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 06/10/15

National Archives

• 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. Click here or here  text format.
  • A short but memorable poem titled "He's An Elk" . It really helps define what Elks should be all about. Click here

  • Click on picture to enlarge the photo of our  founder Charles Vivian. This was when he was 29. You can download this 103 page book his widow published  in 1904.   With more old newspapers coming on line you can now find some of Charles many engagements. For a Pinterest list, go to Follow John's board Charles Vivian on Pinterest.

    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 view of cover of 1908 toast book.
  •  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. Dr Barrett went on to become Grand Exalted Ruler. He also donated the funds necessary to build the theatre at the Elks Home which sadly was sold in 2014.
• 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. he San Francisco earthquake in 1906. How the Elks helped in that most horrific of natural eobe fe
• Famous people who were/are Elks members.
  • Major General Frederick Funston. Medal of Honor winner, Commanding General of Pershing, Eisenhower, Patton and MacArthur.  Some say savior of San Francisco from fire after 1906 earthquake. Click here for the remarkable adventures of this courageous brother Elk. He was presented with a gold life membership card in 1902 by his home lodge Iola KS 569. 
  • 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!

  For a silent movie of the 1913 convention in Rochester NY .

• 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. (  over 1500 images from 50 states!)
  • Alabama(9), Arizona(11), Alaska(6), Arkansas(6)
  • California(70), Colorado(34), Connecticut(18)
  • Delaware (1)
  • Florida(31)
  • Georgia(13)
  • Hawaii(5)
  • Indiana(53), Illinois(43), Iowa(39), Idaho(7)
  • Kansas(21), Kentucky(7)
  • Louisiana(11)
  • Maine(10), Maryland(5),  Mass(19), Michigan(35), Minnesota(14), Missouri(22), Mississippi(10), Montana(15)
  • New Hampshire(6), New York(72), North Carolina(30), Nebraska(11), New Jersey(47),  North Dakota(12), New Mexico(7), Nevada (5)
  • Ohio(47), Oklahoma(19), Oregon(24)
  • Pennsylvania(89)
  • Rhode Island(5)
  • South Dakota(12), South Carolina(4)
  • Tennessee(6), Texas(21)
  • Utah(4)
  • Vermont (2)
  • Virginia(22)
  • Washington(23), Washington D.C. Wisconsin(24), West Virginia(18) Wyoming(7)
• 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. 
  • Panama Canal newsletter 1936. flag Day program. Click here.
  • 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 35 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 and was last update 1/18/14. 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. Several downloadable old songs are available as well including Leo Wheet's Grand March which should be playing in the background if you are using internet explorer to view this page.

 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 Elks Home In Virginia for a few pictures(87) and here for pictures on this site. Sadly, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks has sold the elks Home for $4.5 million. Over 80 elderly and frail Elks will be now under the care of a for-profit corporation and this 200 acre beautiful property that took a 100 years to cobble together will more then likely be split into tracts for housing developments. That was effective September 1, 2014. The new name will be "English Meadows Elks Home campus."

For the National Historic Home 2008 application which lists a wealth of information of this century long crown jewel of Elkdom go to this link.

Elks pictures that are large enough to reprint. Include Elks Creed, Best People on Earth, the Charlotte Elks lodge degree team that installed numerous lodges back in the 1900's. Two very neat WWII advertisements encouraging Elks to help the cause and a gorgeous postcard of an elk and a  mermaid giving the 11 o'clock toast. Click here to review and download.

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 1/11/11) 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.

State association beginnings- Click here for Mike Kelly's list. (also at Virginia elks website)

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. This is a most interesting 100 page travelog complete with many great pictures. This adventure lasted 16 weeks! Excerpts from this book can be viewed Here 

  Check this last page out. Major cool

• 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.
• Another extremely rare book is Tour Through the West With the Jersey City Elks, No. 211 by Van Loan, Ida A. This was published in 1910 and combined several weeks of travel by train around the country. The main purpose was to attend the convention in Los Angeles in July of 1909. Reproductions can be bought at abebooks.com . Downloaded at google books or by clicking here.
• Another travel book was published and was a duplicate of the 1909 trip except there were THREE trains this time. Again, the convention was in Los Angeles and this book is a lot more concise, has more pictures in it and a lot less of a tedious read. It's titled "Seeing America with the Elks" and written by Abraham Lincoln Weinstock.  Abebooks.com probably has a reproduction you can buy. A couple of stats from the railroad boys " Largest organized long distant movement ever made" "8773 miles traveled", "22,583 meals were served". simply amazing.
• The Heart of Elkdom by Walter F Meier of the Seattle Lodge. A combination of 52 articles that this great Elk assembled sometime in the early 20's. I could only find 3 copies on a search of the Library of congress.
• 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. Others still being published in 1928 were the Pennsylvania Elk, The Pacific Coast Elk, The Eastern Elk, The Jolly Elk, The Traveling Elk and the National Elks' Horn.
• 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.
• The Southwestern Elk, a monthly journal was authorized by Grand Lodge 1909. 9 x 12" @ $1.50 per year. Published in Dallas TX. Hugh  S Fy to be editor.
• The Elks-Antler was published initially to help two groups of Elks reconcile their differences growing out of the schism that threatened to tear the growing Order apart back in 1895. This publication was founded in June of that year. It was published from then until Jan 1927 upon the retiring of the publisher's wife, Mrs Arthur Moreland. He was a Grand Secretary for 8 yerms. I don't know where it was published but I suspect it was in NY. (info found in Elks mag,  April 1927)
• 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. To see a short video from an architect's  view of this magnificent
•  Lodge building click the below. 

Elks Membership Campaigns- some really special membership recruitment efforts that apparently were very successful. Like Atlanta's 5000 campaign where in one setting, 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.

  Picas photo albums BPOElks History

• In 1910 Charles Ellis put together a massive  Elk history book.  You can now download here  Thanks 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. The book contains many of the early songs that were sang in the bar rooms and bistros.

Links to an archive of major books and important or interesting articles of events on this site can be found here.

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