The Heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future.
This website will hopefully serve as a visual journey
through the rich history of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks from
inception in 1868 until the late 1940's.
To the left is the inscription on the entrance columns to our National Archives
which is located in Washington DC. These 16 words simply but succinctly
describe how our great country can avoid
repeating the errors of the past while utilizing our past successes as
a guideline for the future. This is also applicable to every organization.
The BPOE was (and still is) a leading fraternity back when men were defined
by who they were associated with. Hopefully, this collection of pictures
will serve those who seek to learn the passion that propelled the Elks to
the forefront of our society.
There are lots and lots of pictures of their homes and activities. It is a work in
progress and any ideas, comments or concerns are welcome by e-mailing
me at mikejonea2@yahoo.com . Also, if you have any pictures or data you would like to see added,
please let me know. For Salisbury NC #699 early history please click
here.Last updated
06/10/08
Brief story on the Elks and how they started as the
Jolly Corks. In
word format. Click here. Also, The
Ashland Oregon Elks Lodge web site has an impressive history (with maps) on
the Jolly corks and Charles Vivian. Click
here for their
history link to the American Heritage Feb 2006 article
which can be read
here.
Download a book written by founder Charles Vivian's widow in 1904. Made possible by
Google's new book website this is a unique opportunity to read this very
rare book for FREE. It's a quick read and offers great insight to our founder.
Just click here
to go to Google's link to the downloadable file.
Another
story posted on Thousand Oaks Elks
Lodge #2477. It's a nice short article and can be seen by clicking on the
history link.
Here is a nice website with a comprehensive and unique history of the
Elks. By Bro Denis McGowan of Staten Island # 841
Also another that was printed in
the Massachusetts State Association newspaper in 2003.
The ideals of the Elks by Brother Tom Williams of Raleigh Elks Lodge. In
text format.
Click on picture to enlarge
the photo of our founder Charles Vivian. This was when he was 29 and came
from the book his widow published in
1904.
photo of most of the founders. From left to right
E.M.Platt, F.Langhorn, W.M.Carleton, W.W Shepard, R.R.Stirely, charles
Vivian, John T.Kent, M. Vandermark, ? Bosworth, M.G. Ashe.
The hour of 11 is a revered time for the Elks and as such many toasts were
developed.
For the the Original Jolly corks toast click here
for a text file.
Click
here for more toasts on the elks.org website.
Click here for
Elks Magazine 1931 page showing
radio stations around the country who featured the Toast at 11 p.m. on Monday
nights.
Also, there are a number of 11 o'clock toast
postcards, some humorous that are saved here.
An inspiring and well written article titled
" My Membership Card in the Elks" written by Robert Barrett,
chairman of the Good of the Order Committee. From the Jan 1932 Elks Magazine.
click
here for a Word document.
An Elk is never forgotten ~ never
forsaken. Click
here
for a brief article on early Elk history and how important the principal of
brotherhood meant to it's members.
Famous people who were/are Elks members.
General John Pershing. Click
here for more on this great Elk who
In return for his subsequent WWI
victories, President Wilson granted him the right to choose the specific time
for the Armistice, and as loyal and upright Elk, Pershing chose the 11th hour
of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918; an Elk imprint on the U.S.
For an extensive list of famous politicians
click here. Also,
check out who's who at NY's 66th anniversary meeting. Click
here for more on that.
Hollywood and the Elks!
Check out the official program for the 1936 Movie pageant. Anybody who was
anybody in the motion picture business participated. Click here
for the official 16 page program. File is an 8 meg Adobe pdf file.
Just in ~ a 6 page
Sept 36 elks Magazine highlight article. 80,000 attend the pageant! Click
here for this file.
Some great old Grand Lodge convention pictures. Click here for
100+ great old pictures! The Philadelphia
1907 convention alone has 33!
Miscellaneous old Elks post cards and
pictures. Many are comical and a few are just awesome pictures of
real Elks Click
here for 60+ great old pictures.
Old Elks pictures (mostly post
cards) by state and by lodge. While many of the early homes were
residences, lodges in larger cities were the
forerunner of modern hotel chains like the Holiday Inn. (click
here for 1926
list of lodges with accommodations and
here for Phila #2 ad) Hundreds of Lodges had
guest quarters for traveling Elks to stay. ( as of 10/06 over 1500 images from
50 states!)
Outside of US. Click
here for 1922
elks magazine article entitled "Three Far flung Lodges". Good
stories on Guam, the Panama Canal and Anchorage AK.
Current pictures of Guam
and in 1934. The Agana, Guam Elks #1281 does have a webpage. Click
here to view it.
Here are 4 different pictures of Manila ~Manila 1910's, Manila
1914,Manila PI early 20's,
Manila aerial view, Lodge #
is 761 and chartered in 1902. Their website can be found at
http://www.manilaelks.org, Nice
history page too. I particularly like the comment by the then GER who said
"Irrespective of whether the United States Constitution followed the flag
overseas, the Benevolent Order of the Elks
would follow the American Flag". I wonder why permanent military bases
were never allowed to form Lodges (Germany, Italy, UK, etc). Seems like a
shame especially given the WWII lodges listed below.
Click
here for
Guadalcanal Elks club article from May 1945 Elks magazine. Also, there was
a WW II lodge active called the New Hebrides Elks Lodge that was based
n Espiritu Santo Island. Click
here for the
picture.
Elks Magazine
first issue was June 1922. To see select
pages of this wonderful magazines first edition click
here.
Old Elks Magazines for sale. My goal is to have
every Elks Magazine from June 1922 through Dec 1945. So far I am short 51
magazines but in the process of buying through Ebay, I also have 40+ extra
magazines. I'm looking to sell the extras or trade for what I'm
missing. For
that list, please click here. It's in adobe file format. To contact me email mikejonea2@yahoo.com.
