Richmond Area Council, Richmond, Virginia formed Pamunkey Lodge 3 on November 25th, 1919. Pamunkey Lodge disbanded in the 1920s and lost its charter after not paying dues. In 1945 Richmond Area Council (now known as Heart of Virginia Council) revived the OA. The Council retained its original charter number and became Nawakwa Lodge.
Ranachqua Lodge 4 of The Bronx, New York formed Wimachtendienk’s fourth lodge on August 1, 1920. The lodge was founded by William A. Stumpp, who served as their first lodge chief, a position that he held for mor
e than two decades.
William A. Stumpp was always called “Chief”. Chief Stumpp was a long serving Scout Executive in the Greater New York Councils for The Bronx. He also was Camp Director at Camp Ranachqua, a camp along Kanawaukee Lakes. From that position Chief Stumpp initiated many lodges into Wimachtendienk including founding the Order's fourth lodge, Ranachqua Lodge, in 1920 to serve his own council. Stumpp is credited with starting more lodges than any other Arrowman by spreading the word to the camps around Kanawaukee Lake. Among the lodges Stumpp is credited with starting are Cowaw, Wawonaissa, Pamrapaugh, Chappegat and Shu Shu Gah lodges.
In 1923 Stumpp was elected the third Grand Lodge Scribe. During his term in 1924 he created what is known today as the National Bulletin. On October 31, 1924 Stumpp became the 31st Third Degree (Vigil) honor member. Stumpp’s Vigil name meant “Singing One”. In 1926 Stumpp became the sixth Grand Lodge Chieftain of Wimachtendienk.
While speculation has often been that Stumpp was called “Chief” because he had been a Grand Lodge Chieftain, or long serving Scout Executive or Camp Director, but none of these was the reason. Chief Stumpp was called “Chief” because he was, and always will be, the longest serving lodge chief in the Order’s history. Stumpp became the first chief of Ranachqua Lodge in 1920 when the lodge was formed. That was the custom of the day that the Scout Executive as Supreme Chief of the Fire was often the chief of the lodge. However, long after Scout Executives gave up the position and let other, typically young men, serve as lodge chief, Stumpp continued holding that office. Stumpp finally stepped down as lodge chief of Ranachqua Lodge in 1949 after serving for 29 years. Stumpp was forced to step down after the OA became an official BSA program and adults could no longer serve as lodge officers.
Stumpp was acknowledged for his years of service in 1940 at the National Meeting when he was awarded one of the inaugural 11 Distinguished Service Awards. His certificate recognized Stumpp for his “wise discretion” and “forceful perseverance.”
To the best of our knowledge the Wimachtendienk did not issue membership cards prior to the formation of the Grand Lodge in 1921. However, there is an example of a receipt for dues paid that dates back to 1918-19.
In 1921, the year the Grand Lodge was formed, Unami Lodge issued a beautiful membership card solely for its own members. The card had membership information on the front side and a picture of the lodge that was built on Treasure Island on the reverse. This 1921 membership card is the earliest known local lodge or Grand Lodge issue.
Unami Lodge continued their tradition of issuing their own membership card for many years. Unami was not the only local lodge that maintained their own membership cards throughout the history of the Wimachtendienk/Grand Lodge/National – Order of the Arrow.
Umpah Lodge of Uniontown City Council, Pennsylvania became the Wimachtendienk’s sixth lodge on June 7, 1921. Umpah disbanded in 1925 and formed a non-Wimachtendienk honor society. In 1939 the Order would return to the area with a new name, Wagion Lodge 6.
In August of 1921, Pamrapaugh Lodge of Bayonne, New Jersey formed. Due to a clerical record-keeping error when the lodges were officially and retroactively numbered in 1926, Pamrapaugh Lodge was relegated to lodge number 14 instead of their rightful placement of number, 10.
On September 17, 1921, Wawonaissa Lodge of Fanwood, New Jersey, Central Union Council, became the Order’s eleventh lodge. Due to a clerical error this lodge was given the number ten. In 1922 the council was absorbed into a neighboring council and the lodge disbanded.
The first eleven lodges were considered the “Charter” Lodges of the Wimachtendienk. All other lodges since have been required to submit a request for charter from the Grand Lodge. Wimachtendienk did form at other Scout camps prior to the first Grand Lodge Meeting. The identities of these lodges were unknown to the Charter Lodges. When the first Grand Lodge Meeting was held in October 1921, it was stated that it was attended by 8 of the eleven known lodges.
Those eleven lodges were:
A requirement from the beginning has been that each lodge shall have a totem. Totems would later become a required element for insignia. While today’s lodge sometimes issue patches without their lodge totem on them, it is not the standard practice and it was virtually unheard of pre-1970. At the first ceremony on July 16, 1915 both Goodman and Edson wore tortoise shaped totems on their ceremonial robes. The 1916 Wimachtendienk Constitution specified the tortoise as their totem.
