Sam Brannan 1004
E Clampus Vitus®
2026 Events
Installation of Officers
January 7, 2026
Windsor Grange- Windsor, CA
Gentleman's Initiation - 3 Way Doins
April 11, 2026
Locke, CA
Spring Function
April 17 - 19, 2026
Thatcher Inn - Hopland, CA
Grand Council
May 15 - 17, 2026
Sonora, CA
T.R.A.S.H.
2026
Koyote Howling
August 6 -9, 2026
Secret Location TBA to only a select few
Fall Function
September 18 - 20, 2026
Dinucci's Restaurant - Valley Ford, CA
Who was Sam Brannan?
Born in Maine in 1819, at age fourteen he moved to Ohio with his family. He completed his printer's apprenticeship in 1836, and spent the next five years moving from state to state as a journeyman printer. Brannan converted to Mormonism in 1842 and subsequently moved to New York City to help publish several Mormon newspapers.
In November of 1845 a large group of New York City Mormons decided to seek refuge in California, then formally a Mexican territory. Brannan led the expedition of over two hundred people, which travelled by boat around South America and to the Hawaiian Islands. Their 1846 arrival in San Francisco (then called Yerba Buena) immediately tripled the city's tiny population.
After a brief period as publisher of a San Francisco newspaper, Brannan moved to John Sutter's settlement on the Sacramento and American Rivers and soon established a general store. The Mormon church claimed that he had diverted tithe money to this commercial enterprise, and expelled Brannan when he refused to return it. ("I'll give the Lord his money when I get a receipt signed by the Lord," Brannan is alleged to have said.) When James Marshall discovered gold on Sutter's land in 1848, Brannan seized the opportunity by widely publicizing the discovery and then selling his goods to the flood of men who came in search of gold.
Within several years, Brannan's meteoric commercial success had made him California's first millionaire. In 1849 he returned to San Francisco, where he continued his business activity, was elected to the City Council, and played a leading role in organizing the controversial Committee of Vigilance, which served as a citizen's police force. Throughout the 1850's his wealth and influence continued to grow; he became a major California landowner and helped to establish several banks and railroad and telegraph companies. Serious alcoholism and a volatile temperament, however, were his eventual undoing. He lost his fortune and health, as did many of those who first benefitted from the gold rush, and died an unnoticed death in rural San Diego county 1889.
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What is E Clampus Vitus?
The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV) is a fraternal organization dedicated to the study and preservation of the heritage of the American West, especially the history of the Mother Lode and gold mining regions of the area. The fraternity is not sure if it is a "historical drinking society" or a "drinking historical society." There are chapters in California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and has Outposts in other western states. Members call themselves "Clampers." The organization's name is in Dog Latin, and has no known meaning; even the spelling is disputed, sometimes appearing as "Clampus," "Clampsus," or "Clampsis." The motto of the Order, Credo Quia Absurdum, is generally understood as meaning "I believe it because it is absurd;"
Members claim that the organization was brought to the United States in 1845 in Lewisport, Virginia, now West Union, West Virginia, when inn and stable owner Ephraim Bee was given a commission from the Emperor of China to "extend the work and influence of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus."
Bee claimed to have received his commission from Caleb Cushing, the American Commissoner to China. A monument to Bee in West Union now stands on the site of the old "Beehive" Inn along the North Bend Rail-Trail; the original "Bee Hive" was destroyed in a flood in the late 1800s.
The original purpose of the order appears to have been to initiate new members. When a stranger came to town, Clampers would inform him that to do business in the town it was essential to join the local secret society. The initiation rite was a parody of Freemasonic, Oddfellow and other orders, and took many forms, including rowing the initiate down in a wheelbarrow, hoisting him into the air and leaving him there, or dropping him into a vat of water. Afterwards, the initiate had to buy the other members a round of drinks.
Bee felt that an organization was needed which was less exclusive than the other organizations of the day, such as the Masons, Elks and Odd Fellows. In addition, nativism was rising in the United States, as evidenced by such political organizations as the Know-Nothing Party. Bee opened membership in ECV to any "upstanding" man who had come of age. It is known that there were E Clampus Vitus chapters in Bedford, Pennsylvania; Metropolis, Illinois; Bowling Green, Missouri; and Dahlonega, Georgia.
The original E Clampus Vitus disappeared after the Civil War but a "second era" version of the organization was formed in 1930 by attorney Carl Irving Wheat. The new incarnation of ECV is more serious than its predecessor, as an historical society as well as a mirth making club. ECV historical plaques are found on many buildings around California.
