Three — The Gleaner Newspaper

Chapter Three The Gleaner Newspaper

The fi rst issue of The Gleaner was printed on the presses of the Courier in the fall of 1894. It described the new order and answered questions about the insurance program. Early copies were not dated but seem to have been mailed every four or fi ve weeks. The fi rst complete copy in the fi les is Number 3, Volume 1, printed in December 1894. Another issue, either Number 1 or Number 2, is in the fi les but cannot be identifi ed because the masthead is missing. If there were 12 papers printed the fi rst year, as seems likely, the copies for January and March 1895 also are missing. Nearly all others have been saved, creating a valuable historical record. Slocum printed and mailed the fi rst issues of The Gleaner free of charge.

The paper was essential to the success of the Society and played a central role in bringing in new members. There were few ways to communicate with people in those days, and Slocum had at his disposal the most eff ective one available. Every member received a copy of the paper and it was distributed widely to those interested in the Gleaner organization.

The Gleaner was published under several diff erent names during the 25 years Slocum was the publisher. The name was changed to The Monthly Gleaner from January 1895 to October 1903. On that date, the name was changed back to The Gleaner because of a twicemonthly format. The masthead carried the motto, “Devoted Exclusively to the Interest of the Farmer and the Upholding of His Calling.” After a major expansion in 1910 the title was changed to “The Gleaner - A Farm Magazine.” It is diffi cult to separate Slocum the editor and publisher from Slocum the Secretary and chief administrative offi cer of the Ancient Order of Gleaners. He was generous with both time and money where the Society was concerned.

At the second annual meeting of the Society in 1895 a resolution was passed: “A monthly offi cial paper shall be published to be known as The Monthly Gleaner which shall contain the offi cial notices of assessment, the minutes of every meeting of the State arbor, all offi cial notices to the members, and general information and news of interest to the members.” At the same meeting another resolution was passed to pay Slocum $150 per year to edit the paper. The Society also paid for the printing of minutes and other offi cial business. At some point the Society began to apply a portion of the members’ dues as a subscription to the paper. It is doubtful if The Gleaner made a profi t in the early years, and may instead have cost Slocum money.

The question of who owned The Gleaner caused trouble at a later date. Slocum and his company owned the presses and the means of distribution. After the fi rst few years the Society paid most or all of the cost through subscriptions (25 cents per year in 1905) and offi cial printing. Slocum edited the paper as an employee of the Society. As long as

Volume 1, number 1, Page 1 of The Gleaner, 1894. This was Grant Slocum’s rst monthly publication for the new Ancient Order of Gleaners (A.O.O.G.).

the paper was not profi table, the question of ownership was not raised. As the years went by, costs increased and in 1902 Slocum turned to advertising as a source of revenue. The move was successful and before long The Gleaner became a major advertiser of products sold to farmers.

Slocum never doubted he was sole owner of the newspaper and saw himself as a businessman selling services to the Society. He also thought of the paper as a fraternal enterprise and began to think of ways to make it more eff ective.

In the fall of 1903 he formed the Gleaner Information Bureau to help farmers buy items at bulk rates. The cost of operating the Bureau came from the profi ts being generated by The Gleaner. In 1903-1904 the Bureau saved farmers nearly $8,000 on the purchase of binder twine. The price of twine, used to bale hay and straw, was controlled by a few companies with access to sisal from Mexico. The Bureau undercut the going rate by guaranteeing a larger sale.

The Bureau of Information was the beginning of Slocum’s great design for farmer cooperation. In June 1904 he took the next step and proposed the formation of The Gleaner Cooperative Union. The Union was organized as a stock company under Michigan laws. The plan was to sell stock to members at $1 per share with a limit of fi ve shares. Income from the sale would be used for cooperative purchasing. Shareholders would receive interest on their investment.

Slocum proposed to sell The Gleaner to the Gleaner Cooperative Union. The idea had merit since the paper was an eff ective advertiser by 1904 and had access to tens of thousands of Michigan farmers. In explaining the proposition, Slocum wrote:

“Nearly two years ago The Gleaner was enlarged to its present size. The writer took the responsibility on himself to furnish a better paper for our readers, and in doing so we assumed large nancial obligations. Our determination was to give our membership a rst class agricultural publication. We promised at that time that just as soon as possible we would reduce the subscription price and, further, that we would make our readers partners in the enterprise, and use every dollar of pro t to make the paper better.” He asked for pledges of interest in the project and in July reported the response to be overwhelming. But six months later, in January 1905, he was forced to admit defeat. Although nearly a thousand members expressed an interest, it was not enough to form the stock company. In discussing the matter Slocum said, “the fear of someone receiving personal benefi t was responsible.” The proposed sale of The Gleaner was the problem.

