Project Scroll Research Note 2026-23: E Clampus Vitus at Peru, Illinois, in 1850, in two Ohio villages, and at Port Douglas, British Columbia, in 1862: three new records of the order before the California revival

Three records widen the map of E Clampus Vitus before its California revival of 1931. On 11 May 1850 the Ottawa Free Trader of Ottawa, Illinois, quoting the Peru Telegraph, reported that "Quite a number of brethren (!) and members in good standing, of the ancient order of Old Eclampsis Vitus passed through Peru on Thursday last," and turned the joke on the Telegraph's editor, 'Squire Holbrook, "the very personification of Old Eclampsis himself." It is the order's earliest appearance yet found in northern Illinois and the earliest record yet found spelling the name "Eclampsis." Two Ohio county histories remember lodges of their own: at Zanesfield, Logan County, "the Eclampus Vitus, whose history was as brief as its initiatory ceremony was unique" (1880), and at Woodstock, Champaign County, where, in a town long "anti-secret society," the first of the other lodges named is "the 'E Clampus Vitus' which prospered for a few years" (1907). And on 11 February 1862 the Weekly British Colonist of Victoria reported that "A lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E. Clampsus Vitus has been organised at Port Douglas, B. C.," where "Members are initiated nightly": the order's earliest record yet found in British territory, on the road to the Cariboo gold fields. Project Scroll Research Note 2026-23, version 2. The note sets out the record quoted, where it is held, what it changes, its limits, and what was searched before calling it new. Web version: projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-23/.