MASONIC LODGE, ODD FELLOWS LODGE, MODERN WOODMEN OF AMERICA, KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS, KNIGHTS AND LADIES OF SECURITY, ELKS LODGE, GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, MOTHER BICKERDYKE HOME, STATE SOLDIERS' HOME, JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL PARK

The first organization of Masons in Kansas was the Grove Lodge, formed in Wyandotte, August 11, 1854. The officers were: John Chivington, Mathew R. Walker, and Cyrus Garrett. Other members were: Lewis Farley, Mathew Russell, Jacob Branson, and A. P. Searcy. It became Wyandotte Lodge, No. 3, now in Kansas City, Kansas.

The second lodge was organized at Smithton, with John W. Smith, S. Reinhart, and D. D. Vanderslice as officers. The meetings were held in the open air for several months. In 1856 the lodge was moved to the Nemaha Indian agency; in 1857 to Iowa Point; in 1872 to Highland, where it remains.

The third lodge was organized at Leavenworth, December 30, 1854. The officers were: Richard R. Rees, Archibald Payne, and Auley Macauley.

The Lawrence Lodge was formed September 24, 1855, with the following officers: James Christian, James S. Cowan, and Columbus Hornsby.

The fifth lodge was organized at Kickapoo, November 5, 1855. John H. Sahler, P. M. Hodges and Charles H. Grover were the first officers.

The Kansas Grand Lodge was completed March 17, 1856, with Richard R. Rees, grand master. The lodges received their charters in the following order: Smithton, No. 1; Leavenworth, No. 2; Wyandotte, No. 3; Kickapoo, No. 4; Atchison, No. 5; Lawrence, No. 6. This has led to some controversy as to the order of their organization.

There are at present four hundred and six lodges in the state, with a combined membership of forty-two thousand, four hundred and twelve, six Scottish Rite Consistories, and four Mystic Shrine Temples.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

On March 2, 1857, the National Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows issued a charter authorizing Benjamin D. Castleman, Henry W. Martin, Caleb B. Clemens, Francis Grasmuck, and Charles Millican to form a lodge at Tecumseh, Kansas. They met and organized on the 23rd of that month. The second lodge was Leavenworth, and within the year lodges were organized at Wyandotte, Lawrence and Atchison. On June 2, 1858, these five lodges met at Tecumseh and effected a state organization, with John Collins as grand master and George W. Brown as grand secretary.

The women's auxiliary to the Odd Fellows is the Rebecca Lodge, which has been established in nearly every town where the Odd Fellows have organized. A Rebecca Home was opened at Manhattan in 1906 with accommodations for thirty adults and sixty children.

The total membership of the Odd Fellows throughout the state, January 1, 1915, was forty-nine thousand, two hundred and thirty-eight.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The order of Modern Woodmen was founded in 1883, and was introduced into Kansas about 1888. The total membership of the organization in America is one million, of which eighty-one thousand are in Kansas, which places this order at the head of the list of fraternal and benevolent societies in the State. The women's auxiliary of this organization is called the Royal Neighbors.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The Order of Knights of Pythias, which originated in Washington, D. C., in 1863, was introduced into Kansas by Supreme Chancellor Charles D. Lucas, who effected the organization of five lodges in 1872. The first was Myrtle Lodge, No. 1, at Lawrence, April 4; the second was Fellowship Lodge, No. 2, at Wyandotte, April 11. Seneca Lodge was organized at Leavenworth, July 26; Independent at Olathe, August 2; Cydon at Salina, August 9. These five lodges met under the direction of Supreme Chancellor Berry on September 4, at Lawrence, and organized the Grand Lodge of Kansas with the following men as officers: J. C. Welsh, H. J. Canniff, W. A. Offenbacher, G. G. Lowe, J. A. Bliss, M. C. Dunn, W. C. Elder, and Jacob Weiss.

