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Greenfield Hill Grange Records

Collection, Ms B45

1891 – 1995
Fairfield Museum
The Greenfield Hill Grange No. 133 was founded in 1893 as part of the national grange organization. The grange's original goal was to improve agricultural, economic and social conditions for rural farmers. Other interest included promoting patriotism, providing higher education, and developing legislative initiatives of benefit to farmers. The National Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, was organized into state, county or regional, and subordinate or local granges. The granges held fairs, farmer's institutes, and lecture series as part of their programs and offered "degrees" to farmers and their wives.
The collection consists of six sub-groups, primarily representing the hierarchy of the national grange. Sub-groups 1 and 2 consist of publications provided by the National Grange and the Connecticut State Grange, respectively, to their member organizations. The records of the Fairfield County Pomona Grange, 1895-1995, arranged in sub-group 3, encompasses minutes of meetings from 1895-1969, treasurers' records, 1895-1979, membership records, 1895-1973, handbooks and programs, 1931-1973, a history of the State Grange, and assorted publications.

Sub-group 4 contains the records of the Greenfield Hill Grange, 1893-1995, including minutes of meetings, 1895-1979; treasures' records, 1960-1973; handbooks and programs, 1897-1931; fair programs and booklets, 1937-1995; a 1943 scrapbook; a history written in 1993; and assorted printed materials. Of significance in these records are a series of home movies dating from 1927-1965. The earliest reels document a trip to South Africa in about 1927, in which the travelers visited a gold mine, several cities, and several native villages. The later reels illustrate the construction of the Greenfield Hill Grange hall addition, and the changing character of that grange's annual agricultural fair.

Young children were encouraged to join the grange, and the records of the Greenfield Hill Junior Grange, only representing the years 1940-1941, are organized in Sub-group 5. An environmental planning report distributed by the town of Fairfield in 1971 and which was found the collection, constitutes Sub-group 6.

The Greenfield Hill Grange is still active in 1995, but its membership is dwindling as agriculture disappears in Fairfield. Records of the local grange will continually by added to the collection as the membership sees fit.
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