Sammamish Valley Grange History

Chapter 4 - The Woodinville Grange

The Woodinville Grange
The Woodinville Grange, #609, started in 1916. There were 26 charter members. As the number indicates (new Granges start in the 1100’s now), over three hundred Granges had been started in a seven year period. Either organizers really rwanted a bunch of subordinates, or ”The Grange” was a hot idea at that time.[1]
While the Sammamish Valley Grange was quite busy involving itself in all aspects of their community, the Woodinville Grange appears from the minutes to have been lethargic. My review of the records indicates very little activity. Which leads to speculation – why did it exist? After the logs had been hauled away, Woodinville in the first half of the century was a sleepy logging village (the book Village in the Woods would be more appropriately titled Village in the Stumps), with logging activity occurring around Cottage Lake – which at that time, may not have been part of the Woodinville community, but a distant hamlet. There was a lack of roads into the town, only one windy road from Redmond, and one windy road from Bothell. While Bothell could have been considered a town, Woodinville was too small for that designation.
Due to the windy roads, and prohibition (although northwest farmers were inclined toward sobriety even without prohibition), there may have been very little to do at night. Late in the period, we reimbursed people’s gasoline expenses – thus indicating how expensive it was to leave the town. This is especially since there were no televisions, radios (at least mass ownership), computers, game consoles, or any of the other forms of do-it-yourself entertainment that exist today. The records indicate the meetings were well attended, while nothing was going on. And, there was a lack of other organizations to go to in town. It appeared to be more of a club, than an organization. So people came to do something with their neighbors. However, due to the fact that not a lot of members were suspended, they may have been bored, so stopped coming. In fact, during some meetings, nothing – no business, no program, no communication – ever happened!
In a five year period, over eighty people joined – quite a lot for an isolated community with a few hundred people. However, a review of names of officers shows, with a few exceptions, fresh faces every time an election happened. This is different than people working their way up the officer ranks. Thus, unless the members were astute enough to put new members into officers positions to keep them, which is unlikely, it appears that the problem of lack of activity drove members away, so my membership hypothesis holds true. The only thing that kept people joining may have been new members to the community wanting to find something to do. I would characterize the membership as a “revolving door,” which only works in communities where there is nothing to do.
Woodinville Grange met at the old school. It voted to put up lights in the school gymnasium for it’s meetings.
Meanwhile, the Woodinville Grange was doing it’s own activities, although not on the scale of Sammamish Valley. Ironically, there was a dispute with the Washington Fire Relief Company – which is ironic due to the fact that a later CEO of it’s successor organization – when known as Grange Insurance – would choose to join this Grange, and that a master of this Grange would come from that company, albeit many decades later.
During the late-teens, there was a dispute between Sammamish Valley Grange and the Woodinville Grange about which Granges got which members. The Woodinville Grange wrote a letter to Sammamish Valley Grange objecting to the fact that Sammamish Valley Grange was adopting members from their jurisdiction. This matter was resolved later in the year, when membership of each member was determined by their P.O. Box.
However, toward the end, these rules appeared to have been stretched, especially as both Sammamish Valley and Woodinville cooperated closer and closer together (as the records of both organizations indicate). One of the members who joined in 1925 was Dick Vitulo. The Vitulo family owned theland where Home Depot, the University of Washington branch campus, I-405, the Seattle Times plant, and the Quadrant business park are located today – all inside the Bothell City limits. The streets were not installed east of I-405 until the 1980’s and 1990’s (with the exception of Beardslee Boulevard, named after an important later member of this Grange). Hence, this area was in more geographical proximity of Bothell. However, as his farm was closer to the village of Woodinville, he joined the Woodinville Grange, about the time that the original Sammamish Valley Grange was dying.
One thing that could have attracted members is the lecturer’s program, which although it did not occur every meeting, it was quite extensive. It included music, singing, readings, and debates. A favorite debate topic was the following – whether the world was improving or worsening, which was decided in the negative(a common attitude in the early 1920’s). Another was a debate on the most profitable crop, which was not resolved.
The activity of the Woodinville Grange was so scant, I can cover it all here. In September 1920, we elected delegates to the Good Road Convention in Everett. In December 1920, we added our name to the record to oppose the merger of school district #23 with district #26 (which created the Northshore district, in any case). We bought lights for our own use for the High School Gym – as was indicated when we granted permission to the basketball team to use them at night. We took up donations for those involved in the Tacoma metal trades strike. We also took up a collection for striking miners in the area (at the request of the Central Labor Council), by sending both clothing and $10.00. We asked the local game warden to shut down Bear Creek to hunting. We endorsed the State Grange Program of taxation. Showing a lack of knowledge of economics, we passed a resolution protesting discrimination of prices between local and non-local produce. We opposed a “Child Labor” amendment. We got a committee to look into streetlights for the village of Woodinville, but the committee did not get far. There is indication we may have had a fair, but it is not spelled out in detail in the records.
In several instances, we were presented with opportunities to give life to the club, but passed it up. We actually refused to participate in a fair in Bothell. We ignored an opportunity advocated by Mukilteo Heights Grange to create a Cooperative Exchange. We ignored requests by higher levels of the Grange to report to the authorities flagrant violations of the Prohibition Laws (was that because some members were imbibing, in violation of the Grange mores of that day?) We tabled a motion criticizing the Washington Fire Relief Association (now known as Grange Insurance Association). State Master Goss wanted us to be in communication with our Olympia Representatives, but we did not do anything about that, either. In fact, besides helping out laborers in trouble, there appears to have been no charity given out.
We were so lethargic, it appears that the Bouck controversy had little to no effect on our organization. Unlike Sammamish Valley, there is nothing in the records indicating we took any position during those times of troubles. In fact, if one reads the records without any knowledge of this period, it appears there was no trouble brewing at all!
Politically, we appear to have been somewhat left-of-center, as was in line with the State Organization. While we opposed a “Child Labor” amendment, there were a few other instances which reveal our positions on issues. First of all, we were willing to aid labor when it ran in trouble, as noted above. As noted above, while the national organization was stung by a partisanship scandal one decade earlier, we were willing to do activities with the Democrats. There was a picnic, in Kirkland, where mule-shaped sandwiches were served – and this was specifically mentioned in the minutes the Democrats ran it. During this time, the Democrats were barely a major party in the state – they only held one seat in the State Senate, and their US Senator won only because the Republicans chose an extremist who opposed labor unions. The Democrats were even too far to the left for the National Party, as was evidenced by Chairman Farley’s statement that the Democratic party was made up of delegations from 47 states, and the Soviet of Washington[2].
While Sammamish Valley constantly had money troubles, the Woodinville Grange seemed to have some wealth. They could afford to pay $150[3], from the building fund, to buy stock in the Grange Warehouse Company. Later, this money was used to purchase stock in the powder company, instead. It appears the favorite charity of the Woodinville Grange was it’s own members – as they started purchasing wedding gifts for members that were married, starting in 1925. As I read on, this inappropriate use of funds was continued when the two Granges merged.
There was an attempt to build a hall. Besides having a sizeable amount in the building fund, there is a puzzling motion in the minutes which they got money from tearing down an old building and then got to keep the lumber – I am unable to determine what the result of that was, as a hall was never constructed.
Shortly after we elected our officers for 1926, Woodinville Grange voted to merge with Sammamish Valley Grange. We changed our name to “Sammamish Valley Grange of Woodinville” (an illegal use of the name). Curiously, this was done in a single motion. So, was the merging legal?
Why did Woodinville agree to merge? Especially with a debt-ridden subordinate?
The problematic article mentioned at the beginning of Chapter 3 states:

