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May Crossroads lecturer to explore grange history
Photos and Story by James Hill
Loyce Martinazzi’s great grandparents helped settle Tualatin and became charter members of the town’s Winona Grange in 1895.
The grange tradition filtered down to Martinazzi, who is still active in the same organization. She will discuss “The History of the Grange: Birth of an American Treasure” Wednesday, May 16, at the May Crossroads Lecture.
Martinazzi will lecture at the Washington County Museum, located on the Rock Creek Campus. Admission to the 3:30 p.m. Crossroads Lecture is $3 per person and free to WCHS members, employees of corporate members, and PCC faculty, students and staff. Parking in Lot A in front of the museum is free with a museum permit.
The grange movement began after the Civil War in order to unite farmers whose livelihoods had been decimated. Later, the grange gave farmers a combined voice in agricultural policy and legislation.
Martinazzi says an important part the grange’s mission was to elevate the lives of farmers and women. Learning the grange’s ritual work helped develop women’s leadership abilities.
Martinazzi was part of a grange youth group in the 1940s and ‘50s. The group put on dances, plays and drills and performed community service projects to teach leadership and responsibility to the youth. “The grange was the biggest influence in my life,” she says. “It was the golden age of the grange for teenagers. We learned responsibility and manners and were treated with respect.”
During her Crossroads presentation, Martinazzi will review local and national grange history and discuss some of the grange-sponsored, turn-of-the-20th-century legislation that benefited agriculture and helped develop roads and utilities for rural areas. Martinazzi will also show grange memorabilia such as original sashes and large ribbon pins from the late 19th century.
Martinazzi is co-founder of the Tualatin Historical Society and co-authored several books and a video on Tualatin’s history. Her great grandparents arrived in Tualatin in 1869; she lived there throughout her childhood. Martinazzi and her husband continued the farming tradition in Tualatin until 1990. She now lives in Lake Grove.
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »