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Loyal Order of Moose
The Moose Fraternity (formerly The Loyal Order of Moose) is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888 and headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois.
Moose International supports the operation of Mooseheart Child City & School, a 1,023-acre (414 ha) community for children and teens in need, located 40 miles (64 km) west of Chicago; and Moosehaven, a 63-acre (25 ha) retirement community for its members near Jacksonville, Florida.
Additionally, the Moose organization conducts numerous sports and recreational programs, in local Lodge/Chapter facilities called either Moose Family Centers or Activity Centers, in the majority of 44 State and Provincial Associations, and on a fraternity-wide basis. There is also a Loyal Order of Moose in Britain. These organizations together make up the Moose International.
The Loyal Order of Moose was founded in Louisville, Kentucky, in the spring of 1888 by Dr. John Henry Wilson. Originally intended purely as a men's social club, lodges were soon founded in Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and Crawfordsville and Frankfort, Indiana. The early order was not prosperous. Dr. Wilson was dissatisfied and left the order of the Moose before the turn of the century.[independent source needed] When Albert C. Stevens was compiling his Cyclopedia of Fraternities in the late 1890s, he was unable to ascertain whether it was still in existence.
In the fall of 1906, the Order had only the two Indiana lodges remaining. On October 27 of that year James J. Davis became the 247th member of the Order.[independent source needed] Davis was a Welsh immigrant who had come to the United States as a youth and worked as an iron puddler in the steel mills of Pennsylvania and an active labor organizer (he later became United States Secretary of Labor in the Harding administration). He saw the Order as a way to provide a social safety net for a working class membership, using a low annual membership fee of $10–$15 (equivalent to $360–$540 in 2025). After giving a rousing address to the seven delegates of the 1906 Moose national convention, he was appointed "Supreme Organizer" of the Order. Davis and a group of organizers set out to recruit members and establish lodges throughout the US and Canada. He was quite successful, and the Order grew to nearly half a million members in 1,000 lodges by 1912.[independent source needed]
Old National Moose Lodge bylaws restricted membership in this men's club to white people. In 1972, K. Leroy Irvis, an African-American member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, was invited to visit a lodge in Harrisburg by a member as a guest. The lodge dining room refused to serve Irvis on account of his race. Irvis sued the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board in federal court, arguing that the issuance of a liquor license to an organization with racially discriminatory policies constituted an illegal state action. A Pennsylvania court ruled in Irvis' favor. The case was ultimately appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that Irvis lacked standing to sue based on membership and that state was not involved in the discriminatory guest practices to qualify as a state action prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment.
In 1994, a Moose Lodge in Hagerstown, Maryland, denied membership based on race. Officials at Moose International took action and revoked the charter of the Moose Lodge.
At the 1911 convention in Detroit, Davis, the "Director General" of the Order, recommended that the LOOM (Loyal Order Of Moose) acquire property for an "Institute", "School" or "College" that would be a home, schooling, and vocational training for the orphans of LOOM members.[independent source needed] For months offers came in and a number of meetings were held regarding the project. It was eventually agreed that the center should be located somewhere near the center of population, adjacent to both rail and river transportation and within a day's travel to a major city. On December 14, 1912, the leaders of the organization decided to purchase the 750-acre Brookline Farm. Brookline was a dairy farm near Batavia, Illinois. It was close to the Fox River, two railway lines and the (then dirt) Lincoln Highway. The leadership also wished to buy additional real estate to the west and north owned by two other families, for a total of 1,023 acres. Negotiations for the purchases were held in January and February 1913, and legal possession of the property was taken on March 1. The name "Mooseheart" had been adopted for the school at the suggestion of Ohio Congressman and Supreme Council member John J. Lentz by a unanimous joint meeting of the Supreme Council and Institute Trustees on February 1. Mooseheart was dedicated on July 27, 1913. Vice President Thomas R. Marshall gave a speech for the occasion.