Elk Music. Most will be surprised to know that early Elks Lodges had
marching bands. At grand Lodge conventions, new music was written. You can click here to see the
few covers of music scores I have as well as download some of the sheet music. Also, some record covers are
pictured too. Also, if anyone has an old Edison player (the music is on a medium blue roll
that looks a lot like a big hair curler) I have an old "Elk's March" and
"Elks Funeral Odes" recordings and would
love to have that recorded and transferred into an mpg.
Elks Home in Bedford Virginia. Click
here for a few pictures(6) and
here for the Elks home website.
The Elks Veteran Memorial is a
crown jewel of the Order. For more on this most impressive building the main
Elks site has an extensive portion of its website dedicated to it. Click
here to go to that site.
Flag Day.
Click
here to see a picture of a large Flag Day resolution. Appears to be an
original color poster from the Grand Lodge 1919 convention. Bought by
PDDGER Ray Paradowski while antiquing in Montana and donated to the Salisbury
Elks Lodge. Large file at 300k.
List of Elks Lodges including
defunct lodges can be found by
clicking here
for a word document. (updated 2/3/08)
Thanks to Brother Norm Donovan of Los Banos, Ca Elks #2510 for this update.
However, there is quite a bit of information that he is missing on installation
and merger dates. Brother Norm asks you to email him at per2510@pacbell.net and
let him know if you see something amiss in his list.
Other publications~
The May 1926 Elks Magazine
reported that a book entitled "The Legends of the Roving Brothers" was
written and received there. It describes the adventures of the Secretary to the
Grand Exalted Ruler, John Kaufman of Columbus, OH and 5 other Elks who traveled
from Cleveland to Portland OR for the 1925 convention. The magazine says it is a
most interesting book. Anyone know where to find that? Please let
me know. Also, "from Gardens of Friendship" written perhaps by
the GER is described in March 1935 Elks Magazine. Apparently, it was an
attempt to illustrate all the good works of the local lodges.
In Colorado, the The Rocky Mountain Herald
included Elks news in it's 1907 weekly newspaper. I have several but they are
too big to scan.
Another was "The American Elk" published in
Detroit MI by Brother Williams. Also, the
Iowa Elk was
published in the early 1900's.
The
California Elk weekly newspaper. Click
here for August 3rd,
1901 Issue. Great articles about the Milwaukee convention, the Honolulu Elks
Lodge and other Lodges. In Adobe pdf.
Click on the
link to the April 1929
Newsletter for the Los Angeles Elks #99. At 3.6 meg this pdf file
copy is a wonderful look at #99 in its hay day. Before the Depression, they
had 7300 members, an amazing assortment of activities for elks and their
families to do and were preparing to host the 1929 Grand Lodge convention.
Elks
Membership Campaigns- some really special membership recruitment efforts
that apparently were very successful. Like Atlanta's 5000 campaign where 1200
candidates were initiated. Total crowd of Elks- 7000! Click here.
Trivia~ Amusing, intriguing and some incredulous odds and end things you should really know!. click
here
Many of these pictures and articles can be
viewed in a slide show presentation or even downloaded to your own computer.
Just click on the link on the right.
Want
a CD that has 700 pages of early Elk history dated 1910? For a $7 check made payable to
the Elks National foundation and $3 in cash mail it to
Steven Butler @ 5727 N. Baldwin Avenue, Temple City, California 91780.
The CD is searchable by any word and is titled: An
Authentic History of the Benevolent And Protective Order Of Elks. By Charles
Edward Ellis. Published in 1910. The first 473 pages being about the early
history of the Order, and the last 232 about the early history of the Chicago
Lodge.
Want to be updated when
significant changes occur to this site? Then sign up for this fledgling list. Send an e-mail to
BPOE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to subscribe or go to
www.yahoogroups.com and search for
"BPOE"
For North Carolina Elks -->Subscribe to our unofficial NC Elks e-mail list.
There is about 120 on this
list and its a neat way to send news to them without having to know
everyone's e-mail. To do so go
here and click on Join group. You'll need to enter somewhere in
that process your name and Lodge
Over 1100 current news items
have been "furled" and the complete list can be seen
by going here. You can sort
by various categories which eases the clutter. A few articles on other
non-profits like the Shrine and Moose may be found too. The purpose is to
capture public information that might be helpful to readers in improving
there own lodge There are lots of good ideas as well as a few not so good
articles that we all can learn from.
The most recent headlines are
below. If you would like to receive a sometimes daily
e-mail alert that summarizes the new additions please e-mail
Mike Jones
or go to
http://www.furl.net/members/mikejonea2 and sign up there. As far as I
can tell, the collection of articles I have put together exceeds even
elks.org in variety and depth and is certainly far easier to access.
All of the above information was painstakingly gathered by the webmaster
although several pictures and documents came from other Elks which we
greatly appreciate. Thousands of dollars have been spent and countless hours
consumed preparing this site. However, there is a mountain of other stuff out
there to buy however, our budget is limited. If you want to help us accumulate even more old Elks memorabilia
and can make a Paypal
donation, then please click on the button below. It will take you directly to a
secure Paypal site. Our, you can send a check to Salisbury Elks Lodge at 508 S Main
St, Salisbury, NC 28144
Click
here to see
extra magazines I have for sale. Over 40+ old ones including the premier
issue. Also, there is a list of the one's I need to complete my quest to
have all issues from inception through 1945
Download a book written by founder Charles Vivian's widow in 1904. Made possible by
Google's new book website this is a unique opportunity to read this very
rare book for FREE. It's a quick read and offers great insight to our founder.
Just click 
