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                               100 YEARS OF HISTORY OF THE ELGIN MOOSE LODGE #799

Written in 2011 for the 100 year anniversary. 

In relation to time in a historical sense, 100 years represents merely a few grains of sand. In the fraternal sense, 100 years is a tremendous record of achievement.

    In the summer of 1911 two membership directors for the Loyal Order of Moose, W.E. Quick and D.C. Young, were assigned to the Elgin area for the purpose of organizing a lodge.

Their efforts culminated in the institution of Elgin Lodge 799 on November 16, 1911 with a total of 242 charter members. Serving as installing officer was C.C. Crane.

    The head officer of the Moose lodge, in those days, was known as the “Dictator,” and the first man to hold this post in Lodge 799 was Frank Tefft. The first Secretary was Phillip Schlager.

The first meeting place of the Lodge was in Strauss Hall, which was known as the Walgreen building. It was located on South Grove Avenue. Meetings were held there for only a short time, however, before the lodge rented quarters on the second floor of the building at 152 E. Chicago St. This was destined to be the home of the lodge until it moved into 70 N. State Street, in January of 1951. 

    Lodge 799 was less than two years old when officers and members were invited to participate in the dedication, July  27, 1913, of Mooseheart, a residential childcare facility owned and operated by Moose International, located between Batavia and North Aurora. Old minute books reveal a motion of the Lodge to meet the Vice President of the United States, Thomas R. Marshall, and to escort him to Mooseheart to take part in the dedication ceremonies.

Today Mooseheart has gained International recognition as the Moose Child City.

One of the first projects of our young Lodge was to sponsor and present a minstrel show featuring the talent of Lodge members. They presented the show for several years before World War 1. The first shows were held at the Moose Home, but as the crowds grew they were moved to the old Rialto Theater.

    A Drum and Bugle Corps was organized by the Lodge and was very active. The Corps gained attention during World War 1 when it was on hand to give every group of army recruits a send off. They were also on hand to greet the returning veterans and were a familiar sight at Mooseheart before the Corps finally disbanded during the Depression of the thirties.

In May of 1931, the Lodge organized a band under the direction of S.P. Symonds. One of the band’s first appearances was at a combined “boxing exhibition and concert” of September 29 of the same year to raise funds for the Unemployed Relief Fund.

    Robert A. Schutz, Secretary of the Lodge at the time, turned $396 over to Mayor Myron M. Lehman. The Mayor in turn gave the money to the Salvation Army to operate its soup kitchen.

It is not known how many of these charity shows were sponsored by Lodge 799, but a souvenir program indicates one was presented as late as December 11, 1938.

    With the entire nation in the depths of a Depression, and Elgin Watch Company, Elgin’s main employer, hard hit, three members of Lodge 799 came up with an idea to help the community’s economy.

    Dictator Martin C. Johnson, Secretary Robert A. Schutz and William P. Lynch, Chairman of the auditing committee, suggested to the Supreme Lodge that they use Elgin watches as awards in the Silver anniversary membership campaign of the Moose Fraternity.

The Supreme Lodge purchased 60,000 Elgin watches. It took a day and a half, in those days, to make a watch and the deal engineered by the Moose provided many, many days of work for Elginites in the heart of the Depression. 

    The promotion was launched at the Elgin Lodge on June 19, 1931, with the late Director General, James J. Davis present to address a class of 136 new members headed by Mayor Lehman.

    It was tough sledding for the Lodge in those days and two men who deserve a great deal of credit were the late Bob Schutz and John Lagerstrom. Schutz served as Secretary for 15 years and Club Secretary for 23 years. Lagerstrom served as Treasurer for 23 years.

Schutz was the only Pilgrim in the Lodge for many years until Lagerstrom became the second to receive the coveted degree.

    Another who made substantial contributions was Ed Lavender, who had been called to receive the Pilgrim Degree when he died. And then there’s Charley King, who was the first man in the Lodge to serve as a State Officer. We currently have eight Pilgrims.

