Eayrs recounted a few months later at the first convention how the five men met in a corner of the printing office “using a $1.50 kitchen table” as their desk, where they discussed Slocum’s plans carefully and agreed to proceed. Once that decision was made, events moved rapidly. On Aug. 5, the first meeting of farmers was held in the England schoolhouse five miles north of Caro. Almer Arbor Number 1 was formed from the nearly 50 people who attended the meeting. Almer Arbor was later combined with June Arbor Number 9 and became known as Caro Arbor Number 1.
openly attack all secret societies. They charged they were illegitimate religious bodies because of the use of prayer and religious symbols in the rituals. Some even issued edicts warning members not to join under penalty of excommunication. Opposition to secret societies even led to the formation of a political party. The Anti-Mason party, the first “third party” movement in the United States, appeared as Andrew Jackson was running for his second term as president in 1832. Jackson was the target of the Anti-Masons since he was a member of that organization. The party started in western New York state and left its mark by holding the first political nominating convention. In the 1850s the American or “Know Nothing” party was created by a secret society called The Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. It opposed immigration and was anti-Catholic. Both parties disappeared in short order, but secret societies continued to flourish and their critics continued to oppose them.
The Rituals
In one important way the Ancient Order of Gleaners was different from other secret groups. The success of the Society depended on recruiting large numbers of new members. Although membership was restricted to farmers, all “agriculturists” were encouraged to join. Success meant bringing people in, not keeping them out. Slocum liked to quote the poem “Outwitted” by Edwin Markham to illustrate his point: “They drew a circle to shut me out — Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win; We drew a circle that took him in.”
Early Gleaner regalia used in presenting the Dramatic Degree was modeled by officers in the 1990s. Standing, left to right: Vernon Howard, Richard Livesey, Joseph Burnett, Michael Wade, Ellsworth Stout and Bill Warner. Seated: Frank Dick.
As a member of the Masons, the International Order of Odd Fellows, and the Grange, Slocum was familiar with the rituals of those organizations. He drafted the Gleaner rituals along those lines, using ideas from several existing organizations. He was an idealist as well as a populist, and those qualities are clearly present in the Gleaner rituals. He believed farmers were too isolated from each other, and that they must be brought together in a common cause. He also believed people needed something to add dignity to their lives, and the Gleaner rituals were written with that thought in mind. Farmers would respond, he insisted, to a call for high ideals.
The Ancient Order of Gleaners was a secret society with passwords, a formal ritual, a secret handshake, a progression of degrees, and an oath binding the members to a common bond. Secret societies have a long and interesting history in the United States. Occasionally they became controversial because they were seen as elitist and, therefore, outof-step in a democratic country. Stories about lodge secrets circulated among non-members, some of them quite sensational. As secrets were released to the public by dissident members a few church leaders began to
Slocum began writing the Gleaner rituals in 1888 at the time he first tried to organize the Ancient Order 10
