Riding the Goat
A mechanical goat used in fraternal initiation rites
A conductor spoke. “Worthy warden, at the request of this candidate, we have brought him here to be initiated into the duties peculiar to an Odd Fellow.”
“Advance at your own risk, bold mortal,” the warden replied. “For hardships are before you. Remember that the road to happiness is not a smooth one. It is long and rough, and new dangers meet you at every step. Are you willing to submit to all tests in your search for knowledge?”
So began the initiation rites in the International Order of Odd Fellows - the I.O.O.F.
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of fraternal organizations to our ancestors and/or their peers. The “Golden Age of Fraternalism” is a period that lasted from about 1870-1930. Of the 568 fraternal organizations whose founding dates were documented, 78 were founded before 1880, 124 between 1880 and 1890; 136 between 1890 and 1895, and 230 from 1890 to 1901. In 1900, the two largest were the I.O.O.F., and the Masons. Each had a little over a million members, when the national population was only 76 million. Or one could join the Knights of Pythias, the International Order of Good Templars, Knights of Columbus, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Loyal Order of the Moose, Woodmen of the World, Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange), and so on….and women could join their auxiliaries. Including the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) and college fraternities, even more people belonged to a “secret” society (secret because of their unique initiation rites, handshakes, symbols, passwords, etc).
Even without including the G.A.R. and college fraternities, an estimated 40 to 50 percent of all American men belonged to a fraternal organization. Obviously, they were meeting a need.
One reason they were so popular – and so important – in this time of great change in American society was that they offered stability and belonging. As one scholar said, in an era of industrialization and urbanization, through fraternal organizations, “American workers shaped a collectivist counter-culture in the midst of the growing factory system.” Additionally, they offered an alternative to what a historian called “the poor man’s club” – the saloon. In a state like Kansas, in which some lands opened for settlement only in 1879, everyone was from somewhere else, separated from old friends and extended family. Joining a lodge gave one an instant brotherhood.
They also, crucially, offered mutual aid and insurance at a time with no workman’s compensation or survivor benefits, and when it was hard for a working class man to get insurance. Finally, at the end of a member’s life, they provided an important presence and rituals at funerals.
Guillotines and Fires
The fraternal organizations were “secret societies.” This was part of their appeal, as secretive rituals create bonding and belonging. Initiation rites were to be kept secret. The beginning of the Odd Fellows initiation rite described above was printed in the The Western Odd Fellow in 1887 in Osborne, Kansas, and it was described as an initiation from “old times.” (The American branch of the Odd Fellows was started in 1819.) In this supposed old-time initiation, the candidate for membership was led along various “paths” in the lodge to confront symbolic scenes of danger. At the beginning, he was marched around the room three times and pushed down over rocks, then helped up by the conductors. Then the warden would explain the significance. “Many, without conductors, have perished miserably. When you return to the world and see how many cast themselves imprudently in danger, reflect what a benefit a friend and guide would be to them, and if possible, be that friend.”
The other members of the lodge were masked and in costume. They participated in scenes such as creating the sound effects of a great storm while the candidate was doused with water, pushing him into a “fire,” and putting his head in a fake guillotine. His last stop was before a bible, where he made his membership vows, which included never revealing what occurred during the initiation. Apparently, the Odd Fellows could print these details because they were from long ago.
Riding the Goat
Once the member was properly initiated, he was part of a group that provided friendship and fun. But there was one feature of initiation which stood out: Riding the goat.
This is a phrase often attributed to Freemasonry, but it had much wider usage. It was something everyone understood during “The Golden Age of Fraternalism.” As an introduction to a scholarly article on the practice stated, “ The idea that candidates undergoing initiations into American fraternal groups were forced to ride goats was ubiquitous in the decades surrounding the beginning of the twentieth century.” (emphasis mine)
“Riding the goat” was an extremely widespread initiation rite in which a man was blindfolded and seated on a mechanical goat that lurched and wobbled unpredictably, some with blank cartridges firing from the rear, to the great hilarity of the lodge members, who sat around the lodge meeting room watching the fun.
Amazingly, there were at least four companies manufacturing various models of mechanical goats. One of them, the Pettibone Brothers, published an entire book of lodge humor and poetry entitled The Lodge Goat: Goat Rides, Butts and Goat Hairs Gathered From the Lodge Rooms of Every Fraternal Order, first published in 1902, with a second edition in 1907. Here is a sample excerpt, “Little Charlie and I,” with a father and son speaking:
When I came home the other night,
From the Myrtle Lodge K. of P.,
I sat down in my rocking chair,
Little Charlie on my knee.
A conversation we began,
My little one and I,
He grasped me firmly by the hand,
And said to me, O why
Do you go out each Monday night
And leave us all alone?
No matter how the weather is
You surely will be gone.
I’d like to see that billy-goat
And have him cut his shine,
You all love him so very much
He surely must be fine.
When I get grown like you, papa,
I’ll join the K.P.’s too,
And then I will find out, I guess,
Just how the goat does do.
I’ll hold to him with all my might,
And let him rear and run;
I don’t believe when I go through
That they will have much fun.