Soon after the State organization was formed, Chancellor Canniff suspended Myrtle Lodge, and it was dissolved three years later and the name and number were given to the Wyandotte organization. Nine lodges were founded in 1872, which was the largest number organized in any one year until 1880. From 1881 to 1891, the order increased from thirty-two to two hundred and seventeen lodges with a combined membership of eleven thousand. Twenty years later the number of lodges had decreased to one hundred and sixty-eight, but the total membership was practically the same.

The women's auxiliary of this order is called the Pythian Ladies.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The Knights and Ladies of Security, which is the newest and most rapidly increasing of the fraternal and benevolent societies of the country, had its birth in Kansas. It was organized in 1892, by Dr. H. A. Warner and George H. Flintham. A charter was taken out February 22, and a campaign for members inaugurated, which in four years resulted in four hundred local lodges in ten states. By 1911 the total membership in thirty states had reached one hundred and twenty thousand, one-fourth of this number being in Kansas. There are at present two thousand, nine hundred lodges in the United States, with a total membership of one hundred and seventy-five thousand, of which forty thousand are in Kansas.

Soon after the organization of the order, W. B. Kirkpatrick was elected National President. This office he held until 1916, when his son, J. M. Kirkpatrick succeeded him. The present National Secretary is John V. Abrahams.

The assets of the organization have increased from $500 to $3,000,000 in twenty-four years.

The national headquarters of the Knights and Ladies is at Topeka where it was first organized, and its phenomenal growth is the result of the work of Topeka men and women.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

This is a oomparatively new secret order, having originated in 1868 in New York City. The first lodge in Kansas was organized at Topeka in 1891. It grew from twenty-six to five hundred members and built a fine club house in 1907. The Topeka lodge assisted in the organization of other lodges in the principal cities of the State, and by 1908 there were a number of strong local lodges, and an attempt was made about that time to form a State Grand Lodge. Nothing came of the effort and as there is no State organization the history of the Elks in the State is the history of the individual lodges, of which it is difficult to obtain information.

The Kansas City lodge was organized in 1898, grew to a body of six hundred members and built a $40,000 club house. Other strong lodges are at Wichita, Leavenworth, Hutchinson, and Pittsburg.

The full name of the order is the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the aim is to be of assistance to those who are sick or in distress whether they are in any way connected with the lodge or not. The Elk lodges of the country dispense half a million a year benefits.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

At the first national encampment of the G. A. R. at Indianapolis, Indiana, in November, 1866, Major T. J. Anderson, of Topeka, secured the consent of the order to merge the Kansas organization known as the Veteran Brotherhood into the Grand Army. This was done the next month, and John A. Martin was made Department Commander. In the national encampment at Philadelphia, in January, 1867, Kansas was represented by James G. Blount and W. S. Morehouse. There were then about thirty-six posts in the State. After this the G. A. R. in Kansas suffered a decline and was not represented in the national encampment again until 1872, when Commander W. S. Jenkins was present, and the Kansas Department, which had been dropped for nonpayment of dues, was reorganized. But in spite of encouragement from the national headquarters, the Kansas organization dwindled until in 1876 one post at Independence was all there was left. The G. A. R. was under political ban and the veterans were afraid to join.

In 1878 a reunion was held at Leavenworth which was largely attended by veterans from all the surrounding states. The meeting was a very enthusiastic one and marks an epoch in the history of the Department of Kansas. The project of establishing a National Old Soldiers' Home at Leavenworth was endorsed, and the Kansas G. A. R. had something definite to work for. The organization began to gather strength, and, in 1879, Kansas became a permanent department of the National G. A. R. The next three years were spent in establishing posts over the State, and in 1882 the first State Encampment was held at Topeka. In 1883 there were one hundred and seventy-five posts in Kansas. In 1884 the efforts toward securing a National Soldier's Home at Leavenworth culminated in an act of Congress authorizing such an institution and appropriating $250,000 for buildings. The city of Leavenworth secured the Home by the donation of six hundred and forty acres of land. This institution is among the finest of any kind within the State, and has a capacity of caring for 2,000 veterans.

