Do the names William J. Alexander Sr., John Belknap, Fred Clarke, Guy Jacobs, Charles Simeral and Harry Welday mean anything to you?
They are important to the history of our Rotary Club, and it is appropriate that we remember them this month.
April 1 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Rotary Club of Steubenville.
A lot has changed in the last century. When you needed to travel in town then, you climbed aboard a streetcar. If you needed to go to Pittsburgh, you boarded a train or, if you were fortunate, you, or a friend or neighbor, could jump in a car and make a more-than-90-minute drive on two-lane roads that wound their way through rural Western Pennsylvania. There was no grand entrance from the west then — you simply came through McKees Rocks and followed the Ohio River to the West End or Point bridges.
Newspapers were the best way to stay informed — and there were multiple editions produced each day to bring area residents the latest news.
You couldn't text a friend — but you could send a telegram and get a message out in just a matter of hours.
Television was still a little way off, but if you had a radio, you could listen to news and music on KDKA-AM, which had gone on the air just five months earlier.
Mills on both sides of the Ohio River worked 24-hours-day, seven-days-a-week to produce iron and steel that would help build our nation.
People were still recovering from a couple of horrors — the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918 and World War I — two events which had touched the lives of every area resident.
It truly was a different world on April 1, 1921, when what was then known as Club No. 881 officially became a part of Rotary. That brought an end to a process that had started several months earlier when members of the Coshocton Rotary Club had contacted area residents to discuss the formation of a club here.
What was described as a "splendid banquet" in the ballroom at the Fort Steuben Hotel served as the backdrop for the presentation of the club's charter on May 20, 1921.
Among the speakers that night was Judge Carl Smith, who said that the club "... had already absorbed some of the real spirit of the international body ... with the spirit of service shown in this community on every occasion that it was called on."
The club was successful from the beginning — membership stood at 61 at the end of the second year and climbed to 128 in 1966 before steadily falling to the 40 members we have today.
We've seen many changes along the way — from the admission of female members on Aug. 25, 1989, to reorganization at the international level which led to a shuffling that caused our club to become No. 3609 — but the basic principles of Rotary have remained the same. Whether we are giving a dictionary to a pupil, providing scholarships that help young people continue their education, helping to purchase and distribute coats to children who are most in need, looking for ways to help preserve our region's history or working to beautify an entrance to the community, Rotary — and our club — continues to set a high standard of service for others in the community to follow.
Alexander, Belknap, Clarke, Jacobs, Simeral, Welday and Smith were among the 25 men listed as charter members of the Rotary Club of Steubenville, and their world of 1921 would be as foreign to most of us who are alive today as the world of 2021 would be to them. One thing they would likely recognize, though, is the spirit of the organization, and the knowledge that, just like then, Rotary Opens Opportunities.
