11th – Worked at the mill & went to a temperance lecture & joined the I.O.G.T. They made me the Grand Marshall.
In 1851, the Independent Order of Good Templars was founded in New York. Their motto was “Friendship, Hope, and Charity.” A progressive temperance group, the I.O.G.T. allowed women to join. In 1868, the group made its first international jump to Great Britain. Over the decades, the group had spread around the world and in 1906, its name was changed to the International Order of Good Templars. In 2003, Order was changed to Organisation, and it is now headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
According to The Good Templars ~ A History of the Rise and Progress of the Independent Order OF GOOD TEMPLARS, in 1901, “Washington has eighty-nine Lodges, with a State of increased active membership of nearly 3,000 active, in addition to 2,000 ‘inactive,’ but duly en-rolled members.”
“Grand Marshall” sounds like a pretty fancy title! The role of “The Right Worthy Grand Marshall” was defined in the 1885 Digest of the Law and Decisions and Annotated Constitutions of the Right Worthy Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars as assisting “the [Right Worthy Grand] Templar in performing his duties in such manner as he may from time to time require, and perform all the duties usually appertaining to his office.” Since Jesse doesn’t stay long in Gate City, perhaps the Deputy Grand Marshall took his place when Jesse left.
There is no way to know when Jesse obtained the above family temperance pledge document. He may or may not have received this while participating in the I.O.G.T. lodge in Gate City. Only members of his family of origin signed it, not his wife and kids, so he was likely not married when he received this. His siblings Sophia, Jennie, Rosa, and Frank signed the pledge along side Jesse. Both of his parents and brothers John and Charlie didn’t sign it. As George Harold DeLapp said of his grandfather, “[Jim Bench] was a ‘heller.’ They say he’d go to Chillicothe from the farm in the river bottoms on his Chestnut stud. When he came home at night, more than a little soused, singing at the top of his voice, he never opened a gate — he jumped them on a dead run with the Stud.”
