Life in Lucas County was considerably more social --- and ceremonial --- for almost everyone as the 19th century turned toward the 20th --- a series of face-to-face encounters that would exhaust those of us in the 21st more accustomed to vicarious interaction with via solitary manipulation of digital devices.
There were family events, school events, church events, military veteran events, volunteer firefighter events and --- for many if not most --- lodge events. Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and their auxiliaries all flourished, each with elaborate rituals and gathering places.
A new order was organized in Chariton during early summer, 1897 --- Manchester Camp 120, Woodmen of the World. These are their ceremonial ribbons --- from the Lucas County Historical Society collection. Camp officials wore those at the top here on formal occasions, identifying themselves by position; all members wore the following reversible ribbons, bright and bunting-bedecked on one side, suitable for parades, and black on the other, worn when members attended funerals of comrades as a unit or gathered graveside in a cemetery to dedicate a Woodmen of the World tombstone.
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Organized during 1890 in Omaha, Woodmen of the World was a fraternal benefit society that sold both life insurance and social opportunities --- policy holders were organized into "camps" that operated much like other lodgess with regular meetings and elaborate rituals. One of the principal selling points of the W.O.W. was the fact that death benefits included, from 1890 until the mid-1920s when the cost became prohibative, a tombstone.
Here's a report from The Chariton Herald of June 17, 1897, that describes the organization of Manchester Camp No. 120:
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Mr. A. L. Manchester, who has been in Chariton several weeks for the purpose of organizing a new order, the "Woodmen of the World," completed his labors last Friday, leaving the same day for Hannibal, Missouri, to take up work. The local lodge was named Manchester Camp, Woodmen of the World, in honor of the organizer.
The meetings are to be held in the A.O.U.W. (Ancient Order of United Workmen) hall on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month.
The order is a fraternal beneficiary order. Acceptable male applicants between the ages of 18 and 52 are eligible. Payments of assessments and dues are made monthly and cease at the end of from 20 to 30 years, according to the age at entry. A $100 monument is placed at the grave of every deceased member, in addition to the full payment of the certificate. A charity fund is provided for the relief of sick and indigent members.
The local officiary is as follows: Council Commander, F.R. Crocker; Advisor Lieutenant, Eli Manning; Banker, A.L. Yocom; Clerk, Jay J. Smyth; Escort, J.H. Carroll; Watchman, August Lindquist; Sentry, W.S. Shimp; Physician, A.L. Yocom; Managers, W.S. Long, Eli Manning, Leroy Larimer.
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Woodmen of the World remains in business, still headquartered in Omaha, but Manchester Camp 120 faltered and then vanished entirely during the early 1930s.
The first Manchester Camp member to die and thereby collect his benefits was John W. Shelton, shot to death at age 33 in a hunting accident just west of Chariton by his friend, Ed Smoot, on Nov. 29, 1900.
On Memorial Day, 1901, some 500 Woodmen of the World from across southern Iowa gathered in the Chariton Cemetery to unveil the first of the order's tombstones erected in the cemetery--- and in the region.
That mighty chunk of granite looks as good now as it did then, emblazoned with the Woodmen seal and its motto: "Dum Tacet Clamat," Though silent, he speaks.
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