CARTHAGE – For more than a century, the boxy, white, spacious wood-framed building in the center of town has been the community meeting place.
Everyone in this small town came to the Webb River Grange Hall at sometime during the year. Perhaps for a public supper, maybe for a family reunion and, most likely, for the annual town meeting.
That won’t happen this year.
The few members still remaining voted themselves out of business last August, and the State Grange soon took possession of the building.
Although the official records listed anywhere from 22 to 30 people still on the rolls, only seven or eight people regularly turned out for meetings.
“We all felt so badly,” said 15-year member Betsey Collins. “We thought maybe we could keep it going. We always wondered if there would be enough people for a meeting.”
The tiny membership has struggled for years to keep the grange going. They’d replaced the roof and secured a loan from the State Grange to repair the foundation.
Some town money has also gone into it over the years because the hall was used for town meetings, said Selectman Steve Brown.
State Grange Master Steve Verrill said the structure is about to go on the market. As with the Mount Sugarloaf Grange in Dixfield, the Webb River Grange will be listed with PoGo Realty out of Gorham. The Dixfield Grange voted itself out of business more than three years ago, a trend that Verrill said is continuing at a rate of two or three granges a year. He said the Main Street, Dixfield, grange hall is under contract with a new owner.
For Carthage, the grange hall was the only place in town large enough to accommodate the 40 to 60 people who generally turn out for town meeting.
Townspeople will decide whether they want officials to pursue ownership of the grange hall at their town meeting next Monday.
Collins, and her husband, Pete, joined the Webb River Grange soon after they moved to Carthage from Pennsylvania. So did former grangers Joan and Jim McGill, who moved to Carthage 11 years ago from New Jersey.
McGill said he hates to see such a historic section of town go by the wayside. But he believes the state grange may not have done enough to keep his grange, and others, going.
“They’re doing nothing to attract young people,” he said.
For Minnie Blodgett, the loss of the grange is pretty tough. She’s been a grange member for more than 50 years, first at the now-defunct Mt. Blue Grange in Weld, then at the Webb River Grange.
“I’ll miss it. We had always hoped that the town would take it over,” she said. “For over a 100 years, we’ve taken care of it.”
The building began as a cheese factory in Weld before the turn of the 20th century. It was transported to Carthage, a section at a time, in 1904, according to records.
Blodgett said the members of her former grange have until April to transfer membership to another grange. None, so far, has decided to do that, she believes.
Verrill said the state grange is willing to help any grange who wants to get going again.
“Some granges you can save, some you can’t. They’ve got to have the desire to save themselves,” he said.
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