Clampers?

[Jim of The SRR]

Does anyone have any historical references to the "Clampers" During the Civil War? I know they were a fraternal group of Gold Miners. Did this include just Gold miners? Did they include gold miners from just CA or did they have active organizations in places like Dahlonega, GA (more Gold mines)?

Jim BUtler

[AZReenactor]

Jim,
I've not yet found any wartime references to E Clampus Vitus but the fraternal order was very active in California before and after the war and there is good reason to suspect that at least some of the California Volunteers were members of the order. There is even good reasons to believe that U.S. Grant joined the order when he was out in California before the war.

The historical roots of the order can be traced to Ephraim Bee of Lewisport, West Virginia in 1845. (Although Clampers will readily tell you that Adam was the first Clamper.) (Interestingly, after the war it was revealed that Ephraim Bee was heavily involved with the Underground Railroad.)

Prior to the war there were ECV chapters in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois, Georgia, and quite possibly Mexico City. E Clampus Vitas made its way to California with Joe Zumwalt, after he learned of it in Missouri, and quickly spread throughout the California gold fields. It was very popular throughout the California Gold rush and continued past the war until it peaked in Membership in the 1870's.

The order dwindled in numbers until the 1930s when it was revitalized by a group of California historians why were contacted by one of the last remaining Clampers. (This is in the West, there are apparently still some remnants of the order in the East who have come down through a different historical lineage.) The organization is very active and growing in the west today with active chapters in many Western states. There are a number of reenactors who have been taken in and there is even a floating reenacting chapter that meets at Western events. The organization is very involved in History and local chapters regularly place historic plaques at otherwise unknown historic sites.

I've probably revealed more than enough already, but a search with Google will turn up quite a lot about the order.

[Spinster]

Oh Troy! What magnificant FUN that google search turned up :p

It also explained a lot. My Great Uncle Mark was always a rolling party, with chaos and merriment in his wake. The other uncles always referred to him as a "Clamper" --and as they were all Masons, older than Mark and very dignified, I had always assumed that Clampers were some lesser order of Mason.

He was born right at the turn of the century, not far from the Dalonega gold fields and was known to swirl a pan in his youth. Some 50 years after the war, this provides only a very tenuous connection in Georgia, but may indicate a possible connection.

[tomarch]

Troy:


Satisfactory!! One definite Clamper conection w/ the war was Capt. Antonio De la Guerra of Co. "C" Native Cal. Cav. Batt. and a State Senator in the 1850's. I have also been doing a part-time research on clampers in the ranks and I have come up with 40 or so possible indviduals.

Tom Smith XGDR, GNR and future AL the XXI
De la Guerra y Pacheco chapter 1.5 ECV

[Eureka Independent]

Hi All & fellow brothers

ECV through the 1850-70's is an interesting coarse of sutddy. I have been interested in finding any known pins associated with the order, especailly watch fobs.

It is just a mater of time before names of memebers of the diferent ECV lodges in Ca match up to enlistments in the Cal Vols.

Don S

[Hank Trent]

Here's a soldier I'll nominate for a potential member of the Clampers. Ran across him totally by accident, looking at names from the 20th North Carolina for September Storm.

Timothy Reid, a private in the 20th NC, Co. B, native of Cabarrus Co., NC.

After giving up his family's interest in the Reid gold mine in North Carolina, he went to California and was listed there at Montezuma P.O., Tuolumne Co., California as a miner in the 1860 census, in a household of all adult males. Apparently sometime between the summer of 1860 and the spring of 1861 he returned home to Cabarrus Co., fresh from the goldfields, to enlist in his hometown's regiment.

No idea if he was a Clamper, but the demographics are certainly right. Are there any surviving records of members from the Tuolumne area?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Eureka Independent]

Hi Hank,

This fellow might be a Clamper , he is in the right demographic, and the right area and in the right business and was around men that were more than likely Clampers.

Tom Smith would more than likely be able to see if Timothy Reid was possibly a memeber of ECV

All the best

Don S

[tomarch]

Hank: I'll check on what I can find out about Mr. Reid. The main problem with Calmper records was that during one of their "doins" no one was in any condition to take minuets and afterwards no one could remember what happened!:D

Credo quia absurdum