Hampered by small quarters, the Lodge tried for years to reach a membership to correspond with its number, 799, but it was never able to reach this magic figure. For many years they had talked of a new Moose Home.

    On May 1,  1946, Raymond G. Pfafflin, affectionately known as “Red” took over the first of five terms as Governor. Things began to happen in a hurry when this dedicated fraternalist took the reins. In less than six weeks, the Lodge purchased property in the 200 block on North Spring Street. Subsequent engineering tests indicated the ground was not suitable for a building of the size planned.

Another search for available property began. In 1949 the Spring Street property was sold and the property at 70 N. State   Street was purchased. Construction of the Moose Home began in November of 1949 and took about a year to complete.

    On December 23 and 24, 1950, open house was held for the public, and on December 26 the Lodge moved. Official dedication of the new building took place on January 14, 1951 with the enrollment of a huge class of 575 new members. The late Malcolm R. Giles, second Director General of the Moose led a long list of Moose officials present for the dedication. The event was heralded with a special ten page section in the Elgin Daily Courier-News.

In 1976 the Lodge bought a small thirteen acre farm on the outskirts of town. In 2006 the Lodge sold 8 acres and on July 8, 2006 the Lodge broke ground for a new building. We moved in and opened up our present Lodge 799 at 925   S. McLean Blvd. on November 1, 2008.

    Many honors have been conferred on the Elgin Lodge. A quartet composed of Tom Hickey, Sheldon Levy, Donald Lowe and Dr. Warren Blackman were the champions of the Illinois Moose Association in 1950-51.

Elgin Lodge, at one time, boasted a Ritual Team composed entirely of graduates of Mooseheart High School who were members of Lodge 799. They were: Walter Keafer, William Bucher, Thurman Cox, Charles Rapp, Robert P. Johnson, James Johnson and John McNeely. When Robert Hayden was elected Governor for the 1951-52 years, one of his goals was to start a Lodge publication. He turned to a man working on the Courier-News as a reporter, Jim Rawlings and asked him to be Publicity Chairman. Rawlings accepted, and in August 1951 the first issue of “Moosevents” rolled off the presses. It won first place in its class in State competition in its first year. Jim Rawlings was succeeded by Robert Hayden as editor, who in turn was replaced by Gerald Flory. In 1958 Rawlings again became editor of Moosevents. He was assisted by Donald Youngs.

    In October 1978 Donald W. Johnson took over as editor and since that time Moosevents has received awards for Journalistic Excellence, Awards of Merit, Special Recognition, and in 1982 and 1985 received First Place in its Class in the International Lodge Publication contest. Ann Young, who took over when Don retired, also received many awards.

Elgin Lodge sponsored a Horse Shoe team headed by Frank Breen, National AAU champion in 1953 and 1956, and Illinois AAU champ for eleven consecutive years. Breen teamed with Harry Durkee to win the Illinois Doubles title twice and with Earl App, to win it twice more.

    Other Elgin Lodge teams won the National AAU title for four straight years from 1951 through 1954. The Elgin Lodge sponsored the National AAU tournament at Wing Parkin 1958.

However, the one man who stood out in the rapid growth and progress of the Elgin Lodge from 1946 to 1976 was Red Pfafflin. When the Lodge moved into its new quarters at the end of 1950, he resigned as Governor to become Secretary and Club Manager.

His leadership in the Lodge was a valued asset. He sponsored more than 250 new members and was awarded the Pilgrim Degree of Merit.

    On July 7,  1976, Donald W. Johnson took over as Secretary and Club Manager. Since then the title has been changed to Administrator. Don Johnson also served as Governor of Elgin Lodge from 1964 to 1966, during which time the Moose Rod & Gun Club was chartered.

Don Johnson, as a dedicated Administrator, signed over 160 new members and received the Pilgrim Degree of Merit for his dedication to the fraternity.

    After Don Johnson retired in 2001 the Administrator duties were taken over by Frank “Podzie” Podzimek who served until 2008 when Harry Deitz took over.

    In 1985 Elgin Lodge was chosen as a pilot lodge for the new computer program started by the Supreme Lodge. We are now in full swing with all our membership information on computer.

