Huntington Rotary Club -History

History

Home Club of Arthur Sapp (1883-1946)

Rotary International President (1927-1928)

The 300^th Rotary Club Formed

Club #3365       District #6540

(The following information and stories are printed in 100 years of Rotary / Huntington Rotary Club 300. Many thanks to Richard Poole, Chairman of the Centennial Booklet Committee and Committee Members: Mark Stober, Mel Ring, Mike Perkins, and Kathy Holst).

History of Huntington Rotary Club

The First World War did not provide all the news. On April 4, 1917 Rev. J Howe of College Park went to Dayton, Ohio to deliver the funeral address for Bishop Milton Wright of the United Brethren Church. The funeral was held at the home of the late Bishop's son, Orville — co-inventor of the airplane.

Prosecuting Attorney Arthur H. Sapp rated headlines, and a laudatory editorial in The Huntington Herald.

Father John Francis Noll's five-year-old publication, Our Sunday Visitor, was in the process of dissolving as a corporation to become an association under the Education and Eleemosynary Law (Online Dictionary).

At least one local bank advertised it would pay 4 percent interest on time deposits.

Each of the steam railroads — the Erie, the Wabash, and the short-lived Chicago, Bluffton, and Cincinnati — ran eight passenger trains daily through the city. The Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company offered electric car service to towns between Fort Wayne and Lafayette. Farmers were getting $16 per hundredweight for their hogs.

Huntington residents enjoyed the prosperity. newspaper advertisements from a dozen local automobile dealerships offered such makes as Dort, Studebaker, Inter-State, Ford, Overland, Oldsmobile, Peerless, Maxwell, and more at attractively low prices.

In the Huntington Herald on Friday, April 13, 1917, was an editorial (probably written by editor Walter H. Ball) which observed: "Three speakers at the Forum Tuesday evening declared themselves in favor of woman suffrage, and at the same time declared they did not believe it would do any good."

Hidden among the "Personals" in the local newspaper of April 13, 1917 was this brief note:

NO.300

"Mr. Hillis Hackadorn and Mr. Frank Manley of Indianapolis were in Huntington on business."

Few readers saw much significance in this bit of reporting, but to 25 Huntington men it meant something important was about to occur. That night 20 of them met in the dining room of Hotel Huntington on West Market Street to greet the visitors from Indianapolis and a third man, Robert Koerber Sr., of Fort Wayne. They gathered to hear the story of Rotary and learn how to make a charter application.

Before the evening ended an application was submitted by the group and plans were made to elect officers to lead the new Huntington club when the charter was approved. That first group of officers consisted of Roy J. Gibler, president; J. Wallace Caswell, vice-president; Chester B. Williams, secretary; John R. Emley, treasurer; and Hal E. Rosebrough, sergeant-at-arms.

Word finally came that on June 1, 1917 Robert E. Koerber Sr., president and charter member of the Fort Wayne Rotary Club, would arrive in Huntington to formally present the club as a charter member.

The initial group of Rotarians met at the Huntington Young Men's Association (forerunner of the YMCA) on the second floor of the brick building at the Franklin and Warren Streets, for the first dinner. It was an evening meeting.

The moment had arrived, and charter certificate No. 300, bearing date of May 17, 1917, was received on behalf of the Huntington Rotary Club by president J. Wallace Caswell (who had moved up to become president between the organizational meeting and the charter meeting, and was succeeded as vice president by Rev. Elmer Ward Cole).

Huntington's charter certificate was signed by Arch V. Klumph, president, and Chesley R. Perry, secretary, of the Association of Rotary Clubs.

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Soon afterward, the regular meeting place was changed to the Commercial Club rooms on the second floor of the Lesh Building on West Market Street. Summer meetings were in the dining room of the Country Club on old US -24 West, near waht is now the Historic Forks of the Wabash.

After the official opening of Mr. J. Fred Bippus's Hotel LaFontaine, on October 17, 1925, the sumptuous inn became Rotary's meeting place.

Now, 80 years later, Rotary has returned to the ballroom of the renovated LaFontaine Center for its meetings.

