Loyal Order of Moose
fraternal organization based in the United States
The Moose Fraternity (formerly The Loyal Order of Moose) is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888 and headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois.
Moose International supports the operation of Mooseheart Child City & School, a 1,023-acre (414 ha) community for children and teens in need, located 40 miles (64 km) west of Chicago; and Moosehaven, a 63-acre (25 ha) retirement community for its members near Jacksonville, Florida.
Additionally, the Moose organization conducts numerous sports and recreational programs, in local Lodge/Chapter facilities called either Moose Family Centers or Activity Centers, in the majority of 44 State and Provincial Associations, and on a fraternity-wide basis. There is also a Loyal Order of Moose in Britain. These organizations together make up the Moose International.
History
The Loyal Order of Moose was founded in Louisville, Kentucky, in the spring of 1888 by Dr. John Henry Wilson. Originally intended purely as a men's social club, lodges were soon founded in Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and Crawfordsville and Frankfort, Indiana. The early order was not prosperous.
The public source identifies “Loyal Order of Moose” as fraternal organization based in the United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Loyal, Order and Moose.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6908585. VIAF identifies the subject as 134939366. The Library of Congress control number is n85245856. Authority coordinates are 41.827, -88.329. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888.
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This entry incorporates text from “Loyal Order of Moose” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.