Gaines Grange officers

Posted 3 July 2013 at 12:00 am

By Bill Lattin
Orleans County Historian

GAINES – The accompanying photo dating back around 80 years recently was given to the Orleans County Department of History by Dan Hatch. Here we see officers of the Gaines Grange posed in front of the Gaines Congregational Church in the 1930s.

The women in the picture, from left to right, include: Elinor Cooper, Sarah Bacon, Octavia Mather (chaplain), Kate Crowley, Alice Hatch (secretary), Alma Appleton and Wilhelmina Taylor.

The men in the photo include, from left: William Grinelle (trustee), Charles Thompson (trustee), Fred Derisley, Winton Hatch (master), Ronald Spinks, Lewis Reed and William Crowley (trustee).

The Gaines Grange 1147 was formed on Nov. 30, 1908. In May 1909, 40 people were initiated into membership. In the spring of 1915 they purchased Thurber’s Hotel next to the Congregational Church and transformed it into a Grange Hall. The third floor was fixed up for a dance hall with a superb hard floor being installed at the time. This was considered one of the best dance floors around at the time and one of the largest Grange Halls in the region.