Rotary International History - First Club
The Rotary Club of Chicago ‑ Club No. 1 ‑ was organized on February 23, 1905, by Paul P. Harris and three Chicago businessmen. To Paul Harris belongs the credit for originating the "Rotary idea”. The first meetings were held alternately at different members' places of business. For the first few months, the growth in membership was slow. In the autumn of 1905, a great event took place in the history of the struggling club.
The first roster was printed! It contained the names of nineteen active and two honorary members. As the membership increased, other rosters were printed, and finally the illustrated roster below was suggested by Silvester Schiele.
Later, Harry Ruggles introduced "song" into Rotary. From a small nucleus of nineteen loyal members in 1905, Rotary grew in seventeen years to a strong, virile movement of 80,000 members with clubs in more than a thousand cities embracing twenty‑two countries of the world.
