E Clampus Vitus

The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus ( The ancient and honorable order of E Clampus Vitus ), ECV, is a company incorporated in the 19th century männerbündische organization for the study and celebration of the heritage of the American West, especially the history of gold mining in the region.

ECV has individual chapters in California, Nevada, Washington (State ) and other western states. The members call themselves " clampers ". The name has no known meaning, the motto of the Brotherhood Credo Quia Absurdum is a mocked version of credo quia absurdum est.

In connection with the scandal of a Francis Drake attributed forged brass plaque were known to some of the internal processes as well as the inclination to handle solid jokes of the Order and its members to a wider audience and the subject of scientific publications.

History

The Order was founded in 1857 in Sierra Lodge. The politician and restaurateur Ephraim Bee was one of the founders. It parodied classic service clubs and men's societies such as Freemasons, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

In contrast to the then-emerging so-called nativist tendencies as the Know-Nothing Party of the ECV each upright man was accessible, was invited into the Order. Especially in the mining environment flourished ECV. The stiff appearance of urban service clubs and Freemasons was made to counter a decidedly casual occurrence in red shirts, jeans and black hats, and a variety of made ​​of can sheet button. Official titles for managers of the Order includes, among other names such as " Noble Grand Humbug ", " roisterous Iscutis ", " Grand imperturbable Hangman ," " Clamps Vitrix " and " Royal Gyascutis ".

The meetings of the Order took place in a "Hall of Comparative Ovations ", usually the back room of a saloon. The corresponding events were flagged with a hoop skirt under the slogan " This is the flag under which we fight ." The Order takes in the sense also a social commitment for " widows and orphans" in claim wherein the focus was on the widows.

For the first high of the Order in 1870 was, among others, Mark Twain member whose best-known short story about the Jumping Frog of Calaveras by a Clamper meeting shall be inspired. The repeatedly claimed membership of Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman is possible insofar as both were stationed at the beginning of the 1850s in the Benicia Arsenal in northern California. Grant was sentenced arrest, among other things because of alcohol abuse to 30 days, which could be attributed to the influence of locally strong presence Order.

With the decline of the gold rush to 1900, it was first with the ECV to an end. In 1931 he was renewed in San Francisco by the historian Carl Wheat and his friends G. Ezra Dane and Leon O. Whitsell with the help of the last surviving members of the original ECV. The newly founded Chapter was " Yerba Buena Number 1" or " Capitulus Redivivus " baptized.

The scandal surrounding the Francis Drake badge

G. Ezra Dane in 1933 inspired four of his friends to forge a historically documented brass plaque. This was left nailed on landing Sir Francis Drake in 1579 in the vicinity of Golden Gate and the San Francisco Bay with a dedication in honor of the Queen of England and a sixpence silver coin with her image to a post.

The plan was the historian Herbert Eugene Bolton and Clamper foist such a counterfeit plate and dissolve the whole thing under a Clampersmeetings. The elaborately lettered and patinated forgery in 1933 hid at the appropriate place and - what was not intended - 1936 found and immediately recognized as genuine. The participants talked hidden for decades and tried, even as part of the Order, Bolton vain with indirect hints of his conviction, the plate was real to dissuade. Only in the 1970s, the falsification of the public has been known.

Historical memory as part of the organizational culture

The organization seeks to establish historical memory for aspects of everyday life and beyond an elitist notion of culture. This is usually overlooked or ausgelassenene historical places, such as former saloons and off to the movie studios for Godzilla or the tomb of the famous in Seattle for their curses hotel and brothel owner Mary Ann Conklin.

The dedications still like to run as plaque, are usually carried out with a doin, a thematic celebration. Typically taking the respective chapters right to make a minimum of one to two new plaques per year and meet at appropriate commemoration of historic places already marked.

ECV is in this context not quite sure whether it is in the order of a " historical drinking society " or a " drinking club history ."

323573
de