Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us September 17, 2005 75 years with the grange By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings A number of anniversaries are being celebrated at the Bellview Grange this weekend. Betty Thompson, the current master of the grange, is receiving her 25-year anniversary pin. Her mother, Vera Kerr, will also be pinned. She will be awarded her 50-year pin. And the grange itself is celebrating 75 years of service all autumn long. Thompson and Kerr will be pinned at a ceremony/potluck celebration on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Sunday celebration, the “History, Harvest and Ha, Ha, Ha” event, is just one of the monthly events the local grange hall will be hosting to celebrate its 75th anniversary. “The grange used to be the thing to do in Ashland,” Kerr said, remembering the good old days. “Because they didn’t have so much TV and such, that’s what you did back then. There was nothing else to do.” Back then, grange halls were organizations to help unite local farmers. Today, Kerr, her sister Emily and Thompson explained that they have become more like a traditional service organization. “It used to be you had to have something to do with a farm to belong,” Kerr said. Thompson added, “It was an opportunity for rural farmers to come together to help one another.” These days, they aren’t so strict. As a result, Thompson said, membership is actually increasing in the grange. It only has 57 members now, compared to more than 200 in the glory days; however, 18 new members have joined in the last three months alone. “Some young families are starting to join the grange,” Thompson said. “Once you get in the hall and get to know the grangers, you say, ‘This is the place for me.’” The Grange Hall is located on Tolman Creek Road near the intersection with Siskiyou Boulevard, the same place it has been for its entire 75 year history. The Bellview Grange was founded in 1930. At the time, the grange shared the one-room building with the Upper Valley Community Club. In 1938, the bought the facility for $270. Tolman Creek wasn’t inside the city limits in those days. In fact, it was named the Bellview Grange, according to its charter, because it was in the town of Bellview, a proposed town that Kerr said was never incorporated. Ashland was a mill town when the grange first started, Kerr explained. There was a J.C. Penney in town, a few service stations — one owned by Kerr’s late husband — a drugstore with an old-fashioned soda fountain and a zoo in Lithia Park. On Oct. 22, the grange will host a Harvest Hoedown costume party, featuring the Old Time Fiddlers. On Nov. 20, it is hosting a “down to earth” game night, with contests and table games as well as activities for children. All of these events are open to prospective new members. But Thompson urges anyone who wants to come to this weekend’s potluck to bring a dish to share. Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x 3040 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams