E Clampus Vitus

The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV) is a fraternal organization dedicated to the study and preservation of Western Heritage, especially the history of the Mother Lode and gold mining regions of the area. There are chapters in California, Nevada and other Western states. Members call themselves "Clampers." The organization's name is in Dog Latin, and has no known meaning; even the spelling is disputed, sometimes appearing as "Clampus", "Clampsus", or "Clampsis". The motto of the Order, Credo Quia Absurdum, is generally understood as meaning "I believe it because it is absurd."; the proper Latin quotation Credo quia absurdum est, is from the Christian apologist Tertullian (140-230), who rejected rationalism and accepted a Gospel which addressed itself to the "non-rational levels of perception."

History

The history of the organization is steeped in mythology. History shows that the organization was created in 1845 in Lewisport, Virginia, now West Union, West Virginia, when tavern and stable owner Ephraim Bee was given a commission from the Emperor of China to "extend the work and influence of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus."

Bee claimed to have received his commission from Caleb Cushing, the American minister to China. West Union has a monument to Ephraim Bee on the site of the old "Beehive" Tavern, where the RailTrail comes through. The original tavern, the "Bee Hive", was destroyed in the late 1800s during a flood.

Ephraim Bee played his greatest joke on his local West Virginian neighbors. Occasionally, the entire town was invited to a great party. After the Civil War, it was discovered that a nearby cave was a holding area for the Underground Railroad. When the cave was full, E. Bee gave a party to keep all busy while that group of people were moved further north to the next stop.

CEO of ECV Chapter .75 and founder of the Elephant Temperance Society exhibits a prime example of ECV regalia.

Bee felt that an organization was needed which was less exclusive than the other organizations of the day, such as the Masons, Elks and Odd Fellows. In addition, nativism was rising in the United States, as evidenced by such political organizations as the Know-Nothing Party. Bee opened membership in ECV to any "upstanding" man who had come of age. It is known that there were E Clampus Vitus chapters in Bedford, Pennsylvania; Metropolis, Illinois; Bowling Green, Missouri; and Dahlonega, Georgia. (It has been rumored that ECV brethren within the U.S. Army even attempted to bring the order as far south as Mexico City following the Mexican-American War as a gesture of brotherhood and reconciliation, but all record has vanished of the well-intentioned Chapultepec chapter.)

ECV Chairman of the Salt of the Scum of the Earth models an upright yet casual ECV look of red and black.

The organization is said to have been taken to California by an ECV member named Joe Zumwalt, who first heard of it in Missouri. Zumwalt opened an ECV lodge in Mokelumne Hill in 1851, when Mokelumne Hill Lodge No. 1001 was established. There are arguments that previous lodges had been founded in Hangtown, Downieville and Sierra City, but none of those became permanent.

As more of the "established" organizations such as the Masons came to the mining country, they looked down upon the more rowdy nature of E Clampus Vitus. ECV, in making fun of the sashes and ceremonial attire of the "upscale" fraternities, began dressing in red long johns and pinning on badges made of cut-out tin can lids. This practice, called "wearing your tin," continues to this day, although the badges are more professionally made, and members usually dress in a red miner’s shirt, black hat and Levi's jeans. ECV titles reflected the tongue-in-cheek nature of the organization. Officials were called "Noble Grand Humbug," "Roisterous Iscutis," "Grand Imperturbable Hangman," "Clamps Vitrix," and "Royal Gyascutis." All members are officers and all officers, the organization professes, are of equal indignity.

Clamper meetings were held in the Hall of Comparative Ovations, generally the back room of a saloon. Some chapters even built their own Halls of Comparative Ovations. One still stands in Murphys. The Clamper flag was a hoop skirt, with the words "This is the flag we fight under." Meetings were held "at any time before or after a full moon." New members were called "Poor Blind Candidates." They were required to present a poke of gold dust, although the value of the poke was left to the discretion of the brotherhood, and was frequently waived entirely if the prospective member could not afford it.

Despite the humor and rowdiness of E Clampus Vitus, the members do take their brotherhood seriously. When a member became sick or injured, the group would collect food or money to help him. They frequently trekked through the vastness of the Sierra Nevada to reach lonely miners who otherwise would have had no Christmas celebration. The society was also careful to assist the widows and orphans of fallen members.

Wayward Clampers showing their colors, tin and chapter affiliation. It is not uncommon for clampers to share the good news of ECV while traveling which has led to growth throughout its history.

At the ECV's peak, around 1870, so many miners were members that many mining camps shut down during ECV celebrations (some mining towns had two chapters). At one point, Lord Sholto Douglas, a British peer leading a troupe of actors in Marysville, was so downheartened by the lack of ticket sales that he had determined to leave town. When a local Clamper found out that the troupe was having trouble, Lord Douglas was immediately initiated into ECV, and the brothers bought enough tickets to fill the local theater. A 20th century chapter of the ECV was named for Lord Douglas LSD in honor of this event. Mark Twain was a member, and it was while attending an ECV meeting that he heard the story which he wrote as The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

Members of note included Adam, the first "Clampatriarch"; Philip D. Armour, the meat packer; John Mohler Studebaker, the automobile manufacturer; and John Hume, a California state assemblyman. ECV also claims Ulysses S. Grant, J. Pierpont Morgan, Horace Greeley, and Horatio Alger as members, but claims have also been made to Solomon, Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, Henry VIII of England, Sir Francis Drake, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and of course, His Imperial Majesty Joshua A. Norton, "Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico". These fanciful claims show ECV's propensity for not taking much of anything particularly seriously, least of all itself.