As the mining industry faded towards the end of the 19th century, ECV started to fade as well. It was revitalized in 1931 by San Francisco historian Carl Wheat and his friends G. Ezra Dane and Leon O. Whitsell. They were contacted by one of the last surviving members of the original ECV, who passed on all that he could remember of the organization's rites and legends. The three founded a new chapter, Yerba Buena Number 1.
New chapters sprang up in Los Angeles (Platrix Chapter #2) and other major cities in California, and were numbered sequentially. However, once Chapter 10 was established in 1936, members pointed out that it was illogical for such a rowdy organization to be so neat in its numbering scheme, and so some creativity was developed in the numbering. The de la Guerra y Pacheco chapter, halfway between Chapter 1 in San Francisco and Chapter 2 in Los Angeles, is Chapter 1.5.
The organization has raised historical plaques in many places throughout the West (often those sites such as bordellos and saloons overlooked by more traditional historical societies). These are now common in historical areas around California and the West.
A Brief History of Sam Brannan Chapter #1004
Early Chapter History
Sometime in the early 1960’s Clamper Riley “Wad” Young decided that Yuba City should have a chapter of E Clampus Vitus. Because he had not been able to “work with” anyone in authority within the Grand Council to assist him in this endeavor, he started a chapter out of his bar, The Spur, in that city. One must remember that things were much different in our organization at that time, and that sometimes chapters were formed in that haphazard fashion.
Still, Riley felt that it would be a better to be recognized by the parent organization, E Clampus Vitus Inc. so approached the Board of William Bull Meek—William Morris Stewart, Chapter #10 in hopes that it would intercede with the Board of Proctors to legitimize Sam Brannan Chapter. The Board of Chapter #10 agreed to use its good graces with the Grand Council to help Sam Brannan Chapter become legal.
Approximately 150 members were authorized by Chapter 10 to operate as the Sam Brannan Club in the interim. Minutes of the Chapter #10 Board Meeting held on January 11th, 1963, tell us that “at the meeting held at Hartmann’s Chevrolet, reports were given by visitors Tom Dolley and Riley W. Young, acting ramrods of the Chief Truckee and Sam Brannan Clampers, respectively. Riley Young stated that the group he heads in Yuba City is laying low till the Grand Council meeting on June 1st, when Chapter #10 had promised to assist in their request to be legitimized as a Chapter. Both groups were said to be “going” concerns, with a good base of members and a lot of interest to move ahead as Chapters of E Clampus Vitus.” Chapter #10 minutes also show that “$25 expense money was approved for NGH Herb Gerrish and XNGH Bob Wyckoff to attend the Grand Council Meeting. XNGH Wyckoff was included this year, as he was to provide the silver-tongued oration to help sway the Board of Proctors to allow the admission of the Sam Brannan and Chief Truckee Chapters to E Clampus Vitus, Inc.”
In April of 1963 NHG Gerrish and Bill Byars reported that they had traveled to Yuba City and issued Meek-Stewart membership cards to all Yuba City Clampers in the “semi-legitimate” Sam Brannan Chapter. The minutes of the Clamproctors meeting of 1963 state that the “application for a new chapter, “Sam Brannan”, sponsored by Wm. Bull Meek-Wm. Morris Stewart Chapter No. 10, and to include territory of Yolo, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter, and that part of Yuba west of the Yuba River, was approved and granted.
Following this June first, 1963, meeting of the Board of Proctors at which Sam Brannan Chapter was granted a Charter, the Board of Chapter #10 promised the new chapter an installation party and that would take place in North San Juan in October. This date comes from an early ECV Plaque Book done by Proctor Ken Castro. Chapter Ten minutes describe the ceremony as follows, “The October 12th, 1963, Doin’s at North San Juan went off well. Newspaper reports carried pictures of the new SNGH, Dr. Al Shumate, with Riley Young in front of the plaque that was dedicated that day. Bob Paine acted as the Master of Ceremonies and the program included a parade down the main street of town, and an induction ceremony of the Sam Brannan Chapter Officers, as promised by Chapter #10 before the Grand Council meeting in June.
Those named to official positions in Sam Brannan Chapter were listed as follows:
Noble Grand Humbug - Riley “Wad” Young, X-mare and mosquito hunter. Now dispenser of alcoholic beverages at The Spur, Y/C.
1st Vice NGH - Bill Dockrey - wealthy plumber and has horns, Elk & Moose he thinks - not sure.
2nd Vice NGH - Robert L. Peckinpah - Exhibitionist- Pres. Fair Board. Suspected with having something to do with horses. He’s also in insurance - iffen yuh get bumped try and collect.
