220 HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 



and by-laws of our old farmers' club, of which I had been secretary. 

 These we changed in some respects to better serve the purpose of the 

 proposed new organization. After further consultation a meeting was 

 called for the loth of March, 1885, at Antioch Church, Lincoln Parish. 

 At this meeting there were nine who subscribed to the obligation. 

 Later on the secret work was added to the first, which was simply a 

 few signs, with no ritual. 



The first organization took in members from a wide territory, and it 

 was not long before we found it necessary to divide up and make our 

 unions more convenient. I rode fifteen miles to attend, until I could 

 work up a favorable sentiment in my own neighborhood, into which I 

 had only lately moved. Our unions began to spring up all over the 

 parish of Lincoln, owing to the enthusiasm of the members and the 

 undoubted necessity for some relief. The first parish mass meeting was 

 held at Vienna in July, and there we organized a central parish organi- 

 zation, with the following officers : J. M. Stallings, President ; J. A. Tetts, 

 Secretary; W. J. Spinks, Treasurer; W. J. Smith, Lecturer; Samuel 

 Skinner, Assistant Lecturer ; Jesse Gooden, Doorkeeper ; J. W. Simon- 

 ton, Assistant Doorkeeper ; Sim Nobles, Sergeant-at-Arms. 



At this meeting J. A. Tetts, W. T. Smith, and W. J. Mitchell were 

 appointed to draft a ritual and present it to a meeting to be held again 

 in Vienna, the second week in August, 1885. J. W. Gooden and J. A. 

 Simmons had also been authorized to have a thousand copies of our con- 

 stitution printed. Up to this time each union that had been formed 

 organized under a constitution written with a pen. There had been a 

 copy of the Alliance constitution sent tp our neighborhood by a Texas 

 friend, and we adopted that with but little change, as it provided for 

 some of the minutia better than the one we had previously been work- 

 ing under. The committee on ritual took the defunct Grange ritual, 

 and so curtailed it as to adapt it to initiation by one degree. This ritual 

 was very impressive, and did much to keep our meetings interesting. 



At the meeting in August, for the reason that we wanted to more 

 swiftly extend the organization, we formed the first organization of the 

 State Union by voting the officers of the Parish Union to be the officers 

 of the State Union. This was done with only one exception. J. A. 

 Tetts, who was secretary of his subordinate union and secretary of the 

 parish union, claimed that he had already too much of the honor and 

 too much work, considering that he was a farmer and had a large family 

 to support. He resigned, and asked that O. M. Wright, who was teach- 

 ing school, be appointed in his place. This was done. At this meeting 

 the offered ritual was accepted and ordered printed. For a system of 



