Sad tidings arrived at the Elks' Home at 256 E. Broad St. on Sunday, October 1, 1933. John W. Kaufman, age 66, had passed away at Otis Hospital in Celina, Ohio. John W. had taken ill while vacationing at the family summer home on Lake St. Mary's. He had been suffering for five weeks with "inflammation of the liver, following an attack of intestinal influenza." The Dispatch obituary indicated that Mr. Kaufman was survived by wife Elizabeth Wagner Kaufman, son Harold J. Kaufman, and daughters Margaret Kaufman Kirby, and Mary K. Altmaier. John W. also left nine surviving siblings- five brothers and four sisters. Largely through his entrepreneurial efforts, many in this large extended family spent their business careers in good positions employed in various businesses which John W. acquired, built, or founded. Funeral services were scheduled for Wednesday at Kaufman's home at 1151 Bryden Road.
The obituary summed up Kaufman's involvement with Elks'-Wyandot Country Club this way:
"It was through his help that the Elks' Country Club was financed and built north of Columbus, and it was he [as the driving force in Glen Burn] who purchased it from the lodge and maintained it as the Wyandot Country Club when a difficult financial situation developed."
From what we know of him, it does not appear that Mr. Kaufman's extraordinary efforts to make the Elks'- Wyandot club and its classic Ross-designed golf course a reality were motivated all that much by love of golf. They were prompted more by his simple but intense desire that his brothers in Elks' Lodge No. 37 have the best of everything. Throughout his adult life, John W. had expended his time and treasure of behalf of the B.P.O.E. In addition to his involvement with Elks'- Wyandot, he raised the money (much of it his own) to build the spacious Frank Packard- designed Elks' lodge home on Broad Street. He led the B.P.O.E.'s World War I war chest drive (a fundraiser forerunner of what would now be called "Wounded Warriors.") He filled every important capacity in the local lodge, and was still serving in the post of Grand Trustee of the National Lodge of Elks when he died. Though perhaps uncommon for an obituary to reference a deceased as a beloved "clubman," it was a fitting appellation for John W. Kaufman.
But doing good for the Elks was not John W.'s only avocation. He became an inveterate visitor to the western United States and Canada. As he aged, he increasingly indulged his passion for travel to the " Wild West," and his journeys became longer and more frequent. In 1925, John W. planned his most ambitious western excursion. He and six fellow Elks would caravan a small bus and truck westward for 14 weeks of camping. Other than a few nights in hotels in Los Angeles and Portland (the latter was the site of the B.P.O.E. convention which the "Roving Brothers" attended) the boys camped every night. While there were no attacks by Indians or outlaws to fear, the west was still relatively untamed in 1925. Roads were treacherous and often washed out. The vehicles often broke down. Supplies and provisions were not always easy to come by. Public camps were only occasionally available, and bathing was a sometime thing.
The trip received a significant amount of publicity, and John W. decided to compile a memoir of the journey. John W., normally modest, expressed the view that he and his Elks brothers had taken "the most entertaining and fascinating tour of the west ever chronicled in modern history." The "Legends of the Roving Brothers" (a copy of which I managed to acquire via e-bay) is an amazingly professional and artistic publication. The brown-tinted text and photographs on heavy, weathered- appearing stock paper itself evokes the feel of roughing it out west. The photographs of the landscapes contained in the journal are staggering in their Ansel Adams-like clarity.
Road Near Shoshone Falls
Even well-drawn cartoons made their way into the story, such as the one below featuring Kaufman (The "Skipper").
Kaufman and his fellow travelers gave each other nicknames for the trip. "The Dish Washer," "The Baler," "The Produce Buyer," "The Maid," "The Pilot," "The Cook," "The Cowboy," and of course Kaufman's "The Skipper," were generally descriptive of the functions and chores each performed in the daily life of the camp.