The Women's Relief Corps which has been an important auxiliary to the Grand Army was organized in Kansas in 1883. The Ladies of the G. A. R. was organized shortly after the National Convention of that order in Chicago, November 18, 1886. It was organized by women who originally belonged to the W. R. C., but separated from that body because the membership was no longer to be confined to the immediate families of soldiers.

The Grand Army was without official recognition until 1895. In that year the legislature gave them two rooms in the state house as a headquarters. In 1899 the sum of $1,000 was appropriated to furnish the rooms and properly display the relies, flags, and collections in possession of the organization. A part of this fund was to be used in publishing the reports which should be made by the Department Commander to the Governor. This appropriation was made regularly by succeeding legislatures.

The motto of the Grand Army of the Republic is "Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty." The organization' has cared for the comrades and their families in want and sickness and provided burials at death. It secured the State Orphans' Home at Atchison, the State Soldiers' Home at Fort Dodge, and assisted the Women's Relief Corps in establishing the Mother Bickerdyke Home at Ellsworth. The building of a Memorial Hall, instead of a useless monument, out of the war claims paid the State by the national government is to be credited to the Grand Army. In fact, the money for the payment of these claims, which had been on hand for forty years, might never have been turned over to the State, had it not been for the activities of the G. A. R. in the matter. This money was in two claims, one for $97,466.02 for equipping and putting soldiers in the field in the Civil War, and the other for $425,065.43 for repelling invasions of Confederates and putting down Indian troubles.

As soon as the payment of this money was assured, the G. A. R., through Department Commander W. A. Morgan, took steps to secure the necessary legislative act appropriating the money for the Memorial Hall. John C. Nicholson, of Newton, who as state agent had received the money from the Government, assisted in framing the bill. It was introduced by F. Dumont Smith and passed in 1909. The act provided for a Commission, of which the Governor should be chairman, the Secretary of the Historical Society should be secretary, and the Speaker of the House, the Lieutenant Governor, the Department Commander of the G. A. R., one member of the house and one of the senate should be members. The duties of the Commission were to select the site, acquire a title to it and supervise the construction of the building. The corner stone of the building was laid September 27, 1911, by President Taft. The ceremony was in connection with the G. A. R. reunion, the first held since 1885. The legislature specified that the building should be a Memorial to Union and Spanish War soldiers and sailors, and that it should be fire-proof and suitable for the uses of the Grand Army and the Historical Society.

Memorial Hall was finished in 1914, and dedicated May 27, in the presence of 25,000 people, one-fifth of whom were veterans. The speakers of the occasion were Governor George H. Hodges, who formally presented the building to Department Commander J. N. Harrison Commander-in-chief Washington Gardener, and Captain Joseph G. Waters.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The credit for founding a home for the widows, mothers and daughters of deceased soldiers, is due to the Women's Relief Corps of the G. A. R. They began a movement to this end sometime in the '90s. A sum of money was realized from the sale of the Mary A. Bickerdyke book, and they decided to name the institution in her honor. The G. A. R. convention grounds at Ellsworth, Kansas, which had been deeded to that organization by Arthur and Alice Lakin, in 1888, were turned over to the W. R. C. as a site for the new Home, February 25, 1897. The parties to the transfer were Theodore Botkin, Department Commander of the G. A. R., and Mrs. Julia A. Chase, President of the W. R. C.

The legislature appropriated $4,837, which was used to repair the buildings. One large building was fitted up for a hospital, and fifteen three-room cottages for residences. For the first four years the institution was supported with but slight aid from the State. Each member of the W. R. C. was taxed twenty cents per year for the Bickerdyke Home fund, and donations from the general public were received.

