Pomona Grange Headquarters at Chautauqua Institution

The Pomona Grange was organized in Brocton, NY in 1875 and carries the distinction of being the first Pomona Grange to elect a woman to the office of Master.  The Pomona Grange building was erected in 1902 by Cyrus E. Jones in memory of his father, Emory Jones, and presented to Pomona Grange of Chautauqua County. 

Jamestown Journal Tuesday, August 25, 1903

Article about Grange Hall at Chautauqua Institution

GRANGE HALL

Fine Building Dedicated at Chautauqua

Gifts of Cyrus E. Jones, as a memorial to his father, Rev. Emory Jones – Outline of the Able Speeches Delivered at the Hall and in the Amphitheater last Saturday.

Chautauqua, Aug. 24 – (Special)

The structure given for a Grange home and headquarters at Chautauqua by Cyrus E. Jones of Jamestown to serve as a memorial of his father, Rev. Emory Jones, a Chautauqua county pioneer who was active in the early history of the grange, was dedicated with appropriate exercises Saturday which was the day on the Chautauqua program given annually to the Patrons of Husbandry. The importance of this event in the annals of the order in this county, and the presence of state and national officers, brought to Chautauqua the largest number of grangers that has been here in a number of years.

The memorial edifice is located on Simpson avenue at the northwest corner of Miller. It is artistic and approaching the classic in architecture and ranks as one of the most attractive buildings on the grounds. It was erected by Mr. Jones at a cost of $3,000 and the interior has not yet been completed. The commodious arrangement of the interior, however, assures that it will be one of the finest homes and headquarters that the order has anywhere in the United States.

The dedication exercises were held in the headquarters at 11 o’clock Saturday morning. Flags and flowers had been tastily used in the decoration of the interior. Those who occupied seats on the platform were Aaron Jones, of South Bend, Ind., master of the national grange; E. B. Norris, of Sodus, master of the New York state grange; A. E. Blaisdell of Cherry Creek, master of Pomona grange’ Dr. George E. Vincent, principal of Chautauqua Institution; Mrs. B. B. Lord of Sinclairville, lecturer of the New York State grange; Cyrus E. Jones of Jamestown, donor of the building; Thomas Gifford, C. W. Gifford of Jamestown,

The presiding officer was A. E Blaisdell, master of Pomona grange, the Chautauqua county organization. The meeting opened with the singing of Auld Lang Syne, after which prayer was offered by Rev. D. H. Denison of Jamestown.

Dr. George E. Vincent, on behalf of the Institution said: “We are pleased to have you settled at Chautauqua. We recognize two classes of visitors, those who come here and stay for a while at a cottage or the hotel, and then go away; and those who have their summer home and cottage here and are really a part of us. You now belong to the latter class. You have your own home; and we expect to see you now, not merely one day of the year, but on many days. This headquarters means strength to Chautauqua, for after all Chautauqua is nothing but people; nothing but people who believe in better things; people who have high ideals and work towards them. We welcome you, not only to your own building, bu to the great fraternity of Chautauqua. Your building is a Chautauqua building; your work is part of the great work of this institution; we welcome you and hope you will frequently come here and be a part of us.”

Response was made by Mrs. B. B. Lord, who referred to the continued warmth of Chautauqua’s welcome to the grange. She also expressed gratitude of the order to MR. Jones and felicitated him upon the fine way in which he has remembered his worthy father. “The grange feels a greater freedom in its new home than it ever has in the amphitheater and we expect to do mor effective work for the principles of our order and the good of Chautauqua.”

Cyrus H. Jones of Jamestown, who gave the building to the grange, was greeted with cordial applause. “My earliest recollections, said he, “are of travelling over the Chautauqua hills with my father in his ministerial capacity. Therefore I have a kindly feeling towards my early country friends, although most of my own life has been spent in the city. I believe that there is to e found in the country more of the wholesomeness, more of clean-minded men and women, than among any other class of people. It is my ernest wish that this building, located in one of the great religious communities in the world, shall redound to the goo of the Patrons of Husbandry.”

