DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Isaac Newton Gresham, right here in Rains County, Texas. Now, some big things start small. Some mighty rivers begin as a trickle nobody notices.
And some movements that would sweep across an entire nation — well, they started in a barn. It was the summer of 1902. Isaac Newton Gresham — folks called him Newt — was a farmer and a newspaper editor right here in Rains County.
He'd come to Texas from Alabama, and he'd been watching his neighbors struggle. Farm prices weren't working in the farmers' favor, and Newt Gresham was the kind of man who saw a problem and called a meeting. So he did.
He called one. In a barn. Nearby.
Ten neighbors showed up. Just ten. And out of that gathering — that quiet, almost secret little gathering — the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America was founded.
At first they kept it close, kept it quiet. A secret organization. But ideas have a way of traveling, don't they.
That idea spread throughout the south and the west, and eventually the union became a national organization. All of that, from ten neighbors in a barn in Rains County. Newt Gresham was born on February 20, 1858, and he died on April 10, 1906.
He and his wife Ida May were the parents of four children. He didn't live long enough to see just how far that barn-meeting idea would travel. But it traveled.
What the marker says
(Feb. 20, 1858 - April 10, 1906) In 1902 Alabama native Isaac Newton "Newt" Gresham was a Rains County farmer and newspaper editor. Wishing to help local farmers organize to take advantage of farm prices, he called a meeting in a nearby barn that summer. With an initial membership of ten neighbors, the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America was founded. At first a secret organization, the idea soon spread throughout the south and west. The union eventually became a national organization. Gresham and his wife, Ida May, were the parents of four children. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986