NGR - Bill G. Rice - An old-fashioned Californian who raises prunes!”
Sam Brannan Chapter dedicated its first plaque in April of 1963, several months before it was officially chartered as a Chapter of E Clampus Vitus Inc. This plaque, dedicated to Sam Brannan, the founder of Yuba City, was unveiled in Sam Brannan Park, in Yuba City. A second plaque, to the Town of Dobbins, was dedicated in June of 1966, but by this time it had become obvious that the chapter was not self-sustaining. A year earlier, 1965, NGH Young had asked Chapter Ten to help the “struggling chapter” by holding an initiation in Paradise in April. Young was the kind of Clamper could hold a chapter together single-handedly, and when he moved from the area the chapter sort of imploded. Later in that same year Clyde Moore agreed to take over the “floundering chapter” from NGH Young and served as the second Humbug of the chapter. Moore was succeeded as Humbug by Willie McJunkin who served from 1967 until 1969 when the chapter folded, and its meager assets and territory were entrusted to Chapter Ten.
A Chapter Revived
In 1967 Ed Hawkins was taken into ECV in Matuca Chapter. Coincidently it was at this function that one Clamper accidentally, but fatally, shot another Clamper; an incident that led Grand Council to ban firearms at Clamper Doin’s in the future. Ed became an active Clamper and traveled to various other chapter Doin’s. It was at a James Marshall Chapter function that Ed met Duff Chapman, who would later serve as Sublime NGH.
By 1969 Ed had decided that he wanted to start a Chapter of ECV in Napa, where he lived and owned the Brass Rail, a bar on Coombsville Road. At this time New Helvetia had just recently been re-chartered, and there were chapters in the foothills, but except for Yerba Buena, there were no chapters in the Bay Area. Ed was not having much luck initially in starting a chapter, so he decided to go to a Grand Council meeting and do some lobbying for a chapter in Napa. Ed piled into his 1946 Lincoln Continental convertible and headed off to Murphys where the Board of Proctors then met. In a discussion with Proctor Duff Chapman, Ed raised the possibility of starting a chapter in Napa with the proposed name of George C. Yount Chapter. Duff’s response was that it would probably be easier to re-activate a chapter that had once existed, Sam Brannan Chapter, than to start one from scratch.
Ed also met Proctor Hal Goodyear in Murphys and talked to him as well about this idea. Hal, who served as Sublime NGH from 1971 to 1973 was very supportive of the idea and became instrumental in Sam Brannan becoming re-chartered in 1973. Ed also had the support of X-Sublime NGH Dr. Al Shumate, who was also an X-Humbug of Yerba Buena and who, along with Harry J.W. Smart, who would become a YB Humbug in 1976, helped ease the concerns that some in that chapter held. At this time, the early 1970’s, Yerba Buena’s territory included all the counties that surround the San Francisco Bay, all the coastal counties north up to the Oregon border, much of California south to Platrix Chapter, and eastward to the chapters that existed in the Mother Lode. (Editor’s note: Yerba Buena did not think to claim the Hawaiian Islands as did their upstart offspring Chapter 1.5 did later.)
In 1973, a petition to reactivate Sam Brannan Chapter #1004 of E Clampus Vitus, originally in Yuba City, was presented by Ed Hawkins, Jr. before the Board of Proctors, which at that time convened in Murphys, California over Memorial Day weekend. Noted therein was the longtime dormancy of this chapter. The territory of this chapter had been held in trust by William Bull Meek—William Morris Stewart, Chapter #10. The petition carried an offer of eleven cases of beer for said territory and was accepted by William Bull Meek—William Morris Stewart Chapter, thereby terminating said trust. The Proctors, on a motion by Earl Schmidt, seconded by Louie Beaupre, approved the chapter's revival. Sam Brannan Chapter #1004’s present territory includes Glenn, Colusa, Napa, and part of Yolo Counties. Sam Brannan Chapter is also the self-proclaimed Protector of Solano County. The re-chartering celebration was held March 23, 1974, in Knights Landing.
Ed Hawkins started the chapter with nothing. The officers charged the food and beer then paid the bills after the function, hoping all the while that they would make enough money to reimburse themselves, in some respects, Ed was like “Wad” Young. Both initially held the chapter together by virtue of their organizational abilities and their prowess as promoters. However, when Eddie moved away from the Napa area, unlike our earlier incarnation, he had left in place a self-sustaining chapter and a strong core of Clampers and officers who have maintained his vision and helped the chapter thrive and flourish.
Written by Loren Wilson - Sam Brannan XNGH #10