The building was accepted in behalf of the grange by E. B. Norris of Sodus, master of the New York state grange who said; “The grange is to be congratulated upon owning its headquarters upon the most beautiful of all inland lakes of the Empire state, and in behalf of the order I thank the gentleman who has made this possible. The whole membership of the Patrons of Husbandry th roughout the state has been looking forward to the establishment of this headquarters; they expect large results from it and a great responsibility, as well as a great privilege, is upon you of Chautauqua County.” Mr. Norris referred to the grange headquarters at the Pan-American exposition, saying that the success of that rendezvous was undoubtedly the inspiration of the present headquarters, and the success of that enterprise was due more than anything else to the efforts of Mrs. B. B. Lord of Sinclairville, who had the headquarters in charge. He thanked the Chautauqua Institution for its hearty welcome and Mr. Jones for his fine gift. “You are doing a great work, which will follow you in the years that are to come.”

The dedication address was delivered by Aaron Jones, the worthy master of the national grange. This appeared in The Journal of Saturday. The exercises closed with the singing of Home, Sweet Home.

The Afternoon Address

A large audience, for the most part members of the grange, gathered in the amphitheaterat 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Just as the meeting began, rain fell in torrents, and it was necessary to delay the opening of the meeting for 15 minutes until the downpour ceased.

Dr. George E. Vincent, in behalf of the Institution, again greeted the assembled grangers and congratulated them that they are now  “settled and domiciled” at Chautauqua. “Everyone who works under the banner of the grange now has a permanent home at Chautauqua.

The presiding officer of the meeting was E. B. Norris, the master of the state grange, who said: “We have again assembled in this great auditorium at this beautiful assembly, to celebrate once more the festival of Grange day. It is one of the greatest days which the Chautauqua county likes to celebrate, and the Patrons of Husbandry throughout the state like to come here to celebrate the day with you. Today we have had the privilege of dedicating a splendid building to be the headquarters of our order. I congratulate you and the donor, and I thank you of the great Chautauqua institution for the enthusiasm and the kindness with which you have ever welcomed us here.”

The address of the platform meeting was delivered by the national master of the grange, Aaron Jones of South Bend, Ind., who spoke as follows:

Our entire people, over 600,000 members scattered over this reat country of ours, will feel themselves honored by this recognition of our order at Chautauqua. Our permanent home in your midst, the recognition by you that we are worthy of your cooperation and association, will be pleasing to all our vast membership.

We live in a peculiar period of the world’s development. At no time in all the history of the world have so many things contributed to the pleasure and happiness, the advancement and elevation of mankind as at the present moment. You enjoy more, your opportunities are greater for enjoyment than that of your fathers. I congratulate you further that you live in the greatest country the world has ever known. The United States of America is looming up. Our nation surpasses all other nations of the world, from whatever standpoint you view it. Our soldiers are the bravest and best, and always come home crowned with victory. In achievements of business we occupy the leading position. Along the lines of labor saving machines we take advanced position.

Take it in the matter of progress on business lines, the United States stands without parallel. But fifty-four years ago, when Uncle Sam took his first inventory, the United States was worth $1,600,000.00 In 1900 the wealth of the people had increased to $94,000,000,000. We have outstripped Great Britain, France and Germany combined. Our people have various industries. It is by diversity of industry that the wonderful success has come to our country.

Within the last 50 years 200,000 miles of railroad have been built in this country. That has cost over $10,500,000,000 to build and takes an army of 950,000 men to keep running. There is more money invested in the transportation of produce of our country than the whole United States was worth 50 years ago. We have millions engaged in manufactures. We are sending the products of our factories to every civilized portion of the world. What is more, the best manufactured articles in the world today are made here, and when an article bears the stamp of the Unites States it is taken at par all over the world.

