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Biography of Oliver Hudson KelleyName: Oliver Hudson KelleyBirth Date: 1826 Death Date: 1913 Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: agriculturalist Oliver Hudson Kelley The American agriculturalist Oliver Hudson Kelley (1826-1913) founded the Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry and was devoted to improving conditions for farmers.Oliver Hudson Kelley was born and educated in Boston. He went west to Illinois for awhile, then to Minnesota in 1849, where he became a farmer and Indian trader. Kelley's wife died in 1851, and the following year he married a schoolteacher who also had come west from Boston.Kelley quickly became a champion of Minnesota and of the farmer, whom he considered the indisputable source of wealth in America. Following a drought in 1862-1863, Kelley's Minnesota farm operations became unprofitable, and in 1864 he found employment as a clerk in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He returned to Minnesota in 1865 to prepare a report for the Federal government on agricultural conditions. In January 1866 he was commissioned to make a survey of the agricultural situation in the …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…and 1875 Kelley lived in Washington, D.C., as national secretary of the Grange. Turning his attention to real estate promotion in Florida, he moved to Carrabelle, a townsite he had founded. Three years later he resigned his position with the Grange to devote himself to land promotion. His life in Florida is little known; apparently he was not financially successful, for he returned to Washington and accepted a pension from the National Grange in 1905. The significant achievement of Kelley's life is detailed in his book, Origin and Progress of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry in the United States. Associated Organizations Further Reading The basic information on Kelley's life is in Solon J. Buck, The Granger Movement (1913). Additional evidence is in Thomas Clark Atkeson, Semi-centennial History of the Patrons of Husbandry (1916); Edward Weist, Agricultural Organization in the United States (1923); and Charles M. Gardner, The Grange: Friend of the Farmer (1949). |