The Gratz Grange, Number 530, was originally organized April 9, 1875 by H. C. Demming. The Master was H. B. Schreiner and the Secretary was Aaron H. Daniel. It had a total of twenty-six members on the original charter. The Grange was thriving for some time and then it went dormant.
The Gratz Grange had a store which was located in the Odd Fellows Building and continued to do business until about 1886. The farmers would bring their eggs and butter and farm produce to the store, and a road huckster was hired who sold the produce from door to door in the mining towns around Pottsville. in 1886 the Grange sold the store to Jacob Shiro, and it must have been at this time that the grange became inactive.
The Grange was reorganized April 21, 1885, by Gerald C. Brown with John Boyer as Master and H. W. Good as Secretary. There were twenty-four charter members. We do not know what year it became dormant again, but we do know it was not a working grange in 1909.
The Grange was again organized about the time of World War I, and in the Twenties it had nearly three score members. For a decade the Grange was booming. The farmers would purchase their farm supplies through the Grange, such as groceries, twine, fertilizer, etc. In 1922-1924, the Grange did over eleven thousand dollars worth of business. John Schminky was Master many years. Clayton H. Willier was Secretary for these two years. It was the duty of the Lecturer to put on a program for the meeting every two weeks, with the members participating. Meetings included such things as songs, discussions on agriculture, talks, recitations, and questions on farm problems, which were very interesting. One Master said he received more education and training in public speaking in the Grange than he received in school attendance. About the year 1930, it was again mot functioning. The chain stores and other cooperatives put them out of business.
The Grange was again reinstated in the early thirties, and continued for a number of years. Joseph Hartman was the last Master and Naldy Leitzel was the Secretary.
The coming of the movies and other amusements, cars, and so forth, took the young people elsewhere, and so the most essential community fellowship and social activities were lost, and other things took their place. It seems today that most of the lodges or social organizations, or veterans have had their day and they have gone dormant.
The fad of today is to have a television set in your own home, and forget about the rest.
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This story, written by Clayton H. Willier, appeared in the souvenir book for the Gratz Sesquicentennial, July 2-4, 1955.
The grange logo at the top of this post is from the current Pennsylvania State Grange website.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.