Steve Taylor to speak on NH grange movement July 8

MOULTONBOROUGH — Steve Taylor will present his program, New Hampshire’s Grange Movement: Its Rise, Triumphs and Decline, at the Moultonborough Town House, 951 Whittier Highway, on Monday, July 8, at 7 p.m. This program is free and open to the public.

In the late 19th century, rural New Hampshire was seeing a population decline, abandonment of farms, reversion of cleared land to forest and feelings of melancholy and loss. The development of the Grange movement in the 1880s-1890s was aided by hunger for social interaction, entertainment, and mutual support. The Moultonborough Grange #197 was established in 1893, buying its building on Main Street in 1894.

As membership grew statewide, the Grange became a force for policymaking, and its agenda aligned with progressive politics in the early 20th century. Many Grange initiatives became law. In his talk, Taylor will analyze the social and economic changes that would eventually cause the decline of the movement.

Taylor is an independent scholar, farmer, journalist and longtime public official who lectures widely on New Hampshire rural culture. He has been a newspaper reporter and editor, and served for 25 years as New Hampshire’s Commissioner of Agriculture.