' frater nal organization that was named The Patrons of Husbandry. It is still the official name. Americans don t go for several words where one will do, so they began calling it the "Grange," an English word used back in feudal times to mean, simply, a farm with an outer and an inner moat or gate, a house and outbuildings. The influence of Masonry inspir ed Kelly to write some ritualism into the ceremonies of the order. This included poetic symbols of beauty and idealism which had special significance for those who joined. There were four degrees, each representing a season of the year, for initiates in the local or subor dinate granges, a fifth for those in the governing county organization, called Pomona, the name in Ro man antiquity for the goddess of tree fruits; a sixth for the state and a seventh, and last, for the national Grangers. Two Dollar Bills Flood City Local Granges in each county meet twice a month, Pomonas hold quarterly sessions and the state Grange meets annually. This year the state meeting was in Bend. The city was flooded with S2. bills. Kelly's Inspiration was a produc tive one. The fractional mysticism of the ordor was a powerful puller in of members, as it is in other organizations. Any child who re members a neighborhood k i d chanting, "I know sumpin you don't know," can understand He ! coaxed, wheedled, fought and even worked until he found out. j Along with this esoteric comrade ' .-hip went the real value of work- ing together for improvement. The I Graiiprs profited socially in en- ioyable meetings. They helped rach o'her grow brtter crops. They , worked out co-operative buying and , selling. They launched insurance , benefits for their members. Also they promoted laws of od- vantage to lhmselves and even to i the town and city dwellers. They , are given recognition for Retting i parcel post into U. S. life, the di rect election of senators, land 1 Grant collrrs, cabinet s'ltus fir the secretary of agriculture, rural free delivery, the Pure Food and Drug act, and fairer railroad freight rates. Grangers Influnice Legislation Today, the Grange property in Washington, D.C., that houses its national headquarters has increas ed in value to several millions of dollars. In Oregon, Fred Shepard said the Grange has had more influence on legislation than any other or-, ganization. The State Grange has a delegation that meets with vari ous committees of the legislature. A program for farmers is worked out at the beginning of each ses sion. Special licenses for farm trucks, laws on developing hydro-electric power, and tax and school enact ments are a few of the items in the long record. Shepard says the Grange believes in the principle of an income tax based upon ability to pay. It takes a middle course in policy between thore of the Na tional Farm bureau and the Na tional Farmers' union, the latter devoting itself principally to a campaign for public ownership. Just now the Oregon Grange is promoting a referendum to pre vent the recently enacted bill pro viding for the reorganization of school districts from becoming a law, The Grangers decided against the bill chiefly because it Daily Increase On Dial Phones Pacific Telephone's $1,200,00 dia', telephone system in Bend in would take existing authority from some of the outlying districts. Locals Own Meeting Halls In Central Oregon, as elsewhere, nearly every grange owns its own hall. Here, the Little Deschutes grange, formed in 1953, acquired land upon which to build its own j meeting place. The granges are like such se'rv I ice clubs as Rotary, Kiwanis and j Lions' in helping and originating worthy causes. They also have a , wider scope in their continuous educational and legislative pro 1 grams and their ownership of ' halls. In their service phase they j aid churches, 4-H clubs and other organizations. I At state meetings the Masters ; and their wives, or husbands, are j the delegates. The whole thing Is j a family affair, said Shepard. There is a juvenile Grange for chil- drer. under 14. Some granges have '.women masters. service just over eight months is handling about 27,500 local tele phone calls a day. That's 2,500 more calls per day than were handled by the manual telephone system before it went out of service last December 15, according to Manager Jack Ker ron. The increase is about normal for an exchange that has been changed from manual to dial. "People seem to place more calls with their dial phones," Ker ron added. Even with this increase in the numbers of calls, the heart of the new dial system in the new cen tral office on Kearney Avenue is feeling no strain. Chief Switchman T. O. Living ston, who Is responsible for the mechanical swicthing brain known mechanical switvhing brain known , as the "No.' 5 Crossbar Switching j Machine," says the device Is doing j well and "is capable of har.Hingj a great deal more calls per day than are going through it at the, present time." This switching equipment, the! first of its kind to be placed in! Oregon by Pacific Telephone, is i amazing in the way It handles , j a call being made; counts the im-1 pulses when the number Is dialed; remembers the impulses and ex-! I amines the equipment available to j handle the call. Then it sets up the connection to the telephone being called and rings the bell. All that is done in less than a second. And to make things com plete, the switching equipment takes down the connection when the call Is completed. "Brain" Handles LD Too In addition to handling local calls, the equipment is as capable at handling long distance. When a long distance call is placed with the operator, she plugs it into the brain. Then she taps three adding machine-'iike buttons to select the area of the country being called (it it is out-of-state), and also taps the number of the far-off telephone being called. That's all. The equipment does the rest of the work, and In a mat ter of seconds the telephone starts . ringing in a distant city. The machine is sometimes called "the working girl's friend." Chief Operator Louise Pettit says her 49 operators like their new working quarters and conditions, and the way in which the dial system makes their work easier. The operators now handle only long distance calls in addition to a minimum of local calls such as requests by the customer for in formation or assistance in placing a call. SEND YOUR LAUNDRY TO US AND Gracious Dining AT ITS BEST! Tine MaiTOQiiaill Fa PINE TAVERN For a dining experience you will remember, it's the Pine Tavern. 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