Ed Moody (center, back) with Governor Carlin:
Great Depression
Oral History #3: Ed Moody, Former Kansas Master of the State Grange
Interviewed by Denise Jobe November 30, 1989
The Patrons of Husbandry, commonly known as the Grange, was an organization founded by farmers in the late 1800s. The Grange provided services that protected farmers’ interests, such cooperative stores that sold farm equipment at low prices. Grange meetings served as important social functions for rural families and reinforced community ties.
Denise: What did the Grange do during the Depression? What kinds of things did the Grange try to do to help the farmers at that time?
Ed: Well, we did a lot of things. And I can say that from the standpoint of the fact that I was part of that time because I was active in Grange during the Depression and we did a lot of cooperative helping each other. If a Granger got in trouble and hollered for help we would even try to raise some money for him if that is what it took. But basically it was a cooperative effort on the part o the Grangers to keep everybody going and happy and eating three times a day.
Denise: Well, you know we talked about this yesterday in our discussion because coming from a farm family, my family has always told me that the Depression to them wasn't that big of a deal because everyone was poor and at least you had food to eat.
Ed: We tried to have food to eat and there were a few times when we had to dig in our potato bin and give some to our neighbors so they had something. But as you say basically we didn’t know any better. And we used to as kids have dances after our Grange meetings because we’d get somebody that could play the piano for us and we’d get one of our Grange members to call a square dance or we'd get some of our other Grange members to play with the piano and we’d maybe have a round dance or maybe we'd round dance a set or two and then square dance a set or two. And we’d always have one of our Grange members that would call the square dances for us so we didn't have to put out any money for that.
