USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 49
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"The entire control of this vast organization, including its legislation and its property, amounting to probably one hundred thousand dollars, is vested in a board of governors of the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben. This body is never more than twelve men, of the highest standing, chosen exclusively from the City of Omaha, and is self-perpetuating, which, as will readily be seen, excludes all probability of politicians or any undesirables getting control of or connection with maintenance of the organization. The board of governors serve without com- pensation. All expense incident to their service is borne by them personally, as it is considered a great honor to be a member of the board. Routine clerical business is conducted by a salaried secretary and assistants."
The board of governors for 1916 was made up as follows: Charles D. Bcaton, C. E. Black, George Brandeis, Randall K. Brown, Everett Buckingham, Gould Dietz, G. E. Haverstick, W. D. Hosford, F. W. Judson, L. C. Nash, J. DeF. Rich- ards, and Charles L. Saunders.
Following is a list of the kings and queens since the organization of the society : 1895, E. M. Bartlett and Meliora Woolworth Fairfield; 1896, Casper E. Yost and Mae Dundy Lee; 1897, Edward Porter Peck and Gertrude Kountze Stewart ; 1898, Robert S. Wilcox and Grace Allen Clarke; 1899, William D. McHugh and Ethel Morse; 1900, Fred A. Nash and Mildred Lomax; 1901, Henry J. Penfold and Edith Smith Day; 1902, Thomas A. Fry and Ella Cotton Magee; 1903, Fred Metz and Bessie Grady Davis; 1904, Charles H. Pickens and Ada Kirkendall Wharton; 1905, Gurdon W. Wattles and Mary Lee McShane Hosford; 1906, Gould Dietz and Margaret Wood Cranmer; 1907, Victor B. Caldwell and Natalie Merriam Millard; 1908, Will L. Yetter and Brownie Bess Baum Rouse; 1909, Arthur C. Smith and Jean Cudahy Wilhelm; 1910, Everett Buckingham and Frances Nash; 1911, Joseph Barker and Elizabeth Davis; 1912, Thomas C. Byrne and Elizabeth Pickens Patterson; 1913, Charles E. Black and Elizabeth Congdon Forgan; 1914, Charles D. Beaton and Frances Hochstetler Daugherty : 1915, Ward M. Burgess and Marian Howe; 1916, John Lee Webster and Mary Megeath.
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MASONIC FRATERNITY
In point of seniority the order of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons stands first of all the secret societies. A Masonic tradition says the order was introduced into England by Prince Edwin about 926 A. D., and there are documents dated back to the year 1390. Mother Kilwinning of Scotland was organized in 1599 and has been in continuous existence since that time, so that it is the oldest known Masonic lodge in the world. The Grand Lodge of England was organized in June, 1717, and is the mother of all Masonic bodies in the English-speaking coun- tries of the globe.
In 1730 the English Grand Lodge appointed Daniel Coxe of New Jersey "Provincial Grand Master of the Provinces of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in America." About the same time a provincial grand master was appointed by the same authority for the New England colonies. Coxe organized a lodge at Philadelphia soon after his appointment and before the close of the year 1730 a lodge was organized in New Hampshire. Each of these lodges claims to have been the first one established in America.
It has been claimed that some of the Indian tribes of the plains had a knowl- edge of Freemasonry when the first white men crossed the continent on the way to California. William R. Bowen, of Omaha, says: "A party enroute to California in 1849 wintered in the Black Hills and preserved their cattle by branding them with the square and compasses, an emblem so respected by the red men that the cattle were neither distrubed nor permitted to stray far from the camp."
