Project Scroll Research Note 2026-23
E Clampus Vitus at Peru, Illinois, in 1850, in two Ohio villages, and at Port Douglas, British Columbia, in 1862: three new records of the order before the California revival
Summary
Three records widen the map of E Clampus Vitus before its California revival of 1931. On 11 May 1850 the Ottawa Free Trader of Ottawa, Illinois, quoting the Peru Telegraph, reported that “Quite a number of brethren (!) and members in good standing, of the ancient order of Old Eclampsis Vitus passed through Peru on Thursday last,” and turned the joke on the Telegraph’s editor, ’Squire Holbrook, “the very personification of Old Eclampsis himself.” It is the order’s earliest known appearance in northern Illinois and the earliest record yet found spelling the name “Eclampsis.” Two Ohio county histories remember lodges of their own: at Zanesfield, Logan County, “the Eclampus Vitus, whose history was as brief as its initiatory ceremony was unique” (1880), and at Woodstock, Champaign County, where the first lodge organized was “the ‘E Clampus Vitus’ which prospered for a few years” (1907). And on 11 February 1862 the British Colonist of Victoria reported that “A lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E. Clampsus Vitus has been organised at Port Douglas, B. C.,” where “Members are initiated nightly”: the order’s first known record outside the United States, on the road to the Cariboo gold fields.
The record
Ottawa Free Trader (Ottawa, Illinois), 11 May 1850, p. 3, col. 1, quoting the Peru Telegraph
“Quite a number of brethren (!) and members in good standing, of the ancient order of Old Eclampsis Vitus passed through Peru on Thursday last. Their condition was tolerably good.”
Library of Congress, Chronicling America · See the record
W. H. Perrin and J. H. Battle, History of Logan County and Ohio (Chicago, 1880), p. 419, Zanesfield
“the Eclampus Vitus, whose history was as brief as its initiatory ceremony was unique”
Internet Archive · See the record
Joseph Chamberlin and Warren D. Sibley, History of Woodstock (Woodstock, Ohio, 1907), p. 48, “Other Societies”
the first lodge organized was “the ‘E Clampus Vitus’ which prospered for a few years; then the ‘Know Nothings’”
Internet Archive · See the record
The British Colonist (Victoria), 11 February 1862
“A lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E. Clampsus Vitus has been organised at Port Douglas, B. C. Members are initiated nightly, and the lodge is in a flourishing condition.”
University of Victoria, via the Internet Archive · See the record
What it changes
The order is placed in northern Illinois by May 1850, a new spelling of its name (“Eclampsis”) is dated, Ohio joins the states where lodges of the old order were remembered, and the order is shown across the border in British Columbia in 1862, three years after the Fraser River rush and a decade after it reached California.
Limits
The Peru report is known through the Free Trader’s quotation of the Telegraph, and its tone is a joke between rival editors. The two Ohio accounts are local histories written decades later, and neither gives a year for its lodge. The Port Douglas report is a single paragraph in the Victoria paper.
What we searched before calling it new
Chronicling America, every spelling of the order’s name state by state for 1846–1852 (about 2,000 pages screened); the Internet Archive’s full text of county histories, 1800–1935; Hoosier State Chronicles, 1838–1855; the order’s histories (Then and Now, 1966; Credo quia absurdum, 1949; Wilson, 1995). We found none of the three records cited in them.
Our standard for calling a finding new is set out in How we research, and how we weigh each kind of record in Scrollsigns.
“New” means new to print as far as we can tell. If you know of an earlier publication, tell us and we will credit it here and raise the note’s version.
Project Scroll is independent research. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by E Clampus Vitus, Inc. or any of its chapters, and it does not speak for the order. E Clampus Vitus®, ECV® and Clampers® are registered trademarks of E Clampus Vitus, Inc., as are its designs of a kicking jackass, of a miner and a braying jackass with the motto Per caritate viduaribus orphanibusque sed prime viduaribus, and of a coat of arms with the banners “Satisfactory” and Credo quia absurdum. The order’s names, mottoes, emblems, plaques and publications are named or quoted here only to identify the order and report its history; this site sells nothing, all rights in them remain with the order and its chapters, and nothing on this site is a product or publication of the order. Book covers and plaques are shown only to identify the works and places discussed. Help from individual members is credited to them personally and is not an endorsement by the order.
Works cited
Earlier work, catalogues and databases named in this note, besides the records quoted above.
- E Clampus Vitus, E Clampus Vitus: Then and Now, 1852–1966 (Stockton, 1966). https://ecv13.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Then_and_Now_1966.pdf
The full story
The finding is set out in context, with the rest of its sources, in A lodge of E Clampus Vitus, in Cassopolis, in 1846. In the discoveries register:
How to cite this note
Michael Urbanski, “E Clampus Vitus at Peru, Illinois, in 1850, in two Ohio villages, and at Port Douglas, British Columbia, in 1862: three new records of the order before the California revival,” Project Scroll Research Note 2026-23, version 1 (4 November 2026), https://projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-23/.
BibTeX
@techreport{urbanski202623,
author = {Urbanski, Michael},
orcid = {0009-0006-8183-5828},
title = {{E Clampus Vitus at Peru, Illinois, in 1850, in two Ohio villages, and at Port Douglas, British Columbia, in 1862: three new records of the order before the California revival}},
institution = {Project Scroll},
type = {Project Scroll Research Note},
number = {2026-23},
year = {2026},
month = {nov},
url = {https://projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-23/},
note = {Version 1}
}