The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1922-02-16


February iG. 1922. marks an anniver.
fary OF keen interest TO nearly l,0O0..
200 American men.
Fifty.four years ago-on February
1G. 1ScS--a little group of fourteen
men sat In n stuffy room In New
York city. Twice they voted on a
matter they had been debating for
weeks. On tho second ballot, the
now almostforgotten frntornal order
of the Jolly Corks" was dlshanded.
And the Benevolent and Protective
order OF Elks was borne
The first membership report in
the archives OF the Elks is dated
December 81. 1865. New York Lodge
No. /. the Mother Lodge of the
Order. was then It's only lodge. There
were 7G members on the rolls.
The fifty-fourth anniversary OF
the orders birth shows n member.
ship OF more than $4,000 Elks In
more than i.4O0 lodges that dot the
United States OF America. At An.
chorage. Alaska. the farthest north
Elk lodge stands amid almost polar
ice and snow. Elk lodges rise at
Brownsville. Texas. and Key West,
Florida-farthest southern points of
the continental United States. Our
Canal Zone has its lodge at Balboa
Heights. Our island possessions are
starred with Elk lodges at Manila In
the Philippines. at Honolulu and Hilo
in Hawaii. at Guam, and at San Juan
in Porto Rico. And the Elks of
America are working to initiate their
millionth member by July. 1922.
when the Grand Lodge meets at At
lantic City.
The founder OF the organization
was a strolling English actor He
never lived to know how well he
and his little group of brother-actors
had builded
His body rests today in Mount
Hope Cemetery, Boston, Massa-
chusetts, beneath great granite
boulder bearing a bronze plate with
the inscription;
Charles Algernon Sidney Vivian.
Founder of the Order of Elks Died
March 20, 1880. Aged "a years. A
lover of his kind. who founded q
great order and in so doing drought
much good
Vivian. who was the presiding
Jolly Cork at the momentous meet.
ing in 1868 when the fourteen men
voted to organize under the name
OF "Elks,' died in Leadville, Colorado
after life Of theatrical yicissitudes
that ranged from touring in affluence
Mt the head of his own company to
Being stranded penniless in Denver.
There in Leadville his body rested,
his grave marked only by weather
stained pine hoard on which an in.
scription was scratched with some
sharp instrument, until on April 2S,
1889. Boston Lodge No. 10 B. P. 0.
Elks, exhumed the body, took it to
Boston, and buried it there with
Splenulu ceremonial.
Only in Elkdom's archives and the
memories of the few surviving "old-
tlmers.His the history of the Jolly
Corks held intact. And only one
charter member of Elkdom still sur
wives. He is "Joe' Norcross of New
York
Only a handful recall the name of
w. L. Bowron of New York today.
Yet it is to him that the "Elks' owe
their name. On the second ballot he
switched his vote from Buffalo" to
Elk Vivian in the chair, though
an ardent advocate of "Buffaloes,"
ratified the majority of one, and the
Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks was born.
Since then the order has grown by
giant strides. 1t embraces American
citizens from the humblest, to War
rem G. Harding, president OF the
United States, and life-member Of
Marion (Ohio) Lodge No. 80, B. P.
@. Elks.
In 1922, Elkdom. with gifts to
charity already totalling more than
$20,000,000, stepped out Of the role Of
the purely fraternal organization into
the rank of one Of Americs's greatest
humanitarian brotherhoods.
William W. Mountain, Of Toledo
Ohio, Grand Exalted Ruler OF the
Order, announced his policy:
Make every Elk lodge the civic
and humanitarian center of the COM
munity in which 1t makes its home."
In Chicago, by Lincoln Park, over
looking Lake Michigan, the Elks are
building their S3,000,0O0 National
Memorial to the 10000 Elks who