But the glory of this republic does not lie alone in her vast system of railways, nor in the great manufactories placed through the length and breadth of the land More than a hundred years ago, yes, through all periods of the life of our country, the great industry of our country was the agricultural interest. It was the first, it was the second, it was the third and today it holds its place among the industrial interests of the nation as being worth m ore money than any three of the other industries of our country. Fully 70 per cent of the wealth that is produced in the republic of America, is produced on the 5,800,000 farms scattered throughout the United States. I stand here today as the representative of that basic industry which underlies the prosperity of every other industry of the nation, which lies at the foundation of the prosperity of the nation itself.

You take our $10,500,000 engaged in railway business. Sixty percent of all the freight carried in those 200,000 miles of railway is the product of our farms. Railway stocks on the board of trade are affected by the products of American farms and vastly so.

This great order, the Patrons of Husbandry, stands organized for the betterment, the improvement, the more prosperous condition of the agricultural interests of this nation. There is not a man engaged in any occupation but what is vitally interested in the prosperity, the growth, the success of the order of the Patrons of Husbandry, for the reason that if the farmer is successful, if our farms become more productive, there is more business for the railways, and every business and every counting house in all this country receives a benefit from this prosperity.

Whence comes the wonderful success of our nation, from every department and standpoint? It comes from the high standard of American citizenship. It comes from the fact that we are the most intelligent, the most thoughtful, the most enterprising citizens the world has ever known. How came that so? When our forefathers landed on Plymouth Rock, they came to have religious freedom and personal freedom.

When the historian of the future shall write the true chronicle of these times and shall give truly and faithfully the causes of the great progress which our country has made, I believe that he will write:

1.      The Church of Christ. Here is the greatest factor in the civilization of the world, and no comparison of it with any civil institution should be made.

2.      Our public schools, where our children are educated to broader views of life and trained for good citizenship. For these schools no expenditure of money, properly made, is to be considered extravagant.

3.      The great fraternities established through the country: Masonry, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and hundreds of others. These are binding men together; lifting them to a higher plane of living and creating a better citizenship. I bed them all hail and Godspeed. Of course, even among these great fraternities, some are better than others. Of these orders I believe that the order of the Patrons of Husbandry ranks with the highest. It is fashioned after God’s own plan for we recognize our wives, our daughters and our sisters – not putting them on a side rack, but letting them in on the main floor, inviting them to consider and discuss with us the elevation of our homes and the betterment of our country. This was oone of the best things we ever did, and without it our order would never have prospered as it has done. Our women our the best members we have.

The speaker than took up some of the specific things for which the grange as an organization is striving. First he mentioned good roads as the cardinal plank of the farmers’ platform. We want the federal government and the state government to help us in this work of improving the highways running out from the cities to our farms and are going to get it!

In the second place he emphasized the demand of the granges for better forestry, more care in the perpetuation of American forests.

Next he discussed the public schools, stating the position of the grange to be that the country schools should be in every respect as good as the city schools. The farmers pay enough taxes and bear a sufficient proportion of the burden of maintaining public schools to entitle them to the best in instruction and equipment.

Turning to what the grange has done, he reviewed the famous granger railroad cases in the federal courts. Discrimination against Illinois farmers on the part of the railroads led to protest through the grange. This took the form of legislative and judicial action. The interstate commerce act was secured, and the interstate commerce commission was created to prevent such discriminations and the act and the principle was upheld by the supreme court of the United states. According to the eport of the commission for 1900 this has mean to the people of the United State a saving of $529,000,000. The grange has done this, and had it done no more, its existence would be justified.

Furthermore, the speaker claimed for the grange the exclusive credit for the rural free mail delivery system. It was responsible for the starting of the system, by creating a sentiment favorable to giving the farmer the same facilities in mail service that the city dweller enjoys. Thus a small appropriation was secured for the experiment. When Mr. Jones became national master of the grange the appropriation for this purpose was $300,000. Today it is in excess of twelve million dollars. The speaker told an interesting narrative of the manner in which the legislative committee of the national grange secured the first increase in the appropriation and declared that the legislatures of the country are more than willing to give the farmers what they want, provided their demand is presented intelligently, effectively and on rational grounds.

W.L.R.

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