The stock company plan was temporarily abandoned, and The Gleaner was never again off ered for sale. In March 1904, Slocum was listed as the publisher along with a statement that “The Gleaner has been offi cially recognized as the offi cial organ of The Ancient Order of Gleaners.” That kind of recognition was evidently not necessary before,

The October 1900 cover of The Monthly Gleaner celebrated the Society’s sixth anniversary.

but the rejection of his off er to sell the paper must have moved Slocum to clear up the question of ownership. In 1905 he formed the Rural Publishing Company and moved the printing offi ces to the Majestic Building in Detroit. He continued to publish The Courier in Caro, employing former Caro school superintendent Ross Holloway as editor.

After moving to Detroit, The Gleaner became one of the most successful and politically infl uential farm papers in the Midwest. In December 1904, the Country Visitor was purchased and in 1905 The Farmers Friend, both rival publications. Their subscription lists expanded coverage outside the Society’s membership for the fi rst time. Although still the offi cial voice of the Ancient Order of Gleaners, the paper was designed to appeal to the general farm population. An aggressive advertising department was formed, and before long The Gleaner became a major advertiser of farm products. By December 1905, the paper doubled in size again to 32 pages and was copyrighted in 1907.

In 1908 the masthead was changed once more to read “Published for Farm Folks.” In 1909 it became a magazine off ering fi ction, health advice, a column called “Ask Aunt Jane,” a joke column called “Knocks and Boasts,” a women’s page, and a special section for Gleaner members. At one point it was claimed the magazine had 125,000 readers and used 20 tons of newsprint for each issue. In 1913, Slocum also began publishing a farm market newsletter called Michigan Business Farmer. Prices were quoted, giving farmers a check on local prices for the fi rst time.

The newspaper also carried a few national and international items. Slocum commented on some, and his observations refl ect his awareness of rural families’ hardships and sacrifi ce. Slocum noted both regarding an April 1913 story of members of a South Dakota family who died traveling without roads in a blizzard:

The August 1915 cover showed “the rst published actual photograph of Henry Ford’s tractor at work.” It also showed how The Gleaner had merged and expanded to include a large quantity of farm news. “How often do we overlook the simple things of life even when they bear all the evidence of the simplicity of greatness. In an obscure corner of a daily paper we found the following: ‘Huddled in the rear end of a wagon box and enshrouded in a mantle of snow, A.T. Perry, his wife and three little children were found frozen to death near Rapid City, South Dakota. They had lost their way on the open prairie in a blizzard. The bodies of the father and mother formed a shelter for the protection of the little ones. The parents had utilized all available blankets including clothing from their own bodies, in a vain attempt to keep their children alive.’ A far too simple tale, this story of these farm folks’ sacri ce, to meet with more than passing mention, amid the lengthy descriptions of divorce proceedings and tales of crime with which our press is lled. And yet it is a tale replete with heroism and pathos, to those who count their days by heart throbs, and who see in life something deeper and more signi cant than a calendar of sins and crimes.”

Even after Slocum turned The Gleaner into a successful commercial enterprise its relationship to The Ancient Order of Gleaners remained a close one. It continued

Women of Gleaner

Anne Campbell Stark

From the 1920s until her death in 1984, Anne Campbell Stark was one of Michigan’s best-known poets. She became so much a part of Detroit’s cultural life that in 1947 more than 1,500 people — including Detroit’s mayor — attended a celebration of her 25th employment anniversary with The Detroit News.

Before she became famous, though, she was part of the Gleaner Home Offi ce, a key part of the Gleaner publication, a mother and a mentor.

Anne Campbell was born on a farm in Michigan’s Lynn Township a few miles from Yale on June 19, 1888. She began writing while young. At age 10, she won a statewide writing contest. She eventually moved to Detroit, where the Gleaner headquarters had relocated in 1908, and became editor for the Gleaner publication’s women’s and home pages.

Her poems, which often refl ected rural life, became well known. In addition to her work, Anne also was soon raising three children. In April of 1918, Anne left the Gleaner publication and by 1922 had started writing poetry for The Detroit News, writing a poem a day for six days per week. In promotional material, she was called “The Poet of the Home.”

