Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 029-2 - April 1975 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-01-26 12:18:06 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:05:34 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:05:34

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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BUILDING THE NARROW GAUGE MOMUMENT AT CLAMPER SQUARE, NEVADA CITY. HYDRAULIC “oe GIANT ' AT MALAKOFF ATE PARK. STATE members had previously joined the Order in Missouri, Alabama, Georgia and other states both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line. A book of reminiscences of the early days in Pennsylvania published in 1890 by Judge William M. Hall in Harrisburg, tells how in 1847, ‘‘a new secret society called Ecciampis Vitus’’ was instituted in the Village of Bedford by a traveling drummer who came ‘‘from the West.’’ All trails of research into th hilarious history of F Clampus Vitus, however, lead eventually back to ons Ephraim Bee, blacksmith, raconteur. practical joker and keeper of a tavern at Meat House Fork of Middle Island Creek near the present town of West Union, Doddridge County, West Virginia. According to Boyd R. Stutler writing in The West Virginia Review, August 1931, Bee’s greatest (and most durable) joke was the conception and organization of the Ancient Order of E Clampus Vitus. His rich imagination seized upon a significant contemporary news event and simply ran wild. In 1843 President Tyler appointed Massachusetts statesman Caleb Cushing United States Commissioner to open diplomatic relations with the still mysterious Celestial Kingdom of China. After two years in the Orient, Cushing was successful and returned home in 1845 amid much public interest. Whereupon Squire Ephraim Bee made the well timed announcement ‘‘that the Emperor of China, who was the Grand Hotetehote of the Order, had selected a descendant of the Great Confucius to bring to him a commission as Grand Gyascutis, authorizing him to extend the work and influence of the very ancient order of E Clampus Vitus,’’ thereby adding fraternal bonds to the diplomatic ties that would link the Chinese with the American people. The Emperor’s emissary also instructed Bee in the rules, secrets, and sacred mysteries and communicated to him the grip, signs and password of the Order. With evangelical zeal the newly ordained missionary shared his revelations with a selected few of his cronies oe a acs : bs Wa eg aor oan we as da KINGS SALOON BUILT BY CLAMPERS AT MALAKOFF STATE PARK. who instantly grasped the humor of the situation and began proselytization of both friend and neighbor. From West Virginia (then still part of Virginia) the Order crept into the surrounding states of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio, and eventually to Pike County, Missouri where it began the long overland trip to California in custody of Joseph H. Zumwalt. In his saddle bags emigrant Zumwalt carried copies of tHe ancient ritual and other important ‘‘Clamper’’ documents purchased from a ‘‘brother’’ printerin the offices of the Bowling Green Journal. The acquisition of these papers left an indelible mark on the social history of the great gold rush. E Clampus Vitus was easily the most democratic secret society then in existence. Some of its rules proclaimed that every man who gained membership immediately became an ‘‘officer of equal indignity’’ and was installed as ‘‘chairman of all committees.’? A somewhat loose 20th century translation of E Clampus Vitus taken from both the Latin and Greek by the late researchers and scholars Carl I, Wheat, George Ezra Dane and Leon O. Whitsell, lends much credence to the fellowship inherent in the name“*(together) out of darkness we march into the light of life.’”’ Joe Zumwalt arrived in California in 1849 where he first sought to perpetrate the E Clampus Vitus hoax on the unsuspecting miners of Hangtown whose camp was named for the speed with which lynch-justice was meted out to evildoers. Hangtown (now Placerville) is a few miles south of Sutter’s Mill at Coloma where a year before James W. Marshall found his history altering gold flakes. 9,