“and finally it was decided that since Woodinville and Bothell farm interests were the same, and Woodinville had a large community hall, the two Granges should consolidate.”

This appears to be more truthful then the reason why Sammamish Valley organized. However, I believe there is more to the story than that, because the phrase “due to the problems stemming from former master Bouck’s personality disorder and huge ego that almost destroyed this state’s organization, and due to some shenanigans at the Bothell Grange Store, Sammamish Valley Grange was almost dead and needed to consolidate with another Grange” sounds bad for an article trying to put a positive spin on things.
As noted above, all members of the original Sammamish Valley Grange were assessed for the debt before going into the Woodinville Grange, so the debt was not absorbed. The records of both organizations indicate that as time got closer to the merger, both organizations worked closer and closer. Quite simply, here was a chance for more members, and Sammamish Valley (sometimes referred to inaccurately in the Woodinville minutes as the Bothell Grange) is a name that can be appropriate for an organization that is located in either Bothell or Woodinville. The reason why Woodinville accepted Sammamish Valley is unimportant; what is important is to determine whose organization – Woodinville or Sammamish Valley – the new organization would more closely resemble, and who is the true ancestor of our own Grange.
[1] Unfortunately, the original minutes, from 1916-1918, have never been located, so I do not know what happened in it’s first two years
[2] This statement is found in several sources as to be common knowledge. Please note that at this time, neither Hawaii nor Alaska were states, so there were 48 of them.
[3] In this era, Grange Halls were built by their own members, as evidenced by both Washington Grangers Celebrate a Century, and by the history of Cedar Valley Grange. A house in Seattle only cost $2000, land in Woodinville was cheap, so we may have been close to being in a position to build our own hall in Woodinville itself.

posted by EricMatthew @ 10:36 PM