Well, now my little boy, said I,
We’d both best go to bed,
For I have listened earnestly
To all that you have said;
And I do hope, my dearest boy,
That when you’re grown like me
You’ll have the pleasure of riding
The goat of the K. of P.
“Riding the Goat” was mentioned casually in the newspaper, as in this December 1895 item from a “country correspondent” In Lenapah, Oklahoma: Messrs. [six names] were arranged in line and marched up the long row of steps that lead to the hall of the Woodman of the World, at Lenapah, I.T. [Indian Territory], and each one took his turn riding the goat on the night of the 27th ult.
Other examples of the casual mention, with the assumption that everyone understood the meaning:
Several of our railroad boys have been “riding the goat” in the various secret organizations of late. (From the column “Railroad Clatter," Coffeyville Weekly Journal, 3 July 1891, p. 4.)
The lodge granted the request of two men who want to try their luck riding the goat and the affair will take place in the near future. (“W.O.W.,” 13 May 1905, Coffeyville Daily Journal, p. 8.)
Early Friday afternoon the Knights of Pythias from various lodges began coming to Elk City…The visitors present say, “the Elk City people treated us just right,” and in return the boys spoke very highly of those who generously assisted them in “riding the goat.” (“The Gavel,” News-Broad-Ax (Coffeyville, Kansas), 11 Sept. 1891, p.4)
They try to make riding the goat as easy as possible at the Masonic lodge at Winfield. (Twice-a-Week Independent (Coffeyville), 3 May 1895, p. 3.)
Funeral Rites and Gravestones
Since having a decent burial was paramount to Victorians, the funeral rituals and burial insurance provided was crucial. Funeral notices often mentioned the rites performed by the fraternal group the deceased belonged to. This was something else one received by joining and being a faithful member. Perhaps the most elaborate example of this in Coffeyville, Kansas was the funeral of McGwin Graves in 1896.
The Coffeyville Weekly Journal described it as “the most impressive funeral that has ever been witnessed in this city.” The Modern Woodmen of the World met at “half past three o’clock” at their hall and walked to McGwin’s home. Pall bearers were selected by the Woodmen. In this time period, it was the norm to have the viewing of the deceased in the home. In fact, most funerals were conducted at home. Only occasionally were funerals held in church, as was the case for McGwin.
The Woodmen escorted his body and family to the Methodist Church. “The M.W.A. Band, in full uniform, the members each wearing mourning badges, led the solemn procession,” the newspaper noted, “and rendered the beautiful and touching funeral march, “The Last Sleep,” as the solemn procession wended its way through the city.” McGwin was a member of the band for the last three years of his life, and his tuba was draped in crepe and carried in the procession. It was placed next to his chair at church, which was also covered in crepe. After the funeral the band again led a procession to the graveyard playing “Dirge Dolore.” “The beautiful ritualistic services of the Modern Woodmen were rendered as the body of the faithful and beloved Neighbor was deposited in its final resting place.” McGwine was a single young man, but thanks to his membership, he had a funeral more akin to a statesman.
McGwin undoubtedly received another benefit from his association: his headstone. From 1890 to 1900, the Woodmen provided a free tombstone, typically four to five feet high and carved to look like a tree stump. Children’s headstones were typically a pile of three stone logs.Visit older cemeteries, especially in the South, Midwest and West, and you will probably see some. The Woodmen continued to provide these until 1920, though after 1900 members had to purchase a $100 rider to cover the cost.
Strolling through older cemeteries today in addition to the tree stumps, one can see Masonic and other fraternal organization symbols on graves. Three chain links, with or without the initials F.L.T. They stand for Friendship, Love and Truth.
It’s easy to see why fraternal organizations had such appeal in their day. They provided a sense of community and camaraderie, entertainment, especially in an era before electronics; insurance, and the assurance that one would be given a decent funeral at a time when that was a paramount concern.
Notes: Like so many others, my great grandmother Melissa Barbour’s brothers George, John and Reuben Patchett were members of secret societies.
Sources:
Clawson, Mary Ann. “Fraternal Orders and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century United States,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol 27 No 4 (Oct 1985).
Moore, William D. "Riding the Goat: Secrecy, Masculinity and Fraternal High Jinks in the United States, 1845-1930,” Winterthur Portfolio, Vol 41, No. 2/3 (Summer/Autumn 2007).
Pettibone, James. The Lodge Goat: Goat Rides, Butts and Goat Hairs Gathered From the Lodge Rooms of Every Fraternal Order, Cincinnati: C.B. Pettibone and Co., 1902.
Vondracek, Felix John. “The Rise of Fraternal Organizations in the United States, 1868-1900,” Social Science, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Winter 1972), pp. 26-33.
“Woodmen of the World and Tree Stone Grave Markers,” A Grave Interest Blog, https://agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2011/06/woodmen-of-world-and-tree-stone-grave.html
“An Initiation in the Olden Time,” The Western Odd Fellow, 1 Feb 1887, p. 1.
Copyright Andrea Auclair © 2023
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