From Big Springs, Nebraska to Hidden River, Wyoming; on to Gardiner, Montana and Indian Massacre Rocks, Idaho; then to the grandeur of the Columbia Highway and Rainier, Oregon, the "Roving Brothers" adventured. Some rivers needed ferrying- like the Klammath River in Oregon.
The band of brothers made sure to chronicle each day's activities for the journal. Most were written in a lighthearted breezy style that pooh poohed the hardships and hazards that were experienced. John W, relished meeting the daily challenges and hardships in the company of his fellow Elks. In acknowledgement of appreciation to his bunkmates, he wrote:
Humor, wit, conviviality,
never lagging-
No task too arduous,
No duty too severe
Ever faithful and loyal
Keen to do their bit
With shovel and pick
In sunshine and rain
No sands too deep, no grades too steep
On their way back east, the Roving Brothers hit several of the stops later memorialized in the song "Route 66" - Kingman, Barstow (California), Flagstaff, Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico. Most of the roads were dirt paths that were not greatly improved from the covered wagon days. Finally, on September 30, 1925, the crew approached Columbus, The journal reports that the boys were "in more or less a pensive mood," as they crossed the state line back into Ohio. Most were sorry the trip was ending. The last "Gilded Camp" was the Deshler Hotel at the northwest corner of Broad and High. A few of the Roving Brothers came from northern Ohio, and thus would be spending the night at the Deshler.
Still in camp fatigues, the weary travelers made their way to the Elks' Home at 256 E. Broad St. According to the journal, "the ovation accorded the skipper {John W.} is beyond words. Approximately 400 members were present...It was a glorious meeting in every detail, the finest Elks' chorus in America sang several selections. There were speeches of welcome and so on, a flashlight picture; but it would have warmed your heart could you have heard our Skipper unlimber. The rigors of camp life not only made him fit physically, but mentally as well. Words flowed from his mouth like ripples in a brook. There was nothing in the vocabulary that did not occur to him. Not too much, not too little, but just enough to be thoroughly effective."
Glen Rohn, "The Baler," composed an admiring tribute to John W. Kaufman in the last entry of the "The Legends of the Roving Brothers." Coincidentally, it was written and dated October 1, 1925- exactly 8 years to the day prior to John W. Kaufman's death. If Rohn's reflections about the "Skipper" had been repeated word-for-word at the funeral, they would have made for a perfect eulogy:
" A character of unusual forcefulness, willing to act and serve, quick to grasp any situation, compassionate, ever ready to forgive, fearless in the face of danger, with grit and stamina enough for a dozen men, kindly, chivalrous, hospitable, John Kaufman is all of the traditional southern hospitality rolled into one composite character, standing apart from the world. It is customary that we ignore the living and eulogize the dead. But it seems to me that when there exists such a human being, placed in this untowar world ostensibly to make it a better place in which to live, a word of him at this time is not out or order. For the first time, this letter goes forth without being submitted to his censorship, for he is pleasingly modest, extremely so about matters of this kind, and would not, under any circumstances, sanction or consent to this slight tribute to the nobleness of his character...And I know full well the other members of the Roving Brothers take the same stand with me. Majority rules. Quite so!"
The Baler went on to say that the disbanding of the Roving Brothers "naturally makes us wistful; there is a tear in our eye, a lump in our throat and sadness grips our heart." No doubt all of those sentiments were similarly expressed at John W. Kaufman's funeral.
The greatest friend of the Wyandot Country Club was gone. In the aftermath of John W.'s demise, many members must have contemplated whether the passing of this "Great Elk" would affect the club's relationship with Glen Burn- Wyandot's landlord.
Acknowledgements: "Legends of the Roving Brothers," John W. Kaufman (1925); archives of Ohio State Journal, Columbus Citizen, and Columbus Dispatch, and "Columbus Memory" all of which are housed in the Columbus Metropolitan Library; Scripps-Howard Newspapers/Grandview Heights Public Library/ photo.org collection; http://www.photohio.org
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