The first regularly constituted lodge in the State of Nebraska was established at Bellevue by the deputy grand master of Illinois, under authority granted by the grand lodge of that state early in February, 1855. Among the early mem- bers of this lodge, which was designated as Nebraska Lodge, No. 1, were: Ansel Briggs, ex-governor of Iowa; James M. Gatewood and George Hepner, Indian agents ; Peter A. Sarpy, in charge of the trading post at Bellevue; Silas A. Strickland, one of the pioneer attorneys; Leavett L. Bowen, a member of the second Territorial Legislature, Stephen D. Bangs and others whose names were prominent in early days. In 1888 this lodge was removed to Omaha, where it still retains the original name and number. According to the report of the Nebraska Grand Lodge, its membership on March 31, 1916, was 699.
Capitol Lodge, No. 3. was organized at Omaha on January 9, 1857, by the grand master of Iowa. Its meetings were at first held in a hall in the Pioneer Block. Then it removed to a hall over No. 1313 Farnam Street. On May 10, 1877, it located in the Masonic Temple, on the northwest corner of Sixteenth Street and Capitol Avenue, where its regular meetings are held on the first Mon- clay evening in each month. Its membership on March 31, 1916, was 661. Among the early members of Capitol Lodge were: Mark W. Izard, Addison R. Gilmore, George Armstrong, Samuel E. Rogers, John M. Thayer, Lorin Miller, Henry H. Visscher, William N. Byers, Alfred D. Jones, Dr. William McClelland, James G. Megeath, Rev. Henry W. Kuhns, Dr. George L. Miller, James E. Boyd, Byron Rced, Phineas W. Hitchcock, and others who left the impress of their character upon Omaha's institutions.
Besides these two old lodges, the report of the Nebraska Grand Lodge for
THE MASONIC TEMPLE, OMAHA
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1916 gives eight others in Douglas County, five of which are in the City of Omaha, one in Waterloo, one in Florence and one in Benson. These lodges are as follows: Covert, No. II, which meets in the Masonic Temple on the first Wednesday evening of each month and has 800 members; St. John's, No. 25, with a membership of 782, meets on the first Thursday evening of each month ; Waterloo, No. 102, instituted in 1882, meets on Tuesday evening on or before each full moon and has a membership of 91 ; Beehive Lodge, No. 184, organized in South Omaha, meets on the first Thursday evening of each month and has 273 members; George W. Lininger Lodge, No. 268, with a membership of 148, meets on the first Friday evening of each month ; Florence Lodge, No. 281, meets on the first Monday evening of each month and has 53 members; Omaha Lodge, No. 288, meets on the first Saturday evening of each month and reported 104 members on March 31, 1916; John J. Mercer Lodge, No. 290, located at Benson, is the youngest Masonic lodge in the county. It meets on the first Tuesday even- ing of each month and has 50 members.
Omaha Chapter, No. I, Royal Arch Masons, was organized on November 21, 1859, being the first chapter in Nebraska. It meets regularly in the Masonic Temple on the first Tuesday evening of each month and has a strong member- ship. At the beginning of 1916 John W. Klossner was high priest and A. H. Hipple was secretary.
The Nebraska Grand Chapter, Royal.Arch Masons was organized in 1867, and Bellevue Chapter, No. 7, was subsequently organized in Omaha. It meets on the first Wednesday evening of each month. " George W. Long was high priest at the beginning of 1916 and J. R. Stine was secretary.
Omaha Council, No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, was organized in 1867. It meets on the first Thursday evening of each month, with John W. Klossner as illustrious master, and H. E. Ledyard as recorder.
Mount Calvary Commandery, No. 1, Knights Templars, was organized in Omaha in 1865 by Robert C. Jordan, Herman Kountze, Dr. George B. Graff and Robert W. Furnas, afterward governor of Nebraska. It meets on the first Fri- day evening of each month, with A. S. Pinto, eminent commander; A. G. Boyer, recorder.
In 1867 Nebraska Consistory, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was organized in Omaha. 'It meets on the fourth Monday evening of each month in the Scottish Rite Cathedral, a handsome structure on the southwest corner of Twentieth and Douglas streets, and Tangier Temple, Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a sort of Masonic "side degree," meets on the second Thursday of each month.
