LEROYPENNYSAVER&NEWS -NOVEMBER 23, 2014
LeRoyMoose Club - ACentury Of Giving
byLynneBelluscio
The LeRoy Moose Club was
founded in1914,whenfiftymen
met in the meeting room on the
secondfloor ofMaloneyHall on
the corner onBankStreet.
Theoriginof theLoyalOrder
ofMoose goes back to 1888 in
Louisville, Kentucky when Dr.
John Henry Wilson founded a
men’s social club. Lodgeswere
soon founded in Cincinnati,
St. Louis and Crawfordsville
and Frankfort in Indiana. But it
didn’t seem to catch on, and in
the fallof1906,only the Indiana
lodges remained.
Then in October of that year,
James J. Davis became a mem-
ber of the Order. Davis was an
interestingman. HewasaWelsh
immigrant who worked in the
steel mills of Pennsylvania and
becameanactive labororganizer.
Hesaw theOrderof theMooseas
a way to provide a social safety
net for the working class. He
decided to recruit members and
establish lodges throughout the
UnitedStates andCanada.
At the 1911 Convention in
Detroit,Davis suggested that the
Loyal Order of Moose acquire
property for a school that would
provideschoolingandvocational
training for orphans. The school
would be built west of Chicago
and would become known as
Mooseheart. The Loyal Order
of Moose assumed the financial
support of the new school.
By 1912, James Davis and a
groupoforganizershad recruited
halfamillionmembersandestab-
lished1,000 lodges in theUnited
States and Canada. LorieMatla,
whohaswrittenabookabout the
LeRoyLodgebelieves that itwas
James Davis whowas in LeRoy
in 1914 at the time the LeRoy
Lodgewas chartered.
(JamesDavis served asUnited
States Secretary of Labor from
1921 to 1930 under Presidents
Harding, Coolidge and Hoover.
He thenwaselected to theUnited
States Senate were he served as
the Pennsylvania Senator from
1930 to 1945. )
TheLeRoyLodgemet invari-
ous locationsaround theVillage,
buteventuallypurchasedproper-
tyonBankStreetwhere thepres-
entbuildingstands.By1947, the
Lodge had 500 members. On
May 11, 1950, theMoose Club
dedicated the Statue of Liberty
to the Boy Scouts. It was one
of 200 that were dedicated in
celebration of the 40th birthday
of theBoyScouts.
Today, about 100 of the stat-
ues remain. The LeRoy Lodge
also supports Moosehaven, a
retirementhome inOrangePark,
Florida. Today, the local lodge
hasover300memberswho raise
money forcommunityactivities.
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