H98.12.1

Framed Charter for the Greater Oakland Camp No. 7236 of the Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal organization for men. The Charter is framed in a narrow, brown colored wooden frame of molding and glazed with clear glass. At the lower proper right front corner is a metallic gold sticker with the seal of the Modern Woodmen of America, back with crossed baby blue silk satin ribbons. (The tan paper backing on the frame is torn.) The Charter itself is illustrated at the top, showing a bustling port with many ships (some under steam so that there are artistic whisps of steam blowing over the port, a small farm with a neat house backed by woods, with a man and a team of two horses plowing in the field while the sun rises behind them; (the Modern Woodmen's of America motto is in the rays of the rising sun :"Pur Autre Vie"); The organizations crest is in the middle of the illustration. Next to that are two men using axes in the woods, one has started to chop into the trunk of a tree, while the other is working on a felled log; the final illustration shows a gathering of the fraternal order "Modern Woodmen of America" a throng in the background holding banners, while two men shake hands in front of the group. The Charter reads: "Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself", "Head Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, To Whom It May Concern, We come with Neighborly greeting and do by these presents grant unto our beloved Neighbors." This is followed by a handwritten list of men. "This Charter conferring upon them all the rights, powers and privileges of a duly constituted Local Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, a Fraternal Beneficiary Society chartered by the State of Illinois and entitled to transact business under and by virtue of said Charter. Said Local Camp is in here by established at Oakland in the State of California and shall be hailed and known as Greater Oakland Camp No. 7236, and the Neighbors herein ...constitute the Charter Members....Done at Rock Island, Ill., this Ninth day of June A.D. 1913..."

Used: fraternal organization | Modern Woodmen of America | Oakland | Friendship