Thursday, July 1, 1920
Thursday, July 1, 1920
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-- The men and women comprising the Fern Hill community, near Apiary, may well feel proud of their recent accomplishment. Last Saturday evening [June 26, 1920] the officers of their newly organized Fern Hill Grange were duly installed by Mr. Albert H. Tarbell, of Warren, as master of ceremonies. Mr. George Carrigan, the newly elected Master of that Grange, announced that seventy seven charter members had signed up. This is the largest charter membership of any grange in Columbia County, Mr. Tarbell says.
... The charter for the grange is now closed. The new organization meets the second and fourth Saturday evenings of the month.
-- The regular meeting of the Fern Hill Grange last Saturday, July 10, [1920] was attended. The members are familiarizing themselves with the work, are very much interested in the organization as they believe it to be the one means of uniting the farmers and teaching them to cooperate.
In order to prolong the meeting hours and make them still more enjoyable, the members voted a lunch of cake and coffee to be a regular feature from now on.
-- [These early meetings were held in the Fern Hill School]
Fern Hill grange held a very lively and interesting meeting on Saturday April 23, [1921]. Business was soon disposed of, the most interesting being the purchase of the grange hall and grounds. The Fern Hill church building on the hill across from the school house, formerly owned by the Methodist church, is now the property of the Fern Hill grange and will be put in shape as soon as possible.
-- The Fern Hill grange will put on two amateur plays, one a real comedy, "Dearest Mama" and the laughable farce, "Box and Cox" on Thursday, August 25 [1921] at the Grand View church. The plays are to be give under the direction of Mr. Kenyon Bourne. The proceeds will be used to aid in moving the new grange hall to Fern Hill.
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The work of moving the grange hall to the new location was begun Monday [Sept 12, 1921] under the direction of Mr. Kenyon Bourne. The next grange meeting is to be held in the hall, if completed.
-- At the regular meeting of Fern Hill grange Saturday evening [Oct 1, 1921], ... As the hall will be on its new location the next meeting will be held there. The last week has found the men very busy and while it was slow at first, the work is going faster as the moving is now in open country and the end of this week will find the hall moving completed. [According to Cyril Witham they put the building on skids and used a stump puller for power.]
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The grange hall is resting on the new location along the Fern Hill road. The finishing up work to make it ready for use is yet to be done. [Friday, Oct 14, 1921]
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Fern Hill grange met for the first time in the new hall, Saturday, November 12, [1921], with a jolly big crowd on hand. While there is considerable remodeling and building to be done, the hall will be finished as fast as money is to be had. Meanwhile a goodly bunch of grangers are glad to have a home with plenty of room in which to meet.
Friday, Dec 17, 1926
...Fern Hill grange recently bought ten acres from J. C. Skeans and is starting to build a new hall which will be the equal of any in the county.
The Grange hall is still intact, after the blast set off Sunday [May 15, 1927] in the rock quarry at the crusher just below the building. It was feared that the explosion might injure the building enough to make it unsafe for meeting purposes, and tentative plans had been made to meet in the old Orris Kellar house if this happened. The social meeting of tomorrow night will be held in the old hall as usual.
Friday, Jun 3, 1927
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-- Ground for the new grange hall at Fern Hill was broken Sunday morning May 29, 1927], when a crew of volunteer workers started preparing the ground for the new building. The women of the grange met at the old hall and prepared and served a community dinner at noon.
The new hall will be on the site of the Orris Kellar residence which was bought by the grange several months ago. It will be a two story building, which will be erected just south of the present Kellar house. The building will be 32 x 70 feet, with a basement with a concrete floor and concrete wall three feet high.
On the lower floor will be located the Kitchen, 32 x 40. On the upper floor will be a nursery and women's rest room at one side of the entrance and a men's waiting and smoking room at the other.
The upper floor will be used for grange purposes. This room will be equipped with a 12 foot stage, which will occupy the entire rear end of the room except for a 4 foot entrance to the kitchen. A 16 foot balcony will take care of practically any audience that can be foreseen at this time.
An 8 foot porch will be built at the front.
The old hall, which first was a church building and later was moved to its present location and converted into a grange hall, has been razed and as much lumber as possible will be salvaged from it for the new building. Some of the lumber in the old hall is still in very good condition and will be useable for the new hall.
A volunteer crew has been busy all week wrecking the old building and hauling the lumber to the new site.