There is evidence to support the ECV claim to Ulysses S. Grant. One of the early capitals of California was Benicia. At the close of the War with Mexico, Lt. William Tecumseh Sherman was Adjutant to Col. Richard Barnes Mason at the time of the gold discovery at Sutter's Mill. Upon Sherman's retirement in 1853, his replacement at the Benicia Arsenal was Lt. Ulysses S. Grant, who spent 30 days in the Arsenal Guardhouse for being drunk on duty and firing his cannons at the Martinez shoreline. Considering Benicia's position as the major inland Army post and transport hub to the valley, both Grant's and the Brotherhood's affinity for strong drink and the early spread of the Brotherhood through Northern California, it is entirely possible that Grant was inducted into the Organization.

Reestablishment

As the mining industry faded towards the end of the 19th century, ECV started to fade as well. It was revitalized in 1931 by San Francisco historian Carl Wheat and his friends G. Ezra Dane and Leon O. Whitsell. They were contacted by one of the last surviving members of the original ECV, who passed on all that he could remember of the organization's rites and legends. The three founded a new chapter, Yerba Buena Number 1, or the "Capitulus Redivivus." Wheat described E Clampus Vitus as "the comic strip on the page of California history."

Early afternoon ECV colloquium focused on the lasting effects of Byzantine and Medieval history on the Santa Margarita Ranch and environs

New chapters sprang up in Los Angeles (Platrix Chapter #2) and other major cities in California, and were numbered sequentially. However, once Lodge 10 was established in 1936, members pointed out that it was illogical for such a rowdy organization to be so neat in its numbering scheme, and so some creativity was developed in the numbering. The "Pair-o-Dice" chapter in Paradise, for example, is Lodge No. 7-11. The de la Guerra y Pacheco chapter, halfway between Lodge Number 1 in San Francisco and Lodge Number 2 in Los Angeles, is Lodge Number 1.5. There were chapters in British Columbia and Hawaii, but they no longer exist.

In 1937, a plaque appeared in Northern California purporting to have been made by Sir Francis Drake during his voyage of discovery in which it was stated that he had claimed all of California for England, and that he had the authority of the claim by having been ceded the land by the local Miwok Indians. The man who was chief of the Miwoks in 1937, William Fuller, was a member of E Clampus Vitus. During an ECV meeting, he revoked the cession of land to England, and ceded it all to the United States government. The so-called Drake's Plate of Brass was accepted as authentic for forty years, yet was in actuality a hoax initiated by Dane that got out of control. It is now thought that the Fuller ceremony was part of an effort for the perpetrators to tip off the plate's finders as to its true origins.

The current ECV

A clampout at sunset. Clampsite location is China Harbor on the Pacific Coast near Cayucos, California.

There are currently 40 ECV chapters in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Washington, as well as an offshore chapter (the Floating Whang chapter), an online chapter (the Cyber Whang chapter), and proposed chapters in Oregon and Idaho.

Al Packer Chapter 100 in Colorado was chartered in 2000 — the year 6005 on ECV's idiosyncratic calendar. This chapter has four encampments statewide for members to get together and socialize.

Doc Maynard Chapter 54-40 in Washington State is the most recently chartered, changing its status from "Outpost" to "Chapter" in 2006, the year 6011 in Clamper years.

The organization has raised historical plaques in many places throughout the West (often those sites such as bordellos and saloons overlooked by more traditional historical societies), with a traditional "doin's," or party, after each plaque dedication. These are now common in historical areas around California and the West — when in the Gold Country, a Clamper-placed plaque is never far away. The fraternity is not sure if it is a "historical drinking society" or a "drinking historical society." In 2006, Platrix Chapter #2 erected a plaque commemorating the 50th Anniversary of "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" at the former studio site where Raymond Burr's insert scenes were filmed by director Terry Morse in 1956. The plaque is at the entrance of the Frank del Olmo Elementary School, the current occupant of the site. The current Modesto regional leader is a man named Michael Cimoli, who has once again led the group to surprising new results.

On February 19, 2009 the Nevada Assembly agreed to make the 19 "Clamper Day" the motion has not yet been passed by the state senate.

Initiation

By tradition, a man can ONLY become a Clamper by invitation. However, one can express his desire to join. Initiation rites are sometimes spur-of-the-moment, such as forcing a blindfolded candidate to be lifted into the air by a block and tackle. Other times, the blindfolded initiate is seated upon a bed of roses in a wheelbarrow, and taken upon the "Rocky Road to Rublin" (a hotel mattress with 25 cent magic fingers). The initiations are secret (except for Mountain Charlie at the Tri-Chapter, where one random kid is allowed to watch the ENTIRE initiation, wear a red shirt and read the Hall of Comparative Ovations papers. Current 1850 humbug, Humdoug is currently allowing this. You can bring your family to a doin's) and vary greatly in execution and severity. Once he has been asked to answer several questions, the Scales of Darkness (the blindfold) are removed, the new member "sees the light", is handed the Staff of Relief, is presented the Stone of Enigma, and appointed Chairman of the Most Important Committee. Afterward everyone toasts the new member with drink. Once enlightened, a brother is a brother for life. Best bet, be a man and find out yourself. The initiation portion only last approx 5–6 minutes which is then followed by refreshingly hot showers and ice cold beers.

Artistic efforts to advertise and promote one's chapter are quite common at most clampouts and other ECV doins.

E Clampus Vitus

History

Reestablishment

The current ECV

Initiation

External ECV History Links

Further reading

See also