The Masonic Temple, on the northwest corner of Sixteenth Street and Capitol Avenue, was erected in 1876. Early in the year 1916 work was commenced on a new temple, on the northeast corner of Eighteenth and Douglas streets, imme- diately west of the Hotel Fontenelle. It is to be six stories in height, of steel, stone and brick construction, and will cost about four hundred thousand dollars. The cornerstone of the new structure was laid by Grand Master Andrew H. Viele. assisted by some four thousand members of the order, on Wednesday, October 4, 1916.
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ORDER OF THE EASTERN STAR
Connected with Freemasonry is a degree known as the Order of the Eastern Star, to which the wives, mothers and daughters of Master Masons are eligible. Local organizations are called chapters. The report of the Grand Chapter of Nebraska for 1915 gives five chapters in Douglas County, to wit: Vesta, No. 6, with 830 members, meets on the first and third Saturday evenings of each month ; Mrs. Carrie Molony, worthy matron; George R. Porter, worthy patron ; Mrs. Florence Waterbury, secretary. Adah, No. 52, in South Omaha, meets on the second and fourth Saturday evenings; Mrs. Katie French, worthy matron ; Rudolph Robertson, worthy patron; Mrs. Myrtle V. Miller, secretary ; member- ship, 309. Maple Leaf, No. 152, with 461 members, meets on the second and fourth Saturday evenings in the Masonic Temple; Miss Maud Smith, worthy matron; E. G. Wilmoth, worthy patron; Mrs. Fannie Clough, secretary. Luna, No. 169, located at Waterloo, meets on Friday evening on or before the full moon ; Mrs. Henrietta Johnson, worthy matron; Frank Whitmore, worthy patron; Mrs. Anna Todd, secretary ; membership, 51. Fontenelle, No. 249, meets on the second and fourth Saturday evenings of each month; Mrs. Carrie D. Scott, worthy matron; Clarence Rubendall, worthy patron; Mrs. Maud Good- win, secretary ; membership, 68.
INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS
The modern order of Odd Fellowship dates back to about the middle of the eighteenth century, when a society known as the "Antient and Most Noble Order of Bucks" was organized in England. This "antient" organization was the pro- genitor of Odd Fellowship and many of its features have been incorporated into the ritual and ceremonies of the present. About 1773 the Order of Bucks began to decline, but the members who remained faithful to its tenets reorganized it, and four or five years later the words "odd fellow" were first used in the cere- mony of initiation. In 1813 several lodges sent delegates to a convention in Man- chester, where the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows was organized. A little later a few members of the Unity came to America and organized Shakespere Lodge, No. 1, in New York. It lived but a short time, hence the first permanent lodge in the United States was organized in the City of Baltimore, Md., by Thomas H. Wildey in 1819.
On Friday, February 1, 1856, Alfred D. Jones, Hadley D. Johnson, Taylor G. Goodwill, A. S. Bishop and George Armstrong met in one of the rooms in the old state house, on the west side of Ninth Street, between Douglas and Farnam streets, and made application to the Grand Lodge of the United States for per- mission to organize an Odd Fellows lodge. A charter was granted and the five organized Omaha Lodge, No. 2. Prior to that time a lodge had been instituted at Nebraska City, which was designated as No. I, but it has since been consoli- dated with another lodge there, so that Omaha Lodge, No. 2, is the oldest Odd Fellows' lodge in the State of Nebraska. In the organization of the lodge, Alfred D. Jones was installed as noble grand; Taylor G. Goodwill, vice grand : A. S. Bishop, recording secretary ; George Armstrong, financial secretary ; Hadley D. Johnson, treasurer. H. C. Anderson was initiated at the meeting of February
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15, 1856, and was probably the first man to be admitted to the order in Douglas County. At that time the charter had not been received and the lodge was working under the charter of Council Bluffs Lodge, No. 49, by permission of its members. Rev. William Leach and Rev. J. F. Collins were initiated on February 29, 1856, and the former was immediately appointed chaplain of the lodge.