It is hoped that the new hall may be sufficiently completed for use within the next month or six weeks. This however, will depend upon the amount of time that can be put into the work, since the most of the labor will be volunteered. With the backwards season, many of the men who otherwise would be able to help to a considerable extent may be obliged to forego their work on the hall to take care of their crops, some of which are still to be seeded.
For some time it has been planned to start the hall, but it was put off for the winter, and with the late spring it was necessary to wait until the most of the men would be free to work on the project.
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The last meeting to be held in the old grange hall was held Saturday night [May 29, 1927], and was well attended. Mrs. Della Gilbert acted as lecturer in the absence of Mrs. Emily Kellar, who was unable to attend on account of rheumatism. A feature of the lecture hour was the accounts of the women of the grange, in telling how each earned her dollar.
Those working on the new grange hall Sunday [Jun 5, 1927] were: Orris Kellar, Homer H. Kellar, Bill Gilbert, Ray Jennings, Jesse Skeans, Pete Mauris, Neal Wilburn, Edward Westfall, Ross Daniels and I. W. Tracy. The boys who helped were Donald Mason, Roy Wilburn, Harold Skeans and Glenn Jennings.
Fern Hill grange will meet in regular session tomorrow evening, in the upper story of Neal Wilburn's barn. No lunch will be served, but come prepared to help with the lecturer's program.
The new grange hall is nicely started. The cement foundation already is in, and the carpenter work will be rushed as fast aspossible.
Friday, Jun 24, 1927
Tomorrow night [Saturday, Jun 25, 1927] is grange night, We will again meet overhead in Neal Wilburn's barn.
The new grange hall is progressing rapidly, Pete Mauris and Homer Kellar being hired to work there steady while others are donating a little work as they can.
Friday, Jul 1, 1927
Fern Hill grange members wish to cordially invite the public to come and help in the finishing of the new grange hall. Any help given will be appreciated, as we wish to hold our next grange session in the hall. The grange would also like to have the help of members who have not donated their one week of work as yet.
Friday, Jul 29, 1927
Orris Kellar and Homer H. Kellar are working on the new grange hall this week. The hall is needed badly. It would be appreciated very much if those who cannot donate work would get someone to work in their place.
Friday, Sep 30, 1927
...Fern Hill will hold dedication of its new hall on October 15, [1927]. Plans will be shaped for this event within the next two weeks. The grange hall at Fern Hill is the newest among the 12 granges of the county, and, although all of the finishing touches have not been added as yet, the hall offers comfortable space for grange and community gatherings in the auditorium up stairs, while the entire basement of the building is available for a dining room and kitchen. This hall replaces the old one that was torn down last summer.
-- Friday, Oct 21, 1927
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-- The new Fern Hill grange hall was dedicated with the regular grange dedication service Saturday night before an audience of more than 150 persons, mostly grangers.
... grange members to have a new hall for this winter. Ground was broken for the building on May 29, [1927] and work of erecting the hall was in progress until early in August, when the hall was used unofficially, in the absence of another place of meeting. Work of construction was slow because practically all was donated, and haying and harvesting interfered with the progress of the carpenters.
-- Friday, Oct 4, 1929
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-- ... Last May [1929] water was piped into the hall from a spring on the Orris Kellar place which supplies the hall with an abundance of fine spring water and eliminates the hard work of carrying water for cooking and washing dishes at grange gatherings.
The Northwestern Electric company is extending their line into the Fern Hill country, and the hall will be wired for electric lights as soon as the line reaches that far.
Friday, Nov 1, 1929
... The electric light committee reported we would have the electricity by Thursday, in ample time to test out the wiring by the time of the Pomona meeting. A letter of thanks to Mr. Snyder, president of the Northwest Electric company was ordered sent, in appreciation of his courtesy and promptness in putting in the line for us.
-- Friday, Nov 8, 1929
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... Fern Hill Grange has been working for some time on electric lights for the community and was very proud to have the hall all lighted for this meeting.
-- Thursday, Nov 2, 1972
Special recognition was given recently during a meeting of the the Fern Hill Grange to Mr.
and Mrs. Homer Kellar. They are the only living charter members.
[Note from the compiler: Special recognition long overdue; the Kellar family contributed
physically, intellectually, and artistically to the Fern Hill and Apiary communities. In fact,
if either community was involved in any project the Kellars were at the forefront;
organizing, leading, doing.]
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