Club History
The First Meeting
Nineteen hundred and twenty three was a great year. The "boom" of the hectic twenties was just getting under way. Warren G. Harding still had a few more months to serve as President, before his untimely death on August 4th. Governor W.W. Brandon was inaugurated in January, along with a Jasper man, W.C. Davis, as Lieutenant Governor. Walker County was in the throes of voting on a bond issues for new road, and delegations from all over the county were thronging Jasper with petitions for roads, here, there and elsewhere.
Prospects for the happy days to come were very bright, but Jasper itself was rather a smug, self-satisfied community of 5,000 people, either torn by dissentions or suffering from inertia. There were no agencies within the town to wake it from its lethargy or to heal its wounds of dissentions.
Times were good, and it was a good time for T. Jeff Bailey, a former Jasper newspaper man, but now a Birmingham representative of Kiwanis International, to come into Jasper, in an effort to organiza a Kiwanis Club. Jeff Bailey was successful in his undertaking and on February 23, 1923, forty outstanding citizens of the community sat down together at a luncheon in the Collins Hotel. During that luncheon a new Kiwanis Club was born with the following organization:
Officers
President - Arthur F. Fite
Vice President - E.R. Mattingly
Secretary - John W. Hutto
Treasurer - O.F. Cobb
District Trustee - L.F. Stansell
Directors
W.W. Bankhead
R.Y. Long
J. Wilbur Cole
Guy V. O'Rear
W.C. Palmer
J.M. Pennington
W.I. Powers
Charter Members
N.M. Appling
R.D. Argo
William E. Bryant
W.T. Chance
Thomas W. Coleman
Ellis Cranford
G.W. Crew
F.I. Drewery
W.F. Finch
L.D. Gray
Joe Jefferson
John Kilgore
John H. Lacy
E.W. Long
C.C. McConnell
S.C. McCormack
A.L. Mowery
Mose Newburger
Caine O'Rear
Rufus O'Rear
Sig Shapiro
Coleman D. Shepherd
O.M. Sherer
O.P. South
Leroy M. Walker
V.H. Williams
L.J. Wilson
George W. Wood
The action of these men in organizing the Jasper Kiwanis Club was to mean much to the community in the years to come, but no one had greater foresight or power of prophecy than an unknown editorial writer, who penned an editorial in the Mountain Eagle issue of March 7, 1923. Said he, "Jasper has a Kiwanis Club organized last week. This means that our little city has a new intelligent driving force, directed to a newer, larger and better Jasper. It means that Jasper is going to be able to put over many worthy movements that have lagged heretofore, for lack of concerted action. ... It is a real inspiration to note the enthusiasm and feeling of good fellowship which Kiwanis has already aroused in our town. Kiwanis has come at an opportune time. ... Jasper Kiwanis Club is going to wake up this self-satisfied old town and start it going in the right direction."
As we look back over the years, at this late day, and see what the Kiwanis Club has accomplished, we can more fully appreciate the propecy of this editorial writer.
(Taken from the 50th Anniversary program of the Kiwanis Club of Jasper - May 3, 1973)