For some time meetings were held in the old state house and then a hall was fitted up in a frame building on the corner of Eleventh and Dodge streets. The hall here was occupied but a short time, when the lodge held meetings at the residence of Rev. William Leach on Dodge Street, not far from Twelfth. A hall was next secured in the old Western Exchange Building, on the corner of Twelfth and Farnam streets, and later the lodge met in a room in George Armstrong's house on the north side of Dodge Street, just east of Fifteenth. Its next move was to the Pioneer Block, where it remained until 1874, when it moved into its own building, on the corner of Fourteenth and Dodge streets, where it still holds meetings regularly on Friday evening of each week.
Other Odd Fellows' lodges are State, No. 10, which meets every Monday evening in the Odd Fellows' hall; Beacon, No. 20, which meets at the same place every Tuesday evening; South Omaha, No. 148, which meets every Monday evening; Wasa, No. 183, meets every Wednesday evening at the hall in the Swedish Auditorium; Dannebrog, No. 216, which meets at the Danish Odd Fel- lows' hall every Friday evening.
Hesperian Encampment, No. 2, meets on the first and third Thursdays of each month, and Crusade Encampment, No. 37, meets on the second and fourth Fridays. Canton Ezra Millard, No. 1, Patriarchs Militant, meets on the first and third Saturdays.
DAUGHTERS OF REBEKAH
The Daughters of Rebekah (commonly called the Rebekahs) is the ladies' degree of Odd Fellowship. Wives and daughters of Odd Fellows are eligible to membership. Local organizations are called Rebekah lodges, of which there are two in Omaha. Ruth Rebekah Lodge, No. 1, is, as its number indicates, ยท the oldest in Nebraska. It meets on the second and fourth Saturday evenings of each month in the Odd Fellows' hall. At the beginning of 1916 Mary Lund was noble grand; Mary Balser, vice grand; Rose Golden, secretary; and Clara Young, treasurer. Ivy Rebekah Lodge, No. 32, meets on the second and fourth Thursdays, with Ella Oakley, noble grand; Esther Pollack, vice grand; Ella Norberg, secretary ; Marian Back, treasurer.
KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS
On February 15, 1864, five men assembled in Washington, D. C., and listened to the reading of the ritual of a new secret order. They were Justus H. Rath- bone, Dr. Sullivan Kimball, Robert H. Champion, David L. and William H. Burnett, all members of the Arion Glee Club. The ritual was written by Mr. Rathbone and is founded upon the story of Damon and Pythias. Four days after it had been adopted by the five original "Knights" Washington Lodge, No. I. Knights of Pythias was organized. As the Civil war was then in progress, the
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order grew slowly until about 1869, when it spread rapidly to all parts of the Union.
The order was introduced into Nebraska by Col. George H. Crager, who had been initiated a member of a Philadelphia lodge immediately after the war and came to Omaha to enter the service of the Union Pacific Railroad Company. He interested Dr. L. F. Babcock, Edwin Davis, Edwin Stanton, J. E. Neal, Charles Skinner, George S. Markham and a few others in the movement to form a new lodge and on November 23, 1868, Nebraska Lodge, No. I, was instituted at Omaha by the deputy grand chancellor, who came to Omaha for that purpose. The first officers of the lodge were as follows: George H. Crager, venerable patriarch; Edwin Davis, chancellor commander; Charles Skinner, vice chancel- lor; L. F. Babcock, keeper of the records and seal; Edwin Stanton, financial scribe; Thomas C. Brunner, master of the exchequer.
Meetings were first held in a rear room over No. 1319 Douglas Street, until the membership outgrew the quarters, when a larger hall was obtained in the building on the southeast corner of Fourteenth and Douglas streets. The order grew rapidly in the state and on October 13, 1869, the Grand Lodge Knights of Pythias of Nebraska was instituted by Samuel Read, supreme chancellor. At that time there were three lodges in Omaha, Damon Lodge, No. 2, having been organized on April 29, 1869, and Planet Lodge, No. 4, composed exclusively of Germans, was organized on August 25, 1869.
