ECV History - Al Packer #100

ECV #100 History

Al Packer Chapter #100, Colorado, is the Colorado Chapter of The Ancient and Honorable 

Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV).  ECV is a non-profit fraternal organization dedicated to the 

study and preservation of Western heritage.  We research sites of historical interest (though 

perhaps not of interest to mainstream historians) and erect plaques to mark them.  We partner 

with other Historical societies and/or will go it alone to plaque sites.  ECV has erected many 

hundred historical markers and plaques to commemorate sites, people and events that played a 

role in our western heritage but might otherwise be lost or forgotten.  The work is, of course, 

voluntary and we seek absolutely no monetary reward for our work and we generally fund the 

plaques to be erected. 

We have plaqued the gold mines at Victor; the City Hall, Elks Lodge and cemetery in Victor;  

Navajo Hogan's, the Rock Island Interurban Roundhouse in Colorado Springs; the Steam Plant, 

Victoria Tavern, Jackson Hotel in Salida; Crown Point cemetery in grand Junction, and the 

Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant near Boulder to just name a few. 

ECV is also involved in community projects and raise money for educational scholarships. 

The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV) is a fraternal organization 

dedicated to the study and preservation of Western heritage, especially the history of the Mother 

Lode and gold mining regions of the area. The fraternity is not sure if it is a "historical drinking 

society" or a "drinking historical society." There are chapters in California, Arizona, Colorado, 

Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.  Members call themselves 

"Clampers." The organization's name is in Dog Latin, and has no known meaning; even the 

spelling is disputed, sometimes appearing as "Clampus", "Clampsus", or "Clampsis". The motto 

of the Order, Credo Quia Absurdum, is generally understood as meaning "I believe it because it 

is absurd."; the proper Latin quotation Credo quia absurdum est, is from the Christian apologist 

Tertullian (140-230), who rejected rationalism and accepted a Gospel which addressed itself to 

the "non-rational levels of perception." 

History 

The history of the organization is steeped in mythology. History shows that the organization was 

brought to the United States in 1845 in Lewisport, Virginia, now West Union, West Virginia, 

when tavern and stable owner Ephraim Bee was given a commission from the Emperor of China 

to "extend the work and influence of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus." 

Bee claimed to have received his commission from Caleb Cushing, the American minister to 

China. West Union has a monument to Ephraim Bee on the site of the old "Beehive" Tavern, 

where the RailTrail comes through. The original tavern, the "Bee Hive", was destroyed in the 

late 1800s during a flood. 

At the age of 60, he was a Captain of the Doddridge County Militia, which protected the area 

from roving Confederate forces, horse thieves & outlaws. The Militia also had a part in the 

Underground Railroad in Doddridge County. They were hidden in hidden cellars of homes and 

also in Jaco Cave. Ephraim Bee played his greatest joke on his local West Virginian neighbors. 

Occasionally, the entire town was invited to a great party. After the Civil War, it was discovered 

that Jaco Cave was a holding area for the runaway slaves. When the cave was full, E. Bee gave a 

party to keep all busy while that group of people were moved further north to the next stop. 

Bee felt that an organization was needed which was less exclusive than the other organizations of 

the day, such as the Masons, Elks and Odd Fellows. In addition, nativism was rising in the 

United States, as evidenced by such political organizations as the Know-Nothing Party. Bee 

opened membership in ECV to any "upstanding" man who had come of age. It is known that 

there were E Clampus Vitus chapters in Bedford, Pennsylvania; Metropolis, Illinois; Bowling 

Green, Missouri; and Dahlonega, Georgia. (It has been rumored that ECV brethren within the 

U.S. Army even attempted to bring the order as far south as Mexico City following the Mexican-

American War as a gesture of brotherhood and reconciliation, but all record has vanished of the 

well-intentioned Chapultepec chapter.) 

The organization is said to have been taken to California by an ECV member named Joe 

Zumwalt, who first heard of it in Missouri. Zumwalt opened an ECV lodge in Mokelumne Hill in 

1851, when Mokelumne Hill Lodge No. 1001 was established. There are arguments that previous 

lodges had been founded in Hangtown, Downieville and Sierra City, but none of those became 

permanent. 

ECV flourished, in part, as the result of the miners' reaction to the "established" organizations 

such as the Masons and Odd Fellows. Those groups had come to the mining country prior to 

ECV, and when ECV appeared, the older, more established groups looked down upon the more 

rowdy nature of E Clampus Vitus. ECV, on the other hand, made fun of the stuffed shirts of the 

Masons: they made great fun of the sashes and ceremonial attire of the "upscale" fraternities, and 

began dressing in red shirts and pinning on badges made of cut-out tin can lids. This practice, 

called "wearing the tin," continues to this day, although the badges are frequently professionally 

made. Members commonly dress in a red shirt, black hat and Levi's jeans. ECV titles reflected 

the tongue-in-cheek nature of the organization. Officials were called "Noble Grand Humbug," 

"Roisterous Iscutis," "Grand Imperturbable Hangman," "Clamps Vitrix," and "Royal Gyascutis." 

All members are officers and all officers, the organization professes, are of equal indignity. 

Clamper meetings were held in the Hall of Comparative Ovations, generally the back room of a 

saloon. Some chapters even built their own Halls of Comparative Ovations. One still stands in 

Murphys. The Clamper flag was a hoop skirt, with the words "This is the flag we fight under." 

Meetings were held "at any time before or after a full moon." New members were called "Poor 

Blind Candidates." They were required to present a poke of gold dust, although the value of the 

poke was left to the discretion of the brotherhood, and was frequently waived entirely if the 

prospective member could not afford it. 