During her 25 years at the News, Anne produced more than 7,500 poems. The sale of those around the world reportedly earned her $10,000 per year (almost $200,000 today adjusted for infl ation).

Campbell died Jan. 16, 1984, at age 95. Her memorial service was at Detroit’s Mariner’s Church. The February 1918 issue of The Gleaner showed “just a few” of the 1,200 delegates who attended the 1917 National Convention in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

to be a recruiting device for the order, published Gleaner news, printed fi nancial reports, and announced when assessments were due. Members paid for their subscription through their membership and the Society paid for the publication of offi cial notices.

The last issue of The Gleaner — A National Journal of Organized Farming is dated January 1919. Slocum’s decision to halt publication was prompted by a desire to spend less time on business aff airs. In addition to the printing and publishing business, he was president of one bank and a member of the board of directors of a second. After World War I, he served on President Woodrow Wilson’s Peace Commission to Europe, a recognition of his role as spokesman for farmers. He also began to spend more time at his winter home in Lake Worth, Florida. He was ready for a change after 25 years of nearly full-time service to the Society.

The August 1918 issue pictured the Gleaner Building erected for the Michigan State Fair that year.

After one month the Ancient Order of Gleaners began to publish a renamed Gleaner as its own periodical. The fi rst issue of The National Gleaner Forum, Issue Number 1, Volume 25, is dated March 1919. The Rural Publishing Company continued as printer and Slocum as editor, but the Society was clearly the owner and publisher. Slocum wrote for The Forum until his death in 1924.

George Slocum, Grant’s son, became the business manager for the Rural Publishing Company and publisher of The Michigan Farmer, the successor to Michigan Business Farming. He moved the business to Mount Clemens in about 1920.

Grant Slocum’s ownership of The Gleaner came under criticism occasionally, but the Society could not have succeeded without it. Anyone reading the early issues will admire the skill with which it was written and edited. His off er to sell the paper was an act of fraternal commitment,

The Gleaner published advertisements for many of the new products available in the rst decades of the 20th century. These included gasoline farm engines, record players, automobiles and radios. This is from a 1910 ad for the Hupmobile manufactured by the Hupp Motor Car Co. of Detroit.

This 1910 Forum cover illustrates how technology was overtaking horses on American farms and rural roads.

but those who “feared someone receiving personal benefi t” did Slocum a favor. It is ironic that ownership of the paper made him a nationally recognized voice for America’s farmers.

Advertisements in The Gleaner are of special interest to anyone studying the change from horses to horsepower in the early 1900s. There were many automobile ads, most from companies who have either been absorbed by today’s “Big Three” or who have disappeared for other reasons.

Farmers resented the fi rst automobiles, and their voices are clearly heard in the pages of The Gleaner. They claimed noise and exhaust fumes were responsible for hens not laying and cows refusing to give milk. They were especially upset by the dangerous contraptions scaring their horses as they passed on narrow dirt roads of the day. One article in The Gleaner suggested farmers protect themselves by placing nail-fi lled boards across their lanes.

The paper printed hundreds of ads for the fi rst farm tractors, small engines for sawing wood or pumping water, cream separators, indoor plumbing, pre-cut houses, telephones, and many other inventions that helped change rural lifestyles. As you read The Gleaner, you catch a glimpse of one of the important transformations in American life.

The National Gleaner Forum is still published today. Mabel Clare Ladd, employed by the Society in 1903, handled most of the editor’s duties after Slocum’s death and continued in that capacity until 1955. After Ladd’s retirement, an advertising agency edited the publication for a few years. Margaret McGinty also served as editor for a short time. In September 1961, Noel Loveland became the freelance editor and continued in that capacity until January 1991. Mary Ward-Eaton became the fi fth editor in 1991. In 1997, production of the magazine returned to the Home Offi ce, and Jennifer Allman became the editor. She was followed by Kelly Jo Gilmore until 2008 and then Janette Lawhorn until 2012, when the title of editor was retired and writing, production and editing became part of the Home Offi ce’s Marketing and Communications Department.

Better known now as Forum Magazine, the Society’s quarterly publication remains one of the oldest continuously published periodicals in the United States.

The Summer 2019 edition of Forum Magazine included this montage of covers from the Society’s rst 125 years.

35

36