On April 29, current and past members of the Mt. Allison Grange and a lot of friends and neighbors came to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the local group.

It was partly a nod to a bygone era, but also a celebration of a century of history and continuing evolution.

"The history of the Grange and the community of Allison are very intertwined," said Grange member Yvonne Conley-Chapman, who currently serves as the group's Lecturer.

Grange members enjoyed a dinner of chicken in mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, home-made rolls, and cake for dessert.

After dinner, Chapman presented a history of the local group. The Patrons of Husbandry, better known as the Grange, was founded after the Civil War in 1867 and is the nation's oldest agriculture advocacy group.

Thirty-six members formed the Mt. Allison Grange #308 in 1916. At first, they met in the Allison schoolhouse, which is now the home of Bob and Ethel Simon, but the group began building a hall, which was completed in 1920. Going through club records, Chapman found lists of numerous committees that served different aims over the years. They included home economics, community service, entertainment, health education, agriculture, and legislative affairs.

In 1954, the Grange advocated for a change to state health laws, allowing farmers to sell eggs and homemade goods.

Newspaper clippings showed a picture of Richard Engler showing members how to clean and store seed.

An Easter supper in 1954 served a whopping 350-plus people, and the supper is still a Grange activity today.

In 1978, Dennis Hillyer of Southwest Ag came to show agricultural equipment to the group.

The Grange hosted a "fire shower" for a local family whose home burned, and they also purchased a wheelchair for local residents to borrow and use when needed.

Homegrown talent was a part of many meetings, with members playing piano, accordians and guitars, while some tap danced or read poems. The Grange even had a baseball team and a square dance team, as well as play performances.

A Junior Grange chapter was formed in 1970, and members raised funds to buy a pediatric wheelchair to donate to a local hospital.

In 1983, Roger Phelps and Dennis Baxter won the Colorado Grange talent show and moved on to compete at the national Grange convention in Rhode Island.

Other activities included horseshoes and snow parties (back when there was snow, people joked.) The hall has high ceilings because basketball games used to be held there.

The hall's foundation is still good, but some maintenance is needed, Chapman noted. La Plata Electric Association donated some electrical work and lighting in 2015, preventing the many power outages that used to darken the lights when the circuits tripped.

Members of the Animas Valley, Florida and Marvel Granges were in attendance, along with several 4-H members and leaders.

Shirley Engler, who has served as the Grange Master since 2007, received the group's Community Citizen Award. In 1946, she married her husband, Richard, one of the descendants of the group's founders.

Area resident and longtime teacher Emma Shock, whose father joined the Grange in 1917, remembers growing up going to Grange dances and dinners. She joined the Grange when she was 17.

"It's just a good place to get together," she said. The kids would fall asleep under benches during the dances if they got tired, she remembered.

In a time when Allison has no store, the Grange and Allison Community Presbyterian Church are the gathering places of the area, she noted.

"It makes the community a little more stable," she said. "It keeps us together."