The decline of franternal organizations

Masonic Temple in Casper, Wyoming.  This pre World War One building remains one of the most substantial in downtown Casper.

Recently there was some discussion on a history focused list I'm on, sparked by the Company of Military Historians flyer I recently posted.  The CMH used to be an organization which you had to be invited into, in order to join, and that sort of exclusivity doesn't sit well with everyone.  This is no longer true of the CMH, which now has open enrollment, but the discussion went from that to the topic of fraternal organizations.

I'm not sure if the CMH could properly be considered a fraternal organization, but it was one that not everyone could walk into, which was part of the attraction of it, and I suppose part of the detraction.  In its case, it sought to make sure that people had a recognized interest in history, so it isn't quite the same as a lot of the other fraternal organizations that a person might normally think of.  And there were quite a few of them at that.

Up until perhaps the 1960s, belonging to some sort of fraternal club was a huge deal for men.  Indeed this was so much the case that it was made fun of in some popular media.  The Honeymooners, for example, featured a lodge that the two main male characters belonged to, called the "Raccoons.". The cartoon Flintstones, which was simply a cartoon variant of The Honeymooners, even did.  Lampooning a fraternal organization was a stock joke in those days.

The Masons, the Elks, the Rotary Club, the Lions, the Moose, the Odd Fellows, and the Eagles all had lodges here.  Some of these organizations are very old, some not so old, but they all were popular enough that they all had their own buildings.  Some of them were powers in their own right.

The Elks Club in Casper.  This club appears to still be going strong.  BOPE stands for, I believe Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks.  Just behind it, to the right, is the old building for the Knights of Columbus.  There KofC still exists in Casper, but that building, which was once used by them and which had a club bar within it no longer is used by the Knights.

Many men, I suspect, belonged to more than one such organization at the time, and of course a few still do, but not like they once did.  I couldn't truthfully claim that all established men in a town belonged to at least one club, but it might be a safe bet that most men in business, and many who were not, belonged to at least one.  Some, as noted, were real powers unto themselves.  I've been told, for example, that the Masons were so powerful at one time that not belonging was a hindrance to a man in business. This was particularly a problem for Catholics, which are not allowed by their faith to join secret societies, which the Masons qualify as being.

The Masons, in fact, were so significant of organization that the inclusion of Masons in the dedication of public buildings was the norm prior to World War Two.   People would probably be shocked by that today, but it was routine at the time.  For example, the Federal Courthouse in Casper Wyoming was dedicated in a ceremony in which the Masons were included.  The Colorado Capitol also was.  Masonic Lodges, i.e., buildings themselves, exist in almost every town in Wyoming, and in many cases they are amongst the towns most substantial structures, showing that the lodges had the desire and financial ability to have them constructed. The Masonic Lodge in Casper, for example, is depicted above, and is one of the town's most substantial structures.  Even much smaller towns such as Riverton, however, had pretty substantially constructed Masonic lodges.

The Odd Fellows Building in Casper.  IOOF stands for the International Order of Odd Fellows, I think. The building marks the dates 1894 to 1950, so presumably the Odd Fellows had been in Casper since 1894 at the time this building was built.  I have never met a member of this organization, and I do not believe they meet here any longer.  I don't know if they still exist, for that matter.

In addition to these fraternal organizations, near fraternal organizations existed in the form of blue collar trade associations.  This would probably surprise modern residents of Wyoming today, but even I can recall some of these organizations existing when I was younger.  At least one labor union in  Casper retains a building, although I don't know much about it, but clubs like the Building & Trades Club are gone. The BT Club, by the time I was in high school, had degenerated into a rough bar, but in its earlier form it had been a club for men in the construction industry.  The clubs functioned under a special exemption to the state's liquor laws, after the repeal of Prohibition, which allowed them to stay open after hours, which initially reflected their fraternal nature, but which ultimately came to be a way around closing time.