During the Treasure Island camping season in 1915, there were no provisions for an ordeal of any type. Inductees were selected publicly in front of the camp and inducted into membership during the rituals each Friday evening.
Following the meeting at Camp Morrell in November 1915, work was done under the leadership of William Spaeth, chairman of the Ceremonies Committee, to develop and write the First Degree ceremony with an ordeal included. The work of the Ceremonies Committee was accepted in 1916 at the June meeting.
During the 1916 Treasure Island summer camp season candidates for the Order spent Thursday night sleeping alone under the open sky and then their ordeal was carried out during the day on Friday off island away from camp. The families on the mainland cooperated with the Treasure Island honor camping program and provided work possibilities for the nominees.
While there is not complete detail about the ordeal in 1916, there is a diary that belonged to Edward Frazier Evans that shared his experience.
On a hot night in July 1917, Edward Frazier Evans, was isolated from his fellow scouts and is instructed by the Chief of the Fire to spend the night under the open sky. It was a clear night and scout Evans rested well.
- The contents of Sealed Order 1 are unknown and may have related to the night spent under the stars.
- In the morning Evans opened a sealed envelope – Sealed Order of the ordeal number 2, a set of instructions developed by Horace Kern. Order number two instructs him, among other things, to eat only that food which has been provided to him, and nothing more.
- Sealed Order 3 directs Evans to perform a morning of service, as a good Scout.
- Sealed Order 4 provides for Edward’s lunch break, sets a new location and admonishes him to be faithful.
- Sealed Order 5 instructs Evans to continue his day of service and to be thoughtful and prepared.
- The Chief of the Fire Goodman in both his given and Indian name signs the final Sealed Order of the ordeal, Order 6. Evans reflected on his journey through the ordeal as a staff member acting as a guide brought him into the ceremonial ring. He encountered two black-robed figures – Goodman and Howard Seideman. They led him through three tests – one for Brotherhood, another for Service, and a third for Cheerfulness.
At end of the camping season in 1915, E. Urner Goodman held a vigil on the Devil's Tea Table. There was no real ritual ceremony that accompanied his experience, just Goodman alone with his thoughts through a night that he often referred to as life changing for him.
Carroll A. Edson recalls the following as the events that happened at the end of the Camping Season in 1916:
By the summer of 1916 a basic organization had been set up, and essentially the present First Honor, a First Degree, as we then called it, ritual developed, and the lodge functioned actively at camp.
At the end of that season, there was a universal feeling among the members that Urner’s leadership had been so splendid that they should do something to raise him above the rest.
I was running a Sea Scout camp that summer, but at the end of the season ran up to Treasure Island for a few days. A few of us got together, and planned out what is now the Vigil Honor, but which was then called “Second Degree”. We developed the essentials of the present ordeal and ritual, and put Urner through it.
There is not a consensus among Wimachtendienk historians on whether or not the above quote is accurate and whether or not Goodman kept a second vigil. No ceremony existed for the Second Degree prior to 1916. Whether or not Goodman went through a Second Degree ceremony as defined by the 1916 Constitution of the Wimachtendienk and whom the identities of any ceremonialists were is unknown. If Goodman was not the first Arrowman to go through the actual ceremony for the Second Degree (Vigil) – because he had already kept his vigil prior to the ceremony being written, then Carroll Edson was the first to receive the full ritual in 1917.
3, Ceremonies, Founders, Goodman, OA, Scouting
There are no known examples or photographs of the original black sash with white bar or arrow on it.
The earliest photograph known showing a Wimachtendienk sash being worn is 1919. This photo was taken at Treasure Island at the Council Fire Ring during a Friday evening public First Degree induction ceremony. The photograph is black and white and shows a white background sash with a dark arrow on it. Because the colors red and black have the same value in black and white photography there is no way to know if the arrows on the sashes in this early photo are black or red.
There is one known example of a white sash with a black arrow that originated from Chicago and dates to the early 1920s. This was a locally made sash, likely an early example of Chicago doing its own thing. However there is no evidence that suggests that early Wimachtendienk at Treasure Island ever used a sash other than white with red arrow except for the first black sashes from 1915.
In the 1919 picture the sashes are worn over the right shoulder – First Degree (Pledge) and over the left shoulder – First Degree (full member).
The first mention of the Order’s sash is in the First Degree ceremony ca. (1917-1918). The First Degree ceremony at that time was where Pledges sealed their membership in the Order in a member’s only ceremony held back in the city (Philadelphia) following their public induction at Treasure Island.
The mention is by the Chief; Sakima who states just before the closing ceremony:
… Now, with the assistance of Pow-wow, I shall pin on your breasts the badge of the turtle, with the arrow pointing over your left shoulder, change your arrow bands to the left side, and giving you again the grip of the Order, declare you members of the second degree, and entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities of the Order.