Despite the humor and rowdiness of E Clampus Vitus, the members do take their brotherhood 

seriously. When a member became sick or injured, the group would collect food or money to 

help him. They frequently trekked through the vastness of the Sierra Nevada to reach lonely 

miners who otherwise would have had no Christmas celebration. The society was also careful to 

assist the widows and orphans of fallen members. 

Al Packer Chapter #100, Colorado Clampers at a Plaquing in Ridgway, Colorado, showing their colors, tin 

and camaraderie. It is not uncommon for clampers to share the good news of ECV while traveling which 

has led to growth throughout its history. 

At the ECV's peak, around 1870, so many miners were members that many mining camps shut 

down during ECV celebrations (some mining towns had two chapters). At one point, Lord Sholto 

Douglas, a British peer leading a troupe of actors in Marysville, was so down heartened by the 

lack of ticket sales that he had determined to leave town. When a local Clamper found out that 

the troupe was having trouble, Lord Douglas was immediately initiated into ECV, and the 

brothers bought enough tickets to fill the local theater. A 20th century chapter of the ECV was 

named for Lord Douglas LSD in honor of this event. Mark Twain was a member, and it was 

while attending an ECV meeting that he heard the story which he wrote as The Celebrated 

Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. 

Members of note included Adam, the first "Clampatriarch"; Philip D. Armour, the meat packer; 

John Mohler Studebaker, the automobile manufacturer; Gene Autry "The Singing Cowboy" and 

owner of the California Angels baseball team; and John Hume, a California state assemblyman. 

ECV also claims Ulysses S. Grant, J. Pierpont Morgan, Horace Greeley, and Horatio Alger as 

members, but claims have also been made to Solomon, Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, 

Henry VIII of England, Sir Francis Drake, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ronald 

Reagan, and of course, His Imperial Majesty Joshua A. Norton, "Emperor of these United States 

and Protector of Mexico". These fanciful claims show ECV's propensity for not taking much of 

anything particularly seriously, least of all itself. 

There is evidence to support the ECV claim to Ulysses S. Grant. One of the early capitals of 

California was Benicia. At the close of the War with Mexico, Lt. William Tecumseh Sherman 

was Adjutant to Col. Richard Barnes Mason at the time of the gold discovery at Sutter's Mill. 

Upon Sherman's retirement in 1853, his replacement at the Benicia Arsenal was Lt. Ulysses S. 

Grant, who spent 30 days in the Arsenal Guardhouse for being drunk on duty and firing his 

cannons at the Martinez shoreline. Considering Benicia's position as the major inland Army post 

and transport hub to the valley, both Grant's and the Brotherhood's affinity for strong drink and 

the early spread of the Brotherhood through Northern California, it is entirely possible that Grant 

was inducted into the Organization.   

Reestablishment 

As the mining industry faded towards the end of the 19th century, ECV started to fade as well. It 

was revitalized in 1931 by San Francisco historian Carl Wheat and his friends G. Ezra Dane and 

Leon O. Whitsell. They were contacted by one of the last surviving members of the original 

ECV, who passed on all that he could remember of the organization's rites and legends. The 

three founded a new chapter, Yerba Buena Number 1, or the "Capitulus Redivivus." Wheat 

described E Clampus Vitus as "the comic strip on the page of California history." 

New chapters sprang up in Los Angeles (Platrix Chapter #2) and other major cities in California, 

and were numbered sequentially. However, once Lodge 10 was established in 1936, members 

pointed out that it was illogical for such a rowdy organization to be so neat in its numbering 

scheme, and so some creativity was developed in the numbering. The "Pair-o-Dice" chapter in 

Paradise, for example, is Lodge No. 7-11. The de la Guerra y Pacheco chapter, halfway between 

Lodge Number 1 in San Francisco and Lodge Number 2 in Los Angeles, is Lodge Number 1.5. 

There were chapters in British Columbia and Hawaii, but they no longer exist. 

In 1937 a plaque appeared in Northern California purporting to have been made by Sir Francis 

Drake during his voyage of discovery in which it was stated that he had claimed all of California 

for England, and that he had the authority of the claim by having been ceded the land by the local 

Miwok Indians. The man who was chief of the Miwoks in 1937, William Fuller, was a member 

of E Clampus Vitus. During an ECV meeting, he revoked the cession of land to England, and 

ceded it all to the United States government. The so-called Drake's Plate of Brass was accepted 

as authentic for forty years, yet was in actuality a hoax initiated by Dane that got out of control. 

It is now thought that the Fuller ceremony was part of an effort for the perpetrators to tip off the 

plate's finders as to its true origins. 

The current ECV

There are currently 41 ECV chapters in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, 

Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and Washington, as well as an offshore chapter (the Floating Whang 

chapter), an online chapter (the Cyber Whang chapter), and 2 more proposed chapters. 

Al Packer Chapter 100, Colorado, was chartered in 2000 — the year 6005 on ECV's 

idiosyncratic calendar. This chapter has four encampments statewide for members to get together 

and socialize, research historical venues and erect plaques. 

Doc Maynard Chapter #54-40 in Washington State was chartered in 2006, the year 6011 in 

Clamper years, signifying the first Chapter in the Pacific Northwest. 

Snake River Chapter #1811 (Idaho) and Umpqua Joe Chapter #1859 (Oregon) are the most 

recently chartered, changing their status from "Outpost" to "Chapter" in May 2010, the year 6015 

in Clamper years. 

The organization has raised historical plaques in many places throughout the West, (often those 

sites such as bordellos and saloons are overlooked by more traditional historical societies), with a 

traditional "Doin's," or party, after each plaque dedication.