Arthur Sapp

Among the millions of men and women who have been members of Rotary since its inception a century ago, only 94 have been elected president of Rotary International. Among them has been only one Indiana Rotarian — Arthur H. Sapp, of Huntington.

Sapp, an attorney, joined Rotary Club No. 300 in 1918, the second year of its existence. He was elected at the club's presidency for 1921-22. Two years later he was district president and rose quickly to leadership of Rotary worldwide in 1927.

Huntington's Rotary Club held a special meeting on Tuesday, May 14, 1963 to honor the accomplishments and venerate the memory of Arthur H. Sapp. A paper was prepared, and read by a club member at the meeting, which told some of the life history of the remarkable man. Here is much of that story...

The Daytona, Fla., News-Journal carried this editorial in its issue of the February 10, 1928:

"Our Guest From Main Street"

"Arthur H. Sapp, President of Rotary International, who was the guest of honor at a special luncheon tendered him today by the Daytona Beach Rotary Club, is an attorney at Huntington, Ind., a typical Main Street town. Mr. Sapp has achieved Main Street success in his profession. He has never won fame for sensational oratory in a criminal court. He has never been paid a fabulous fee for representing some giant corporation in a law suit. He has not inherited a fortune that made him financially independent. His position as President of Rotary International involves an actual sacrifice on his part. He earns a living by honest and industrious pursuit of his profession. He has served in numerous civic capabilities in his home town. He is devoted to his community. He has high ideals of life, and cherishes wholesome ambitions for the welfare of his community. It was natural that a man of his ideals and ambitions, enthusiasm and service in a Main Street town should have been chosen as Governor of the 20th District in 1923. In that office he achieved no meteoric fame, but went about the state of Indiana in his frank, practical fashion preaching the gospel of high business ethics. Rotary International came under the spell of his Main Street evangelism and elevated him to the highest position within the gift of that organization. Today (1928) 150,000 Rotarians in 44 nations honor him as their International President."

"Lucky 13"

The Huntington Rotary Club was not only the 13th Rotary charter granted in the state of Indiana, but the club was organized on the 13th day of April, 1917 -- and on a Friday the 13th, to boot.

The only Indiana Rotarian who has been president of Rotary International, Huntington's Arthur Sapp, was born in Ohio in January, 1883 -- on the 13th of the month, of course.

The Club's First Two-Term President's

Paul M. Taylor, one of the 25 charter members served as secretary for a year and succeeded Arthur Sapp in the Club as president in 1922-23. His second term was in 1927-28.

Harold Denison was the first member to serve consecutive terms as president in 1935and served until mid 1937.

Attorney and later judge Burr H. Glenn was also a two-term president. His first term was in 1933-34 and he followed with a term in 1944-45.

Father Simeon Schmitt was the second and last member of the club to wield the president's gavel two years in a row. His terms were in 1950-50 and 1951-52. While pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Father Schmitt was heavily involved in community service — as a member of both Rotary and Kiwanis Club.

Most recently--past president Kathy Branham has carried out our her second term as club president. Her terms as president were served exactly ten years apart from 1996-97 and 2006-07.

Rodney Rockefeller holds the distinction of service as the most consecutive terms as club secretary — serving 10 terms, from 1948-49 through 1957-58. His service as secretary is matched by that of Herbert Zent, who established what may be an unassailable record by being club secretary in five different decades. He first took on the duties in 1926-27 and also held them the following year. He served a stint in 1933-34, and then was secretary five years in a row, from 1940-41 through 1944-45. His last two years of service followed the Rockefeller era, in 1958-59 and 1959-60.

The Bishop and the Pope

For many years there has been a story of intrigue circulated around the luncheon tables of Huntington Rotary. The story involves the Vatican, Bishop John Francis Noll, a charter member of our club, and Father Simeon Schmitt, who served as Club president in 1950-51 and 51-52.

The Vatican at the time was discouraging priests from being members of Rotary. When Father Schmitt, not only a Rotary member but a club president, learned about the latest decree he went to Bishop Noll for advice. The story has Bishop Noll saying, "You stay right where you are, we know more about Rotary than the Pope does."

