![]() ![]() While the speeches were very interesting, it is a fact, (and a fact that will perhaps, never occur again) that the corks were popping so fast that it was with difficulty that the speeches could be heard. The responses were neat, short and bright. It was certainly a grand and gorgeous spread of all the things bountiful and after it had been thoroughly discussed, the prince of Elks, Jay Sedgewick acting as toastmaster, called for a number of toasts, which were most happily proposed. The banquet, which was prepared by Caterer Samuel Baratich, is said to have been positively the most elaborate and expensive ever given in Grays Harbor country. In the center was a great round piece, containing the heads of five elk, and the tables extended in five directions from this imposing center. The hall was decorated with an artistic grace and in elaborate extravagance. As the hotels of the little city were crowded, most of the visitors thought they could do no better than to extend the time of the social session far past the mystic hour of 11. “After the installation of the lodge the newly made Elks took charge of the visitors and conducted them to the Firemen’s hall in Aberdeen where a most elaborate social session was held. The prediction is made that in less than six months this new lodge No. “The new lodge, while located in Aberdeen, is composed of gentlemen residing in Hoquiam, Aberdeen and Cosmopolis and starts with a membership of more than 50 of the most prominent business men of that section. About 100 Elks accompanied by the Tacoma military band took a special train at 5 o’clock Saturday for the Grays Harbor country, stopping at Aberdeen where a lodge of Elks was instituted with the solemn and impressive exercises of the order. “To say that the excursion of the Tacoma Elks to Aberdeen Saturday and Sunday was the big, the grandest event of its kind in recent years, is not an exaggeration. But let Brother Johnson tell of the occasion in his story written at the time, a copy which has since been preserved as an historical document. Among the Tacoma group was Albert Johnson, at the time writing for the Tacoma News and later congressman from this district for a period of 20 years. ![]() 174 came to Aberdeen on a special train to institute Grays Harbor Lodge No. All arrangements were taken care of, and on June 30, 1900, the officers and many members of Tacoma Elks lodge No. MacFarlane, a live wire of the community, who became the first Exalted Ruler. During the spring of 1900 a group of prominent citizens of grays harbor conceived the idea of instituting an elks lodge in Aberdeen. ![]()
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