Won’t you be my neighbor? It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood of Harveys Aleppo Grange – a neighborhood that stretches from the grange hall on State Rt. 21 near Graysville to every point in West Greene. And beyond.
This perennial community center where Harveys Aleppo grangers meet in regular session first Thursday of the month at 6pm is also a gathering place for neighbors and friends. The West Greene Senior Center does lunch and plays some cutthroat cinch here every Thursday from 9 am until early afternoon and Graysville American Legion holds its monthly meetings every second Thursday evening. The electronic sign in the front yard lets passersby know what special events might be happening, from a meet the candidates night to hunter safety classes.
Need to rent the hall for a reception, a graduation or family reunion? Give us a call.
Need a place to hold a community event? We’re happy to support you.
Getting ready to graduate from West Greene and want to go further? Ask for a scholarship application.
(Congratulations Trevor Triplett! You won the 2023 scholarship. So happy you’ve been accepted at WVU. See you at the Jacktown Fair!)
When member Tracy Stewart nominated her grange for GreeneScene Magazine’s Good Neighbor recognition this spring, she was happy to be a cheerleader for the cause.
“I know how much good the Grange does and I’m proud to be a member. I can’t always get to meetings because of my work schedule, but we all stay in touch on our message board and I call in to meetings when I can’t make it. We make it work and I help out wherever I can. We all do. I’m always surprised when people ask me what the grange does because I know we’re there for the community in so many ways. I really feel people need to know what we do.”
Grange history goes back generations through many local farming families that benefited from what the Grange had to offer when farming was gearing up for the 20th century.
When the first grange in Graysville opened in 1913, members hitched up their wagons and met in the Knights of Pythias Hall. The “community service, education, legislation and fellowship” mission of the Grange was now aligned with the agricultural extension program initiated by the Smith-Lever Ace of 1914. This act of Congress provided federal funding to land grant colleges and placed county agents throughout the United States. When the county Farm Bureau formed in 1915, grangers sat on its board and learned cutting edge farming techniques as they were developed.
“I’m a fourth-generation granger,” Worthy Master (President in modern grange lingo) Mary Jane Kent admits. “My father, Gross Dinsmore, raised sheep on the family farm on Nebo Ridge and his dad and granddad were grangers too. I remember falling asleep behind the desk when Daddy was Master. The Grange was our life back then. Meetings were Fridays at 8pm because farmers had to finish their chores before dark.”
Over the years, as family farms dwindled, county granges closed but those that remain—Carmichaels, East Franklin and Harveys Aleppo—have kept the Grange tradition alive. When Sam Harvey (1915-2014) retired in 1986, he returned home to buy back the family farm and donate the land where today’s grange hall stands. Its dual purpose as a community center allowed members to continue to serve even as their family farming tradition was lost. There were still things to advocate for in rural America that would reveal themselves going forward, including reliable Internet access, now a National Grange priority project.
When nearby Aleppo Grange 2054 lost its hall to undermining in 2009, members voted to join forces and became Harveys Aleppo Grange 1444. State Master Betsy Huber came to visit and was instrumental in navigating the paperwork and legalities involved in combining the assets of both organizations into a force for doing even more community good.
For Harveys Aleppo Grange, helping kids with the cost of post high school education tops the to-do list.
Grange members, friends and volunteers from the community man the Bingo Hall at the Jacktown Fair every year to raise money for the West Greene Scholarship Fund.
This year’s winner, Trevor Triplett, will be helping out at the Bingo Hall almost every night, so be sure to stop by and congratulate him! Trevor spent some quality time at the grange hall as a kid with Cub Scout Troop 1600 when the troop held their meetings there. For his Eagle Scout project Trevor made grangers proud by mapping and cleaning up the historic Braddock Cemetery on Ackley Creek Road. The project included holding a creamed chicken dinner for donations to build a map stand and purchase a stone to honor the unmarked graves of Revolutionary War Privates Abner Braddock and Francis M. Braddock and Sargent Thomas Vannatta and Private Noah D. Clutter of the Civil War.
Neighbors helping neighbors is how small communities survive and thrive. As part of the drive to update much needed firefighting equipment and gear, Harveys Aleppo Grange donated $1000 to Graysville Fire Department in 2013 along with a community citizen award and did the same for Center Township Fire Department in 2016.
Helping kids caught up in the court system due to abuse or neglect is another worthy cause the grange funds and gives volunteer supports through CASA – Court Appointed Special Advocates program of Greene County.
“It takes all of us to keep the Grange active in the community,” Mary Jane said. “We feel blessed that we can work together like this. We can do so much more good that way.”
Being neighborly also means reaching beyond West Greene and across county lines, with Meet the Candidates nights, Veterans Recognition and most recently, a shared quarterly Pomona meeting with Washington County at Lone Pine Grange on June 10.
Harveys Aleppo was there to give its quarterly report to Pomona, along with those of Carmichaels and East Franklin granges.
The reports sparkled with public invitations to spaghetti dinners at Chestnut Ridge and South Strabane granges, funnel cakes every Friday and an upcoming line dance on June 24 at Ginger Hill Grange. Long Branch Grange of Coal Center is having a Dinner Theater with Cathi Rhodes “The Miss Patsy Cline of Pennsylvania” on July 29 that includes dinner at 6 pm. Tickets are a $25 donation and must be purchased in advance. Call 724-469-2736.
Long Branch granger and retired Albert Gallatin teacher Sarah Regester is delighted to tell me she recognized some of her old students in the story I wrote about Masontown. “I had Warren Hughes my first year of teaching!” She lives close enough to Fredericktown to get GreeneScene Magazine in her mailbox and loves learning about what’s happening beyond county lines. I’ve brought two months of recent magazines with me and pass them out to other grangers, inviting them to consider staying in touch by advertising or posting on the community events page.
Let’s stay in touch, we decide. Carmichaels Grange is having a picnic on July 8, 2 pm at their grange hall (now owned by Back Bay Catering) on 510 Ceylon Drive. A headcount is needed by June 30 and the grange will provide all the food. Washington County granges are invited!