The Moose was founded by Dr. John Henry Wilson and a group of his friends in 1888 in Louisville, Kentucky, as a social and drinking club to rival the Elks. While it remains essentially an American club, it changed its name to Moose International in 1991. The basic unit is the Lodge, which follows the pattern established by Masons: the Moose have club room or rooms, plus a Lodge room with an altar. The Moose confer an initiatory degree, and after six months membership, the member becomes eligible for the second degree, Moose Legion. A third degree or Fellowship Degree is awarded for service to the fraternity. The fourth and highest degree, that of Pilgrim, is honorific and is awarded to few Moose. The Moose make community service a strong component of their activities.
Dr. John Henry Wilson
Founder, Loyal Order of Moose
Though the Moose fraternal organization was founded in the late 1800s with the modest goal of offering men an opportunity to gather socially, it was reinvented during the first decade of the 20th century into an organizational dynamo of men and women who set out to build a city that would brighten the futures of thousands of children in need all across North America. When Dr. John Henry Wilson, a Louisville, Ky., physician, organized a handful of men into the Loyal Order of Moose in the parlor of his home in the spring of 1888, he and his compatriots did so apparently for no other reason than to form a string of men's social clubs. Lodges were instituted in Cincinnati, St. Louis, and the smaller Indiana towns of Crawfordsville and Frankfort by the early 1890s, but Dr. Wilson himself became dissatisfied and left the infant order well before the turn of the century.
It was just the two remaining Indiana Lodges that kept the Moose from disappearing altogether, until the fall of 1906, when an outgoing young government clerk from Elwood, Ind., was invited to enroll into the Crawfordsville Lodge. It was on James J. Davis' 33rd birthday, October 27, which he became just the 247th member of the Loyal Order of Moose.
Davis, a native of Wales who had worked from boyhood as an "iron puddler" in the steel mills of Pennsylvania, had also been a labor organizer and immediately saw potential to build the tiny Moose fraternity into a force to provide protection and security for a largely working-class membership. At the time little or no government "safety net" existed to provide benefits to the wife and children of a breadwinner who died or became disabled. Davis proposed to "pitch" Moose membership as a way to provide such protection at a bargain price; annual dues of $5 to $10. Given a green light and the title of "Supreme Organizer," Davis and a few other colleagues set out to solicit members and organize Moose Lodges across the U.S. and southern Canada. (In 1926, the Moose fraternity's presence extended across the Atlantic, with the founding of the Grand Lodge of Great Britain). Davis' marketing instincts were on-target: By 1912, the order had grown from 247 members in two Lodges, to a colossus of nearly 500,000 in more than 1,000 Lodges. Davis, appointed the organization's first chief executive with the new title of Director General, realized it was time to make good on the promise. The Moose began a program of paying "sick benefits" to members too ill.
James J. Davis
In 1989, the Loyal Order of Moose, under the direction of Moose Director General Paul J. O'Hollaren, changed the official regalia of the Moose Fraternity. Gone were the ceremonial robes, collars and distinctive tasselled headgear called "Tah." The Order used colors to reflect the hierarchical achievements of its members: those who reached the level of Pilgrim Degree of Merit were distinguished by gold blazers with insignia patch, lapel pin, black gabardine trousers and striped necktie; blue jackets adorned those at the Fellowship Degree, with lapel pin and striped tie; and maroon, with lapel pin and striped necktie for those ranked as Moose Legionnaires.
These members, of the Loyal Order of Moose and the Women of the Moose, over 1.8 million members strong (2003), make up the two components of the fraternal organization known as Moose International. Their membership is held in any one of 2,100 Lodges and 1,600 Chapters throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Bermuda.
Moose International headquarters is approximately 38 miles west of Chicago at Mooseheart, Illinois. Men's Lodges and the Ladies Chapters across the fraternity contribute to Moose-sponsored programs such as Mooseheart, the 1,200 - acre Illinois home and school for children in need. Moosehaven, a retirement home for Moose and their wives, was founded in 1922 on the banks of the St. John's River at Orange Park, 14 miles south of Jacksonville, Florida. There are more than 30 buildings on about 60 acres of land, with more than a third of a mile of river frontage. "Every resident whose physical condition will permit is assigned to some daily duty usually not to exceed three hours," and everyone receives a monthly allowance. Those no longer able to work are called "Sunshiners." Their job is to sit in rocking chairs in the sun, and smile at passers-by. There is a well-equipped 150 bed hospital, in addition to many other facilities.
Aside from Mooseheart and Moosehaven, Moose Lodges also support a number of health oriented charities, such as the March of Dimes, Muscular Dystrophy, Heart Fund, Cancer Crusade, Cerebral Palsy, and much more. Many Lodges are also active in highway safety, Boys and Girl Scouting, civil defense cooperation and local community activities of all kinds.
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