Moose Magazine Online

When James J. Davis set out to grow the Moose from virtually nothing into something great during the first quarter of the 20th century, he planted the first successful seeds in the Keystone State, to which he had emigrated from Wales as a boy. In recent decades, that early confidence had dissipated into a dangerous complacency. But in the last five years, a determined effort to reverse the decline has resulted in a . . .

Pennsylvania Renaissance!

By KURT WEHRMEISTER

> Pennsylvania, while arguably not the site of the birth of the American idea (such designation must probably go to Massachusetts) was nonetheless certainly the formal site of America’s birth—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both drafted and signed in Philadelphia.

The relationship between Pennsylvania and the birth of the modern Moose fraternity is essentially, and intriguingly, the other way around.

The fraternity was formally founded in 1888 in Louisville, KY, by Dr. J. Henry Wilson and a few associates—and then 18 years later, was re-conceived in Crawfordsville, IN as James J. Davis was simultaneously enrolled and hired as its chief organizer on Oct. 27, 1906. But, the idea of the modern Moose—that of working-class breadwinners banding together in brotherhood and charity to take care of their children and elderly in need—that idea was unmistakably born, and enjoyed the bulk of its astounding early growth, in Pennsylvania.

Davis emigrated from Wales to western Pennsylvania with his family at the age of eight in 1881; almost immediately the enterprising boy found work as a telegraph messenger in the steel-mill town of Sharon, northwest of Pittsburgh. It made a deep impression on him to take telegrams to housewives informing them that their millworker husbands had died on the job. He later wrote in his autobiography, The Iron Puddler, that he dreamed of creating a means by which “these men could pool their charity and build a happy city where all the children of their stricken comrades could be sent to school together, there to learn that . . . the fatherless are fathered by all men whose hearts have heard their cry.”

Perhaps predictably, then, when Davis struck his deal in Indiana in late 1906 with the leaders of the nearly-dead Moose order, to re-grow the fraternity on his vision of caring for the widows and orphans of men who joined it, he began by returning to the folks he knew best—in Pennsylvania.

It is no accident that many of the very low numbers for Moose Lodges, the two- and three-digits, are assigned to ones in Pennsylvania—because they were among the first to be chartered, in 1907, ’08 and ’09. By 1926, two decades into Davis’ tenure, the Moose had grown to more than 553,000 men, of which fully 141,000—more than a quarter of the membership!—were in Pennsylvania. Its membership was nearly triple of that of any other state; its 240 Lodges were twice the number operating in any other state or province.

The Keystone State was clearly the “big kahuna” of the Moose, and its generosity was also big: Pennsylvania funded construction of Mooseheart’s Baby Village in 1922; the campus’ first hospital was built in 1919 by just one Lodge—the mammoth Philadelphia 54, which boasted more than 40,000 members at its peak.

But, over the decades, such huge size and influence led to complacency. As society changed and many Moose operations adjusted—making more accommodations for the entire family, updating their facilities—too many Pennsylvania Lodges didn’t change, because they felt they didn’t have to. After the severe membership drop throughout the fraternity during the Depression, Pennsylvania never regained its huge ’20s Moose dominance during the post-WWII recovery. It stayed well above 100,000 men up through the 1980s—but when numbers began dropping in the early 1990s, they dropped faster in Pennsylvania than in the fraternity overall.

Stan Adams joined Greenville, PA Lodge 276 in 1986; soon he was its Administrator. “What I most noticed was that our people were just ‘existing’; they weren’t having fun. I saw my primary job as making people happy; that’s what we had to do—create a situation in which they had fun.” He spurred a turnaround in Greenville that got Moose International’s attention; in 1999 he was named Pennsylvania State Director.

In addition to spreading a “philosophy of fun” from his Lodge to the whole state, and “using a whole lot of pleases and thank-yous,” Adams also sought to use swiftly advancing technology to develop a spirit of good-natured positive competition between the state’s Lodges and Districts.

“We’ve established a ranking system for each Lodge and each District, in 12 categories—membership growth, Endowment Fund giving, timely reporting—anything I can track regularly,” Adams said. “Officers now are very aware, on at least a weekly basis, what number they rank in their District, and in the state . . . that’s perked everybody up; they check their stats like they check the NFL or NASCAR standings in the sports section everyday.

The proof that Adams’ methods seem to be working appears in the chart:

Pennsylvania Moose Turn It Around

As of
4/30/94
4/30/95
4/30/96
4/30/97
4/30/98
4/30/99
4/30/00
4/30/01
4/30/02
4/30/03
4/30/04
10/31/04

Lodges
172
172
165
162
162
159
159
153
149
149
146
144

Members
92,981
90,430
88,567
85,915
81,683
80,471
80,674
80,935
80,407
80,518
81,862
82,545

Gain/(Loss)

(2,551)
(1,863)
(2,652)
(4,232)
(1,212)
+203
+261
(528)*
+111
+1,344
+683

*In 2001-02, the only year since 1998-99 in which Pennsylvania suffered a decline, most Associations were affected even more seriously by the economic fallout from 9/11/01.

The only year in the new century that Pennsylvania hasn’t shown membership growth was 2001-02, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“The last couple of years especially, our Lodge officers have begun to understand that we’re not crazy,” Adams said with a laugh, “and that all the pushing, prodding and the constant monitoring are starting to pay dividends.”

Following are close-up looks at four quite different Pennsylvania Moose operations: in different geographic areas, different size towns, in local economies of varied health, in old facilities and new—but all of them at or near their all-time membership peak—and still growing!