It was over 100 years ago on February 6th, 1898 the Fraternal Order of Eagles was founded by six theater owners sitting on a pile of lumber in Moran's shipyard in Seattle Washington. Competitors in the theater industry, they met to discuss a musicians strike. After deciding what to do on that issue, they decided to bury the hatchet and and form an organization dubbed "The Order of Good Things". 

The first meetings were held on the stages of various local theaters and after the business was settled a keg of beer was rolled out and all enjoyed a few hours of social activities. A few weeks later as their numbers grew they chose the Bald Eagle as their official emblem and changed the name to "The Fraternal Order of Eagles." The membership formed a Grand Aerie in April 1898, secured a charter, drew up a constitution and by-laws and elected it's first president, John Cort. 

Most of the first Eagle members were connected with the theatre, actors, stagehands, playwrights, etc., and as they went on tour they carried the story of the new order with them across the United States and Canada. This is the reason the Eagles grew so quickly and all the way across the country. Many cities in the east have low aerie numbers such as New York #40, Philadelphia #42 and Buffalo #46.

The idea spread like wildfire. The order was unique in it's concept of brotherhood and it's early success has been attributed to it's establishment of a sick and funeral benefit (no Eagle was ever buried in a "Potter's Field"), along with provisions for an Aerie physician and other "fringe benefits", unknown in other fraternal organizations up to that time.

As the Eagles grew, so did its responsibilities to it's members. Its first Constitution and By-Laws were merely copied from those previously used by a defunct fraternal organization and it took later members like Frank Hering - the "Father of Mothers Day," and long time editor of the national Eagle Publication - to revise the By-Laws and make them unique from any other organization.

Hering, a member of South Bend Aerie No. 435, who had been Notre Dame's first Athletic Director and a great football quarterback and baseball player, wrote the order's funeral service. When he died in 1943 his stirring words were recited over his own body by Grand Worthy President Lester Loble. It was men like Hering who kept the eagles from going under during the difficult days at the turn of the century and built the solid foundation it rests on today.

Over the years, the Eagles have fought and won many bitter battles for a Workman's Compensation Act, Mothers and Old Age pensions, Social Security laws and "Jobs After 40" and are still fighting to liberalize present social benefits along with combating vicious diseases plaguing mankind through their sponsorship of the Art Ehrmann Cancer Fund, Max Bear Heart Fund, Jimmy Durante Children's Fund, "Doc" Dunlap Kidney Fund and the Diabetes Fund.

Many great social and political leaders have belonged to the Eagles. President Theodore Roosevelt was one of the many who joined and praised the order for its humanitarian accomplishments, as did a later Roosevelt - Franklin D. President Harry S. Truman often reiterated that the Eagles were his type of organization - one founded by, and for the common man.

As you learn about our history, you will see we are just like you.  Proud, Caring, People Helping People, that understand that the needs of the many will always outweigh the needs of the few.

The 1951 Grand Aerie Convention was a watershed event in the history of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. At that international convention, held August 8-12 in Rochester, New York, an amendment to the Grand Aerie Laws was unanimously passed establishing a Grand Auxiliary.

It was what Past Grand Worthy President Lester Loble, who was instrumental in the institution of the Grand Auxiliary, called “a great moment in the history of the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.”

To be sure, Eagles Auxiliaries existed long before there was a Grand Auxiliary. The first one, at Pittsburgh, Kansas, came into being on March 24, 1927, and just three days later the second Auxiliary was instituted at Frontenac, Kansas.

By March, 1951, there were 965 local Auxiliaries boasting a combined total of approximately 130,000 members.

“The progress made in the last 24 years,” said Mrs. Eagle magazine, which had been launched in 1948, “is a solid foundation on which Eagle Auxiliaries must continue to build.”

The building was done quickly and solidly. By late ‘51, there were 22 state and provincial Auxiliaries in operation, and the time was ripe for an international governing body for the distaff side of Eagledom.

At the 53rd Grand Aerie Convention in Rochester, matters got underway at a Regional Membership Department Banquet at the Seneca Hotel. In his greetings, printed in the banquet program, Grand Aerie Director M.L. Brown set the stage for the historic occasion with these words:

“It is especially fitting that the F.O.E. Encourage the upbuilding of the Ladies’ Auxiliaries of our Order. The growth of the Ladies’ Auxiliaries is the astonishment of the fraternal world. We welcome the ladies and congratulate you on your outstanding success and predict great things for your future.”

At that convention, state and provincial madam presidents attended an all-day forum. Included were Kay Guy of Pennsylvania, Alta Browning of Ohio, Carol Bennett of California, Mary Dunn of Toronto, Ontario; Phyllis Wright of Washington, and Mrs. Eagle magazine editor Georgia Walker.

Following the forum, the abovenamed Sisters were escorted into the Grand Aerie session and presented to the assembly. Lester Loble, who spearheaded the drafting of the legislation establishing the Grand Auxiliary, introduced Alta Browning. According to the lead story int he October, 1951 issue of Mrs. Eagle, “...Pride shone on every woman’s face as she said, in part: ‘The Ladies’ Auxiliaries of this Fraternity thank you, our Brothers, for everything that you have done for us through the years. We thank you, who are the representatives of the Grand Aerie, for making it possible for us to realize, in the near future, one of our fondest dreams. We thank those delegates way back in 1926 for recognizing our Ladies’ Auxiliaries. And then we thank the delegates again a few years ago who made our State Auxiliaries possible.

“We are very proud of the part that we have been able to play in this Fraternity, and I am happy to pledge for our Ladies’ Auxiliaries our support in all the programs of the future that you may care to advance.”

It was, wrote Auxiliarian Gertrude M. Puelicher, “truly a New Era for the women of Eagledom.”

At the 1952 Grand Aerie Convention in Philadelphia, 1,100 Eagle Sisters from virtually every American state and Canadian province watched with tremendous awe and pride as Lester Loble was escorted to the platform in the Crystal Ballroom of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel to officially institute the Grand Auxiliary whose roots had been set down the year before.

“My friends,” said Loble, “here in the City of Brotherly Love, in the year 1952, you women of Eagledom are gathered upon an extraordinary occasion. Today is as historic as February 6, 1898, when the Fraternal Order of Eagles came into being. From that humble beginning, in a little more than half a century, that meeting of six men in the Moran shipyards has become the fastest-growing fraternal order in the world, a humanitarian and patriotic organization that has no equal.

“Today, the counterpart of that organization is born: the Ladies’ Grand Auxiliary of the F.O.E. May its future be as illustrious as the parent organization from which it derives its being.”

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN AUXILIARY HISTORY

1926: Grand Worthy President Charles C. Guenther issues Official Circular seeking action in regard to the organization of Ladies Auxiliaries in the F.O.E.

March 24, 1927: Pittsburgh, Kansas, is the site of the first Ladies Auxiliary institution. Frontenac, Kansas, follows three days later.

March 29, 1927: Davenport, Iowa Auxiliary 235 is instituted. Still going strong, Davenport is the longest-surviving Auxiliary.

April 25, 1948: The first State/Provincial Auxiliaries in Montana and Ohio are instituted on the same day.

August 8-12: Delegates to the 53rd Grand Aerie Convention in Rochester, New York, approve establishment of the Grand Auxiliary.

August 19, 1951: Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt becomes the first woman to receive a life membership in the Ladies’ Auxiliary in a special presentation at Hyde Park, New York.

August, 1952: The Grand Auxiliary is officially instituted in Philadelphia. Kay Guy of Irwin, Pennsylvania, is charter Grand Madam President.