The story also has the exchange being described in a story in Time magazine.

Then Librarian/Rotarian Kathy Holst enters the picture. Using the facilities that only librarians have, Kathy first came up with information from Rotary International's website, describing the Vatican's position vis-à-vis Rotary, Freemasonry, and what was being said to the clergy. What was found in that site seemed to support the Bishop Noll/Father Schmitt story.

The page was titled, "Rotary, Freemasonry and the Roman Catholic Church." It gave a thorough description of that part of Rotary's history, and quoted Bishop Noll as saying the decree against priest's membership as being "quite incomprehensible."

And then Holst came up with the Time story that had been described for so many years. The story, with a picture of Bishop Noll and the Rotary International President, a Roman Catholic, quotes the bishop saying he was certain the Vatican had been misinformed about Rotary in the U.S., and that it would withdraw its ban on ecclesiastical memberships once the matter had been explained.

Father Schmitt was not mentioned by name in the story but was described as being the current president of the Huntington Rotary Club.

So, thanks to the investigative work of Kathy Holst, the extensive archives of the Huntington Rotary Club now contain a copy of a page from the January 22, 1951 issue of Time Magazine. Although Time's story doesn't fully support the "stay right where you are" part of our story, it gives more reason to believe that it was true. After all, the Bishop probably spoke differently to Time than to his priest. It's called "Episcopal restraint."

Mr. Vice President

Huntington Rotary Club is proud to call former Vice President Dan Quayle one if its own.

Rotary members could not have predicted in 1974 that new member Quayle would soon have his Rotary membership changed from "Active" to "Honorary," but that is what happened when Rotarian Dan Quayle took the congressional seat from Kiwanian J. Edward Roush. It was Quayle's first run for the seat, Roush's ninth. The year was 1976 and Dan had only been an active member for two years.

With Quayle's rise to the national scene, citizens of his hometown established a museum in Huntington. Over the years the museum has grown to become The United States Vice Presidential Museum, the only such museum in the county. The museum has artifacts from every one of the vice presidents and conducts educational tours for local students and provides programs for students all over the Midwest and as far away as New York.

United States Vice Presidential Museum

Women in Rotary

The announcement by Rotary International that women would be admitted to Rotary membership was met with mixed reviews by the local club. Marjorie Hiner was the first woman invited to membership in 1988. Seven women were Rotarians by the end of 1991.

One of these "first women" Kathy Branham, became the first woman to serve as president of Rotary Club 300. Branham also served as Assistant District Governor from 1999-2001 under governors Terry McKay and Bob Richardson. Other district responsibilities include District Administrative Council , District Conference Committee and District Foundation Committee.

By the end of 2004, four women have served as president of Rotary Club 300 and women have assumed countless chairmanships and other offices.

Club Projects

By Mel Ring

Huntington Rotary has its annual projects such as the Strawberry Feed, which raises money as well as serving the community by providing one of the events in our annual Heritage Days celebration.

In addition we have had one-time projects that became a part of club memories. One such project was conducted in 1983; long ago enough that details are hard to come by. The club decided to send $20 checks to randomly selected Rotary Clubs around the world. There was no way to predict the response to the letter accompanying the checks asking that the club choose something worth $20 that represented their country or their city.

Our plan was to contact an auction and sell the items to club members and invited guests.

The thing that makes the project memorable to me was the item that my wife Loretta and I purchased and that became a part of Loretta's jewelry collection. I still have the letter that came with the ring and pendant made of aventurine. The letter, from Rotarian Jost Schneeberger, chairman of the International Service Committee of the Rotary Club in Nairobi, Kenya, describes aventurine as being one of the semi-precious stones used in the handicraft industry that was a part of the Kenyan economy of 1983. The letter tells us that our $20 did not quite cover the cost of the jewelry and that the balance was his club's contribution to our project says more about Rotary. The jewelry was passed on to one of my granddaughters at the passing of Loretta. The words in the letter from Africa have served as memories for many years.

History of the World's First Rotary Club

The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

For more history information go to our Rotary International webpage at: http://www.rotary.org/aboutrotary/history/index.html

Paul Harris