Loyal Order of Moose
The Moose Fraternity (formerly The Loyal Order of Moose) is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888 and headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois.
Moose International supports the operation of Mooseheart Child City & School, a 1,023-acre (414 ha) community for children and teens in need, located 40 miles (64 km) west of Chicago; and Moosehaven, a 63-acre (25 ha) retirement community for its members near Jacksonville, Florida.
Additionally, the Moose organization conducts numerous sports and recreational programs, in local Lodge/Chapter facilities called either Moose Family Centers or Activity Centers, in the majority of 44 State and Provincial Associations, and on a fraternity-wide basis. There is also a Loyal Order of Moose in Britain. These organizations together make up the Moose International.
The Loyal Order of Moose was founded in Louisville, Kentucky, in the spring of 1888 by Dr. John Henry Wilson. Originally intended purely as a men's social club, lodges were soon founded in Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and Crawfordsville and Frankfort, Indiana. The early order was not prosperous. Dr. Wilson was dissatisfied and left the order of the Moose before the turn of the century.[independent source needed] When Albert C. Stevens was compiling his Cyclopedia of Fraternities in the late 1890s, he was unable to ascertain whether it was still in existence.
In the fall of 1906, the Order had only the two Indiana lodges remaining. On October 27 of that year James J. Davis became the 247th member of the Order.[independent source needed] Davis was a Welsh immigrant who had come to the United States as a youth and worked as an iron puddler in the steel mills of Pennsylvania and an active labor organizer (he later became United States Secretary of Labor in the Harding administration). He saw the Order as a way to provide a social safety net for a working class membership, using a low annual membership fee of $10–$15 (equivalent to $360–$540 in 2025). After giving a rousing address to the seven delegates of the 1906 Moose national convention, he was appointed "Supreme Organizer" of the Order. Davis and a group of organizers set out to recruit members and establish lodges throughout the US and Canada. He was quite successful, and the Order grew to nearly half a million members in 1,000 lodges by 1912.[independent source needed]
Old National Moose Lodge bylaws restricted membership in this men's club to white people. In 1972, K. Leroy Irvis, an African-American member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, was invited to visit a lodge in Harrisburg by a member as a guest. The lodge dining room refused to serve Irvis on account of his race. Irvis sued the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board in federal court, arguing that the issuance of a liquor license to an organization with racially discriminatory policies constituted an illegal state action. A Pennsylvania court ruled in Irvis' favor. The case was ultimately appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that Irvis lacked standing to sue based on membership and that state was not involved in the discriminatory guest practices to qualify as a state action prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment.
In 1994, a Moose Lodge in Hagerstown, Maryland, denied membership based on race. Officials at Moose International took action and revoked the charter of the Moose Lodge.
At the 1911 convention in Detroit, Davis, the "Director General" of the Order, recommended that the LOOM (Loyal Order Of Moose) acquire property for an "Institute", "School" or "College" that would be a home, schooling, and vocational training for the orphans of LOOM members.[independent source needed] For months offers came in and a number of meetings were held regarding the project. It was eventually agreed that the center should be located somewhere near the center of population, adjacent to both rail and river transportation and within a day's travel to a major city. On December 14, 1912, the leaders of the organization decided to purchase the 750-acre Brookline Farm. Brookline was a dairy farm near Batavia, Illinois. It was close to the Fox River, two railway lines and the (then dirt) Lincoln Highway. The leadership also wished to buy additional real estate to the west and north owned by two other families, for a total of 1,023 acres. Negotiations for the purchases were held in January and February 1913, and legal possession of the property was taken on March 1. The name "Mooseheart" had been adopted for the school at the suggestion of Ohio Congressman and Supreme Council member John J. Lentz by a unanimous joint meeting of the Supreme Council and Institute Trustees on February 1. Mooseheart was dedicated on July 27, 1913. Vice President Thomas R. Marshall gave a speech for the occasion.
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