In several recent Trains Mag articles I have seen the term “granger” railroads. I’ve tried to sort out what it means from the context but I’m still stumped. [:I] Any comments would be appreciated. [:)][;)]
Kozzie [:)]
…I’m no expert Kozzie but we had vast networks of rail into our great plain states and little farming communities and did commerce with the farm products etc…and much of that is now just history. Many on here will have much more details…
Generally its the railroads in the grain belt west of Chicago (ie. IL, WI, IA, MN, NE, SD, ND, MT and KS.). It was also known as the Western Trunk Line Territory(WTL) when it came to rate making. Untill Staggers the territory was characterized with lots of light density branch lines and financially weak railroads. The Granger RR included the CNW, CBQ, CRIP, MILW, CRIP, CGW and MsTL.
The term granger came from a political presure group called the Grange. They were active in the last third of nineteenth century about declining farm commodity prices and the power of the railroads. There agitiation led to the first Federal attempt to regulate railroads in 1877. They continued to be active politically untill everything got turned upside down with the Great Depression.
kozzie
granger rr were termed because they mostly just hauled farmers livestock and crops to market.a couple of granger roads were the chicago & nothwestern and the CB&Q.
stay safe
Joe
Thanks everyone. I had an inkling there was a historical connection. This background info is very helpful.
Kozzie
…In our little home town in western Pennsylvania we had a “Grange Hall” right on my street…and they were active up into the 30’s…The hall building still exists but of course not active with that organization at all anymore…
I’m thinking the “Grange” basicly; is now what we call “CO-OPS” or the “Farm Bureau.”
…As I think back about it…I remember people talking about the “Grange” and just sensing from it’s activities it was a pretty tight woven network and organization.
So the name continues today, albeit in a somewhat different, but still connected usage.
Now I’m getting a handle on this - thanks everyone.
…Yes one hears the word “granger” lines yet today in someone expressing his stories about such lines…But as far as I know the Grangers as an organization do not exist under that name. As I remember as I noted in an above post…the Grange Hall on my street was active back in the 30’s and maybe just a bit into the 40’s…not sure about that but that is all gone now…
Still active in Denver/Lakewood, Campo CO, Willits CA, and a few other places I can think of. The organization is fading, never was much for fancy and simple in its approach. In many small towns, they are the only common meeting place/ meeting room other than a church. Guess I have a photo assignment for Kozzie now.
…As an organization…I haven’t heard any word of activity in the western Pennsylvania area I spoke of above for many years.
…I will add this…Remembering when that Grange Hall was active…I can remember cars parked all over the streets when they would meet so it was very active there and they had a pretty nice building.
Actually folks, one of the first Grange organizations, if memory serves me, was in Pendleton SC near Clemson. If there is someone from there in the forum that knows the truth in this matter, I would appreciate being either confirmed or corrected.
April is “National Grange Month.” The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry is still active and their National Headquarters is at 1616 H Street NW • Washington, DC 20006 (888) 4-GRANGE • (202) 628-3507 • Fax: (202) 347-1091. The Granger roads are gone, but the Grange still exists.
Best regards, Michael Sol
Always wondered about that term … now I know! Appreciate the “education”![tup]
Before the organization, the word “grange” (lower-case) could mean a granary, or a farm (“grain” comes from the same Anglo-French root), and a granger (again, lower-case) was another name for a farmer.
Pardon me while I go back to the farm (LaGrange) to watch some trains on BNSF!
A copyrighted observation on grange history:
"One historian, however, has pointed out that railroad rates were invariably cheaper than the wagon rates that they replaced, but any gratitude was short-lived. “The criticism of “high rates” that swelled up in the post-Civil War era reflected farmer’s expectations that they could settle virgin lands hundreds and even thousands of miles from markets, raise great surpluses of heavy, bulky, low-value commodities, and still ship them to market at a profit.” However those expectations might have been unrealistic, that did not prevent widespread anger at the perceived unfairness of freight rates by the farmers of the new territories.
"The collective anger of these farmers finally found political voice in 1867 when Oliver H. Kelley, an ex-Minnesota farmer who had become an Agriculture Bureau clerk in Washington D.C., founded the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, mainly to battle the perceived discrimination and oppressive freight rates of the railroads, but also to express the farmer’s sense of frustration with the whole economic system. As the Grange movement added thousands of members, and chapters began organizing throughout the upper Midwest, the anger that propelled the organization was well expressed by a typical Grange poster, with several men in characteristic poses:
"“I carry for all,” said the railroad owner; “I fight for all,” said the soldier; “I prescribe for all,” said the doctor; “I legislate for all,” said the statesman; “I plead for all,” said the lawyer; “I trade for all,” said the merchant; “I pray for all,” said the preacher; and in the center stood a giant heroic figure, the farmer, who said, “and I PAY for all.”
"The Grange organized chapters throughout the “Grange” states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and into other areas, including Washington state, where the arrival of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company had left the farmers "no better
CShaveRR is the only one who really answered your question. A granger was and is a farmer.
…Original question was what is the meaning of granger railroads.