During the next twenty years fifteen additional lodges were organized in Omaha. Several of these were quite small, having only twenty or thirty mem- bers. In course of time they were merged into the stronger lodges. The Omaha City Directory for 1916 gives but three lodges, viz: Nebraska, No. 1, whichi meets every Wednesday evening; Jan Hus, No. 5, which holds meetings in Tel Jed Sokol Hall at 2216 South Thirteenth Street on the second and fourth Thurs- day evenings of each month; Omaha Lodge, No. 26, which meets on the second and fourth Friday evenings in Washington Hall. There is one organization of the wives and daughters of Knights of Pythias-Lillian Temple, No. 1, Pythian Sisters-which meets on the first and third Tuesday evenings of each month.
John J. Monell, a member of Nebraska Lodge, was elected grand chancellor in 1874 and afterward served as representative to the supreme lodge. Egbert E. French, another member of the same lodge, was elected grand keeper of the records and seal in 1868, when the grand lodge was organized, and held the office for twenty years. Alfred D. Jones, who was initiated in Nebraska Lodge in 1869, served for two years as representative to the supreme lodge and was also grand vice chancellor at one time.
THE ELKS
The truth of the old saw-"Tall oaks from little acorns grow"-was probably never better illustrated than in the spread of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In 1868 a few "good fellows" in the City of New York formed the habit of meeting together of evenings to while away an hour or two in social communion, singing songs, "swapping yarns," etc. Finally a permanent club was organized under the name of the "Jolly Corks." Some months later, when it was proposed to found a secret order, this name was objected to on the grounds
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WOODMEN OF THE WORLD BUILDING, OMAHA
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that it was not sufficiently dignified. A committee was therefore appointed to select a name that was appropriate. This committee chanced to visit Barnum's Museum, where they saw an elk and learned something of that animal's habits. They then suggested the name, "Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks," which was adopted. The initials B. P. O. E. are sometimes interpreted as mean- ing "Best People On Earth." In 1915 there were over twelve hundred lodges in the United States. The motto of the Elks is: "The faults of our brothers we write upon the sands ; their virtues upon the tablets of love and memory." Under an established rule, lodges cannot be organized in cities of less than five thou- sand population ; hence there is but one lodge in Douglas County.
Omaha Lodge, No. 39, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, was or- ganized on February 7, 1886, by a team which came from Chicago. John Francis was installed as exalted ruler; Dwight G. Hull, esteemed leading knight; Dr. H. W. Hyde, esteemed loyal knight; Harry L. Hall, esteemed lecturing knight ; James W. Garneau, secretary ; E. E. Whitmore, treasurer; W. G. Gregory, tiler ; A. B. Davenport, Alfred Sorenson and Thomas F. Boyd, trustees.
From the organization of the lodge until it moved into its present home in the Granite Block, it met successively on the third floor of the building on the southwest corner of Fourteenth and Dodge streets; on the fourth floor of Boyd's Opera House, at Fifteenth and Farnam; on the top floor of the Continental Block, Fifteenth and Douglas ; then on the third floor of the Postal Telegraph Building, and in 1896 in the Ware Block, on the southeast corner of Fifteenth and Farnan. In 1907 the lodge purchased from W. A. Paxton, Jr., the Granite Block for $65,000, remodeled it and moved into its permanent home early in January, 1910. Starting with twenty charter members, the lodge now has over sixteen hundred. The officers elected in March, 1916, were: F. Pratt Harwood, exalted ruler ; Thomas B. Dysart, esteemed leading knight; Charles R. Docherty, esteemed loyal knight; John C. Barrett, esteemed lecturing knight; Isaac W. Miner, secretary ; Charles L. Saunders, treasurer; John II. Killian, tiler; Raymond G. Young, grand lodge representative; Dan B. Butler, alternate. At the meeting of the grand lodge in Salt Lake City, in August, 1902, George P. Cronk of Omaha Lodge was elected grand exalted ruler.
