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The Loyal Order of Moose is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888, with nearly 1 million men in roughly 2,400 Lodges, in all 50 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces as well as Bermuda; along with its female auxiliary, Women of the Moose with more than 400,000 members in roughly 1,600 Chapters in the same areas and the Loyal Order of Moose in Britain these organizations make up the Moose International. It is headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois. Moose International supports the operation of Mooseheart Child City & School, a community for children and teens in need, located west of Chicago; and Moosehaven, a retirement community for its members near Jacksonville, Florida. Also, Moose Lodges and Chapters conduct approximately $75 million worth of community service (counting monetary donations and volunteer hours worked) annually. Additionally, the Moose organization conducts numerous sports and recreational programs, in local Lodge/Chapter facilities called either Moose Family Centers or Activity Centers, in the majority of 44 State and Provincial Associations, and on a fraternity-wide basis. == History == The Loyal Order of Moose was founded in Louisville, Kentucky, in the spring of 1888 by Dr. John Henry Wilson. Originally intended purely as a men's social club, lodges were soon founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri and Crawfordsville and Frankfort, Indiana. The early order was not prosperous. Dr. Wilson himself was dissatisfied and left the order of the Moose before the turn of the century.〔(Our History )〕 When Albert C. Stevens was compiling his ''Cyclopedia of Fraternities'' in the late 1890s he was unable to ascertain whether it was still in existence.〔Stevens, Albert Clark, 1854- ''The Cyclopædia of Fraternities: A Compilation of Existing Authentic Information and the Results of Original Investigation as to More than Six Hundred Secret Societies in the United States'' (New York: Hamilton Printing and Publishing Company), 1899, p.274〕 In the fall of 1906 the Order only had the two Indiana lodges remaining. On October 27 of that year James J. Davis became the 247th member of the Order.〔 Davis was a Welsh immigrant who had come to the US as a youth and worked as an iron puddler in the steel mills of Pennsylvania, and an active labor organizer (he later became Secretary of Labor in the Harding administration).〔Schmidt, Alvin J. ''Fraternal Organizations'' Westport, Connecticut; Greenwood Press p.220〕 He saw the Order as a way to provide a social safety net for a working class membership, using a low annual membership fee of $10–$15.〔 After giving a rousing address to the seven delegates of the 1906 Moose national convention, he was appointed "Supreme Organizer" of the Order.〔Whalen, William J. ''Secret Organizations'' Milwaukee; Bruce Publishing Co. 1966; Second printing 1967 p.105〕 Davis and a group of organizers set out to recruit members and establish lodges throughout the US and Canada. He was quite successful and the Order grew to nearly half a million members in 1,000 lodges by 1912.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Loyal Order of Moose」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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