The decline in fraternal club membership has been so pronounced that there's been real changes in some of these organizations, and others have just disappeared.  Many of the old lodges and clubs hang on to this day, but in much diminished forms and with aging memberships, while others have managed to hang on.  As noted above, the Elks Club seems to be doing fine.  The Rotary Club is one that I'm not terribly familiar with, but I've known a lot of people who have been Rotarians, so presumably it too is doing fine.  Some seem to have changed their focus a bit.  I know quite a few Knights of Columbus, for example, but the organization seems to have lost some of reason d'etre with the local decline of the Masons, and in the process it has refocused itself towards other goals and therefore seems to be doing fine.  It no longer has a club with a bar like it once did, but that wouldn't seem consistent with its present character.

Knights of Columbus relief poster from World War One.

Using the Masons as example again, the lodge buildings themselves (called temples) provide evidence of the change.  The Masonic Lodge in Casper does exist, and it might be quite busy, but the temple itself is quite near my office and there seems to be very little activity that occurs there.  It might be perfectly unfair to attempt to draw a conclusion from that, but it's pretty quiet looking anyhow.  The Masonic temple in Riverton is an older stone building downtown and is now offices.  I've been in it years ago to take a deposition, as a lawyer at that time rented one of the floors.  The Shriners, a branch of the Masons, still keep on keeping on, but I frankly do not know a good deal about them.  Their presence in the annual Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo Parade has not diminished over the years, so presumably they're doing well.

The Knights of Columbus, with a changed focus to some degree, also no longer occupy their building in Casper. That building was located across the street from the old St. Anthony's School and convent, and on the same block as the Elks.  It appeared to be a much newer structure however, so I'm not sure how old it really is.  My guess is that the building dated from the 1950s, however.  At any rate, according to people I know very well, it once hosted some rollicking St. Patrick's Day parties and, I am told, it was once a place where members could go on a Friday evening for fellowship and a few drinks.  The Knights still exist, and still offer fellowship to their members, but the days of a club are over and indeed probably not really consistent with the present nature of the entity.

So why the change?  It's probably not a real mystery, but it is a real change.  When the organizations were all very strong, there was no television, no radio, and certainly no Internet.  In the evenings, when men returned home from work, and we are to a very large degree speaking of men, there were things to do, some of which were in the category of drudgery, but more often than not the evening brought dinner and then that was it.  That left men with free time, but free time that was afforded with fewer distractions than modern life offers, or perhaps even inflicts.  So, basically, a lot of men had the choice of staying in their homes or apartments in the evening or, going somewhere and hanging out with like minded friends.  By the same token, any number of local institutions and activities likewise benefited from this situation, although harnessed to less altruistic purposes. For example, a small club exists outside of Casper that was called The Roundup Club, a sort of agricultural lodge, that was a type of fraternal organization but, in contrast the same social instincts in the remote Natrona County town of Powder River were filled for decades by The Tumble Inn, a bar and restaurant which, for locals, was darned near like a lodge.

It'd be easy to ignore this change and dismiss it as simply a byproduct of the times, but it isn't without its impact.  Almost every fraternal organization has a dedicated public purpose.  Some of the organizations remain fiercely dedicated to their particular charitable focus.  I couldn't begin to list which each may be, but some of the more famous examples are the  Shriner's dedication to burn hospitals.  Locally, the Rotary Club maintains the Casper Mountain Braille Trail, a long existing way of connecting the blind with nature.  Many such other examples exist.  In almost all of them, should membership decline to a critical point, the charitable purpose of the club would likewise almost certainly be impaired. 

The other negative aspect of their decline, however, is that it probably simply isn't a good thing for people to be hanging around the house by themselves too much.  When that occurs, people's contact with the world begins to be limited to themselves or the very like minded.  For that reason, the Internet, frequently cited as a means of broadening knowledge, probably doesn't.  A feature of almost all of the fraternal organizations listed above is that they tended to bring together those of some diversity.  It wouldn't be true that they were absolutely representative of the diversity of their communities.  After all, early very early on some were discriminatory in nature.  Even now, however, it wouldn't be the case that every person could join any one.  A Catholic, for example, would still be self excluded from the Masons and you have to be a Catholic, of course, to be in the Knights of Columbus.  But it is the case that a lawyer is likely to be seated next to a tradesman at the Elks.  With the decline in this sort of activity, the diversity of society is cheated a bit, and people begin to take counsel more and more of their own views and fears.