In 1901, the conditions of the original deed from the Lakins to the G. A. R. having been broken by that organization, the property came into possession of the State according to the provisions of the deed. The State took charge of the Mother Bickerdyke Home and made it an annex to the State Soldiers' Home at Fort Dodge, placing it under the same management and applying the same rules and regulations. In 1906 the State began adding new buildings, and the Home at present embraces one hundred and sixty acres of land, a twenty-five room hospital, a thirtyroom barracks for invalids, fifteen brick cottages, an eight room cottage for the superintendent and physician, church, commissary, barns, sheds, .outbuildings, waterworks and electric lights. The cost of maintenance is slightly in excess of the per capita at Fort Dodge on account of the farm work being done exclusively by hired labor.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

The first efforts to secure a State Home for old soldiers were made by the G. A. R. post at Dodge City. At their suggestion Congress was asked to donate the old Fort Dodge military reservation with its buildings to the State for that purpose. Congress acted on the matter in 1889, transferring the land to the State of Kansas for a consideration of $1.25 per acre, and specifying that the State should maintain a Home on it for the care of officers, soldiers, and marines, and their dependent parents, widows or orphans. The tract thus acquired by the State contained about one hundred and twenty-seven acres, located on the Arkansas River, five miles east of Dodge City, and was paid for by the people of that town. There were twelve large stone buildings and about twenty smaller wooden ones when the State took possession. These were repaired as far as possible, using an appropriation of $5,000, which was made for the first year, and the Home was opened January 1, 1890.

The Governor appointed three men as a Board of Managers, J. D. Barker, Ira T. Collins, and Henry Booth. The first Commandant in charge of the Home was Captain D. L. Sweeney, of Dodge City. In the first few months one hundred and twenty-eight inmates were admitted. As more than half of these were children under sixteen years of age, a school was started in one of the buildings. Ford county donated $5,000 to buy additional land, raising the acreage to two hundred and forty-six acres. The farm was put under cultivation as rapidly as possible. An irrigation plant was installed and a small tract near by was set a side for family gardens, each man being given a small allotment for this purpose. The cost of maintenance in the early years was $101.60 per capita as against $209.00 for the year 1916.

In 1896 the population had grown to five hundred, in addition to which was a large number of officers and employees, and new buildings were begun. The original plan of providing barracks for single men and cottages for married men with families was carried out. Quarters containing six rooms each were built for the surgeon, quartermaster and adjutant, and seventeen cottages for families. Buildings were moved, divided and remodeled, and new ones added, on the plan of a village with public square, streets and shops. There is a general store, postoffice, barber, shoe and harness shops, G. A. R. hall, school, library, hospitals, dispensary, commissary, waterworks, electric lights and cement sidewalks. The residential equipment includes a home for the Commandant, quarters for the officers and employees, commodious barracks for the single men and two hundred and ten cottages for families. The grounds have been beautifully planned and well kept. S. S. Martin is the present commandant. Present Board of Managers, J. N. Harrison, Chairman, Henry R. Wells and Agnes Michaelis.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

At the State meeting of the Women's Relief Corps, in 1907, a resolution was introduced by Mrs. Cora Deputy to buy the John Brown battlefield at Osawatomie and have it set apart as a public park. The tract, which consists of a little more than twenty-two acres of ground, was the scene of the famous battle between John Brown's band of about thirty Free-State men and more than ten times that number of Missourians under General John Reid, on the morning of August 20, 1856. The land had been bought by Major J. B. Remington, the son-inlaw of John Brown's half-sister, who was keeping it intact until such a time as it would become public property.

After a two-year campaign for funds under Mrs. Anna Heacock, president of the organization, the W. R. C. raised the necessary sum of $1,800, bought the battlefield and presented it to the State. A celebration was held August 30 and 31, 1910, the fifty-fourth anniversary of the battle. The dedicatory services were delayed one day in order that, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt might give the principal speech. Other speakers of the occasion were: Gifford Pinchot, James R. Garfield, Captain Joseph G. Waters, Mrs. Sarah E. Staplin, president of the W. R. C., and N. E. Harmon, commander of the G. A. R. The monument raised in 1877 in honor of the heroes of this battle, stands in the park. It marks the spot where Fred Brown, son of John Brown, was buried. There were five survivors of the battle at the dedication of the park.

                                          ELIZABETH N. BARR.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1 & 2
BIOGRAPHIES — VOLUMES 3, 4, & 5
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z

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