WOODMEN OF THE WORLD
The Woodmen of the World is distinctly an Omaha institution. It was or- ganized on June 4, 1890, and was incorporated on January 2, 1891, with the following officers: Joseph C. Root, sovereign commander; John C. Tuthill, sovereign adviser; John T. Yates, sovereign clerk; Franklin T. Roose, sovereign banker; John McClintock, sovereign escort; William O. Rodgers, M. D., sov- ereign physician. There were also four sovereign managers, a watchman and a sentry. The corporate name adopted is "Sovereign Camp of the Woodmen of the World."
The original office of the society was in two rooms in the old Sheely Block, on the northeast corner of Fifteenth and Howard streets. On June 28, 1900, the sovereign camp purchased the Sheely Block and the adjoining lot, with the intention of erecting a building thereon, but in 1912 that property was disposed of. the order having purchased a new site on the southeast corner of Fourteenth
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and Farnam streets, where the general offices are now located in an eighteen- story structure, with steel frame-work, basement and sub-basement and fire-proof. It was commenced in July, 1912, and was completed and dedicated with appro- priate ceremonies on October 30, 1913, under the auspices of the executive council. The cost of the building was $1, 114,302.
On January 1, 1916, the membership was 715,058, over six thousand of which were in the twenty-seven subordinate camps of Douglas County. The income for the year 1915 was over fourteen millions of dollars and the daily bank balances in Omaha banks aggregated over two millions. Three hundred and fifty are now employed in the general offices. The principal officers in 1916 were as follows: W. A. Fraser, sovereign commander; B. W. Jewell, sovereign adviser; John T. Yates, sovereign clerk; Morris Sheppard, sovereign banker ; J. E. Fitzgerald, chairman of the sovereign auditors, of which there are seven; Dr. Ira W. Porter and Dr. A. D. Cloyd, sovereign physicians. The society now does business in thirty-six states.
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
A short time before the close of the Civil war, Dr. B. F. Stephenson and W. J. Rutledge, surgeon and chaplain respectively of the Fourteenth Illinois Infan- try, discussed the advisability of organizing a patriotic society of the soldiers who had served in the Union army during the war. Early in the spring of 1806 they sent out notices that a meeting would be held at Decatur, Ill., on the 6th of April for that purpose, and on that date was organized the Grand Army of the Repub- lic. The objects of the organization, as stated in the original declaration of principles, were "to maintain and strengthen the fraternal feelings which bind together the soldiers, sailors and marines who united to suppress the Rebellion ; to perpetuate the memory and history of those who have died; and to lend assist- ance to the needy and to the widows and orphans of soldiers."
The plan of organization adopted at the Decatur meeting contemplated a national head, with each state as a department and local societies called posts. For a time the growth of the order was slow, but about 1880 it underwent a reorganization and after that its progress was more rapid. The largest mem- bership was reached in 1890, when the Grand Army numbered 409,489. Since then it has steadily decreased, the monthly death rate in 1914 being about one thousand.
On January 26, 1867, the first post in Omaha was organized, with George Armstrong as commander; R. A. Bird, vice commander; E. K. Valentine, adju- tant ; F. W. Becker, quartermaster. At that time Gen. S. A. Hurlburt was national commander and his aide-de-camp, W. J. Hahn, was made temporary commander of the Department of Nebraska. This post is no longer in existence, its men- bers having been attached to other posts.
Phil Kearney Post, No. 2, was organized on January 1, 1876, with seventy- six charter members. The first officers were: Joseph Dreschlinger, comman- der ; Hugh Kerr, senior vice-commander; James Begley, junior vice-commander : Elbert H. Dunwardin, adjutant; Michael Coady, quartermaster. The meetings of this post are now held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at No. 809 North Twenty-third Street.
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