Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo

The International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo, Incorporated is a fraternal and service organization whose members are involved in the forests products industry. Hoo-Hoo has members in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and South Africa.

The organization was founded on January 21, 1892 at Gurdon, Arkansas by six men: B. Arthur Johnson, editor of the Timberman of Chicago; William Eddy Barns, editor of the St. Louis Lumberman; George Washington Schwartz of Vandalia Road, St. Louis; A. Strauss of Malvern Lumber Company, Malvern, Arkansas; George Kimball Smith of the Southern Lumber Manufacturers Association, and William Starr Mitchell, business manager of the Arkansas Democrat of Little Rock, Arkansas. As most of these men were only connected to the lumber industry in a tangential way - company executives, newspaper men, railroad men etc - it was first suggested that the name of the new organization be "Independent Order of Camp Followers". However the group instead settled on the name Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo - the word "hoo hoo" having become synonymous with the term lumberman. The first regular Concatenation was held at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans on February 18, 1892 when 35 of the leading lumbermen of the country were initiated.

Membership was restricted to white males over 21 who were engaged in the lumber industry as lumbermen, newspapermen, railroad men and saw mill machinery men. A Mrs. M. A. Smith of Smithton, Arkansas was initiated before the gender requirement was passed, so she stayed on as the Order's only female member. The Order was limited to having a maximum of 9,000 members. It the late 1890s it had upwards of 5,000 members. By the early 1920s this had grown to approximately 7,000.

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