Through the years three organizations within the Lodge made material contributions to the success of Lodge 799: Elgin Chapter 610, Women of the Moose, which was organized in 1922. The Chapter conducts many functions and social activities for its membership and is always ready to assist the Lodge by giving of its resources or supplying personnel.

    At one time the Moose Booster Club was very active and sponsored a number of social activities for the Lodge.

Elgin Moose Legion unit sponsors many activities not only for their respective members, but for the Lodge as well.

Early Lodge members were also part of the Founding Fathers of the Elgin United Civic Association. This is an association of all the clubs in the City of Elgin, the Elks, VFW, American Legion, Owls, Turners and the Riverside Club. Over the years Lodge 799 has had several members become President of the Civic Association, some for more than one term.

    Elgin Moose Lodge 799 has rendered a valuable service to the community by sponsoring a total of twenty-two families at Mooseheart and fourteen aged members at Moosehaven, the famed Moose City of Contentment for the aged at Orange Park, Florida, which was dedicated on October 3, 1922.

The first family sponsored by Elgin Lodge 799, at Mooseheart was the Benjamin Johnson family, admitted on February 2, 1927.

    Lodge 799 believes in helping the community. Over the years the Lodge has co-sponsored, with the City of Elgin, an Easter Egg Hunt. Elgin Moose 799 also undertook Santa Claus visits to hospitals and has been a call-in center for the Muscular Dystrophy fund drive. The Lodge has given donations of clothes and food to the Crisis Center, school supplies to several neighborhood kids and any support requested by the Police and Fire Departments. The Lodge has provided meeting rooms for Little League, Pee Wee Football and Boy Scouts. The Lodge also makes space available and co-ordinates blood drives on a regular basis.

    Elgin Moose Lodge 799 can look back on 100 years of colorful history. It has established itself as a respected member of the community. However, the Elgin Lodge is not resting on its laurels as it celebrates its Centennial Anniversary. 

The Lodge is constantly seeking new ways to serve its membership and community. Today Lodge 799 has 1279 members and Chapter 610 has 472 members.

    Operating with a small group of key employees and a large core group of dedicated volunteers, Lodge 799, along with roughly 2,000 lodges in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and Great Britain, contribute to the operation and upkeep of Mooseheart and Moosehaven. Meeting these fraternal responsibilities is a serious commitment to the members of Lodge 799 but that does not mean we can’t have fun too!

    The Lodge strives to have social activities to meet a wide range of interests and age groups. There are club groups within the Lodge such as the Rod and Gun Club, Moose Riders motorcycle club, Golf League, Billiards League, and a Wii Bowling League. These clubs and leagues routinely hold tournaments and contests for fun and small prizes. 

The Lodge also holds regularly scheduled activities such as dances, special dinners, Karaoke nights, family picnics and special music weekends. Another fun yearly activity is a bus trip to the baseball game when the Cubs play the Milwaukee Brewers. The ride to Milwaukee is always fun and the stop at the Milwaukee Lodge for brunch is a great treat. In years past, Line Dancing lessons were popular. The Lodge is also a Wi-Fi hot spot.

Each year, Christmas, Easter, and Halloween parties are held for member’s children and Mooseheart kids are invited and given individual gifts. These parties are very much enjoyed. Christmas and Thanksgiving also brings us the Tom and Jerry parties which are free to members. During football season you will find Chili or Soup Cook-offs contests.

Recently the Lodge has been holding a very popular Mothers Day Brunch and an occasional Car Show of classic cars. Local members also support Moose International’s Youth Involvement program.

    A visit to Moose Lodge 799 will show you Fraternalism at its best, with a bright clean, welcoming Social Quarters, large Meeting room for dinners and dances, Modern Offices and in keeping with the Lodges Family Center designation, a Kid’s room with toys and TV for visiting member’s children. The Lodge also has a great large Kitchen where many dinners and lunches are prepared by our able cooks and a loyal group of volunteers. This building was planned to support membership growth for many years to come and all of the members of Elgin Moose Lodge 799 intend to see that it does grow!