Oral History of the Grange

 Robert (Bob) and Isabel Bartz

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Aug. 31, 1992

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw- “You were telling me about”(Amos Ames)

Isabel …..”But one of the things concerning Salisbury, he used to sing. He had a beautiful tenor voice and it was a treat when he come to sing.”

Bob- “He belonged to the Grange.”

Isabel- “Yes, he was a Granger.”

Paul Shaw-  “You said his name was Ames?”

Isabel- “Yes. Amos Lorenzo Ames.”

Bob- “He was a Granger in Henniker, too.”

Isabel- “In those days his wife used to go dancing, but she had passed away long before he came this way. He is buried in the cemetery, Maplewood.”

Isabel- “At the time that we came here Academy Hall was an association, also. The neighborhood around the Academy Hall was called the Academy Hall Association.”

Paul Shaw-  “And what did they do?”

Isabel- “They…they…. The school was downstairs. I don’t really know what the transaction was…that the association owned the building and the school was downstairs, the Grange was upstairs. We had Grange Fairs. All the vegetables were displayed on the desks downstairs and there were some  beautiful vegetables that people in Salisbury raised.. Back in the 40’s that was.

I think one of the things I remember about Grange that struck me greatly was we went to he Grange Fair and there were sales going on all day long with booths around the hall. Then evening time there was a supper, and the same people that were tending the sales tables were setting up supper tables, cooking food, putting it on, waiting on people. Soon as supper was over, tables cleared away we had an entertainment: lovely, lively show, same people. They were the characters in the play, the ones doing the singing. It was just an amazing story to me, but I suppose that’s the way it is in the neighborhood, when you get things going, the people that are there are the ones who do the work.”

Bob- “At that time we had a dining room and put on supper.”

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Liza Buzzell

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD. and Joy Chamberlain

Dec 6, 1988

Place:  the New London Nursing Home

Published in  They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

 Paul Shaw- “Tell us about the Grange back in your day.”

Liza- “Oh, it was going then. They had a lot of members. We were having suppers and we were putting on plays. We used to put on plays for The Grange and the Red Cross., and all those….World War 1. We’d get our wigs and costumes from World’s from Boston. They used to come up on the seven-thirty train. We used to have a five -piece orchestra from Concord. We use to have really good times. They were good times. Big suppers. That old town hall used to be packed, full to the doors. Now there doesn’t (seem to be) anybody (to) go to the Grange  They’re either going somewhere or watching TV. I don’t watch TV but I watch the news.”

Paul Shaw- “What else did you belong to or what else did you do?”

Liza-  ” I belonged to the Grange, and that was about all I did belong to. That’s all there was. Then, later on, the Untiarians started the Andover Service Club. I am a honorary member of that, and I’m an honorary member of the Salisbury (Hisrtoical Society). The Grange was the big thing.”

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Claribel Brockstedt

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Aug. 31, 1992

Published in  They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw-“What activities did you get into in Salisbury?”

Claribel- “We joined the Grange. We happened to go to an entertainment they put on, and Mrs. Lovejoy, Norma Lovejoy’s mother, was sitting next to me and she said “Why don’t you and your husband join the Grange?”.  I said, “I don’t know why we shouldn’t and we did. I’ve been a Granger ever since 1946.”

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Art and Leah Schaefer 

From an Interview by Dr. Paul S. Shaw

Sept 8, 1992

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw- “You mentioned being involved in the Ladies Aid, at least helping out when they had activities”.

Leah Schaefer- “They used to have a fair and a supper. this was many years ago. I guess they always had it for many years., but sometimes in the fall, after the war, a Harvest Supper and a beautiful exhibit of handwork that they had done. Displays of various interest the ladies had. And a good time was had by all. We had the supper in the dining room down at the hall and drawings for raffles.”

Paul Shaw- “When you are talking about the Hall you are talking about the Town Hall?”

Leah Schaefer- “No the Grange Hall Academy Hall, they’d have a program.”

Paul Shaw- “Now before the Academy was changed over there were a lot of community activities in the Grange Hall?”

Leah Schaefer- “There were the Grange meetings. There would be a children’s night once a year, and after the program was over that the school children put on the kids all got ice cream. It made them very happy. Made a treat. It was always followed by a social hour.

After the Grange fair there was dancing. And there was awhile when they had dances every couple of weeks. I don’t know who put them on or what happened to end them. I guess there were a few complaints from a few unhappy citizens. That ended that.”

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Orvie Shaw 

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD

transcribed Oct 14, 1991

Published in “They Said It In Salisbury” by Dr. Paul S. Shaw

Paul S. Shaw- “Any organizations yo’ve been active in town?”

Orvie- “No. I used to be a Granger a long time ago. And then, I was telling the kids down to school the other day, they used to have community plays. Maybe you can remember. I can. And they’d take, like this house this month, Bert’s house the next month, and Frazier’s house the next month. They went to lthe whole neighborhood. And they had food, they danced, they’d sing, and they’d out on a show, and they had a good time.

And I was telling the teacher, you don’t see that any more and you don’t. If you had it they wouldnt go.”

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Dot Bartlett

From an Interview by Gail Manion Henry.

Date  May 6, 2004

Location: In her Home, 54 Franklin Road, Salisbury NH

Addendum to They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Gail Henry- “I don’t see you getting bored much.”

Dot- “I’m not bored. I can’t understand how anybody can say “I’m bored”.  I don’t find the time to do what I want to do. I was on the committee for the 200th anniversary, the bicentennial of the town, in 1968. I joined the Grange when I was 16 and I’ve been a Grange member ever since.”

Gail Henry-  “Are they still active?”

Dot-  “They’re still active but not too active. You can’t get members…and I’m not a good member now. I was very active in Grange. I served as Master and I served some offices and we had a ladies’ degree team went all over doing degree work. Then I took over the Junior Grange and I was leader of the Junior Grange for 30 years.”

Gail Henry- “I remember square dancing with John Beaudoin there.”

Dot-  “That may have been the time when Ruth Parris, maybe, was the leader. She was one of the first leaders, or the first leader. She and Isabel Bartz I think were the first. Then I took it over. I was junior leader from “57 to ’87. Right up through that time we were the biggest Junior Grange in the State. Very active. This Junior Grange, up until …a couple of years before I gave it up it started to go down. Kids have so much to do now and so many places and don’t have to do anything but what they want to do that Junior Grange started to go down. Then after I gave it up a couple of people tried to keep it going but the kids weren’t interested, so between the lack of leadership and the lack of kids… We are still listed as an active Grange because I haven’t turned in the charter and I have paid the state dues ever since just to keep them listed as active. But they really aren’t active. There’s only about three or four Junior Granges in the State of New Hamphisre now compared to 15 or 20 back then.”

Gail Henry- “Is that right? Thats too bad.”

Dot-   “It is too bad. I feel bad and I’ve always said that I’d rather work with kids than adults any time. And that’s my theory. Give me the kids to work with any day but I will admit that kids are different today then they were back then I could have a meeting of 50 kids up there in the hall and I’d say  “I want to hear a ‘pin drop’ and you could hear a pin drop, but by the time I was getting through I could ask them to be quiet and you couldn’t even hear a boulder come off the Kearsarge Mountain.”

Gail Henry- ” I think you’re right about kids being different. There a a complete lack of I don’t know what …discipline.”

Dot- “Respect. But I ‘m not going to blame it all on the kids. I feel bad because I hated to see this Junior Grange fold up.  I had put so much work into it. So I sort of got burned out of Grange by being the leader for 30 years. And although I’m willing to help and do what I can for the Grange, I am not a good attendee.”

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