E Clampus Vitus Presented by Bob Proctor, Noble Grand Humbug!
Our speaker for September 18, 2025 was Bob Proctor of E. Clampus Vitus (“ECV”). Bob is an Air Force veteran, worked for the California Department of Corrections for 24 years, and officiated high school football for 25 years. He has been a member of ECV for 16 years and was even the “Noble Grand Humbug” of 2 chapters simultaneously! Bob is obsessed with history and charitable support. E Clampus Vitus (no one knows what the name means!) was created in 1852 by Ephraim Bee in the coal mining areas of West Virginia. Ephraim was a blacksmith and hotel owner (in which he helped operate an underground railway). Coal miners at the time worked 6 days a week in terrible conditions. Ephraim started ECV partially to relieve coal miners of the their boredom. ECV died out in the late 1800’s and was reborn in gold rush San Francisco when Joe Zumwalt found an old trunk filled with original ECV “stuff.”
E Clampus Vitus has 80k members, 45 chapters, 4 “outposts,” and 1 “lodge.” Bob isn’t sure if ECV is a historical society with a drinking problem or a drinking society with a historical problem. Their initiation ceremony is a “hanging” in which they suspend an initiate from the ceiling tied to a chair! ECV’s main goals are to preserve western history and provide charitable support to “widows and orphans.” Chapter members research western historical events. The locations at which these events occurred are honored with a plaque and a corresponding ceremony/party. ECV organizations have dedicated 7,000 locations with plaques! A local plaque example is the Willowbrook Ale House in Petaluma. It served as a Wells Fargo stagecoach stop, a check-in for Indian Marathon runners (SF to Grants Pass, Oregon!), and the first air mail delivery in the U.S. Another plaque is at the Napa POW camp for German soldiers in Yountville. German prisoners often worked on farms in the Napa area until they were repatriated to Germany. Some ex-prisoners even returned to Napa County after repatriation. Bob also noted that there was another German POW camp in Windsor.
Our thanks to Bob for telling us about E Clampus Vitus and its rich history and present-day operations. Keep up the good work!
