Chautauqua assemblies popular in early Lodi

Today, it's an unusual, gigantic word painted in a mural on the west side of a downtown Lodi building on Oak Street: "Chautauqua."

In 1913, the word brought smiles of bright anticipation among Lodians in 1913, the year Chautauqua first came here.

Chautauqua (pronounced "shuh TAW kwuh") was the Seneca Indian name of a peaceful lake in New York. The name originally meant "two moccasins tied together with string", but its meaning broadened with a cultural and educational movement that began in the 1870s. It began with outdoor Sunday school teaching sessions at a campsite on the shores of the Chautauqua Lake. Soon it grew to include entertainment and speakers on wide-ranging topics of the time. Several summer camp assemblies like this were formed in the late 1800s and spread across rural America where people were hungry for entertainment and cultural enrichment. All of these assemblies came to be called Chautauquas.

In March 1913, Lodi was chosen as a performance and meeting site for the Ellison-White Chautauqua System, one of many traveling assemblies that often were called the Tent Chautauquas. Forty Lodi businessmen guaranteed money to financially back the enterprise. It was the first Chautauqua to be held on the Pacific Coast.

In late May, a train arrived with a freight car carrying the traveling Chautauqua's large canvas tents. It likely was quite an event for excited townspeople to watch the tents being unloaded.

The June 3, 1913 Lodi Sentinel described the progress of setting up the performance tents on Charles L. Van Buskirk's vacant lots at the corner of Locust Street and Pleasant Avenue. The Chautauqua also brought a lot of business to Lodi merchants, the newspaper observed.

"No time will now be lost in putting up the tents. The main tabernacle is 120 by 80 feet in size and there will be a number of smaller tents for equipment, dressing and sleeping quarters. As this is the first Chautauqua held in the state this season, supplies to be used in a series of about 20 cities are being purchased here," the Sentinel reported.

"Monday morning the advance man purchased more than $600 worth of material from the local stores. A great quantity of bunting for decoration, rope, sleeping cots for the performers and attendants, sleeping tents, a quantity of hardware and other material were all purchased locally. The jacks for forms for the portable seats are all being made in Lodi. A quantity of the lumber will be rented, but the forms will be moved from place to place," the Sentinel said.

Zimmerman's Pharmacy sold tickets for three weeks prior to the June performances. Season tickets cost $2.50 for the entire week's worth of 16 performances. After noon on the opening day of June 16, the price rose to $3 each. F. A. Keast, the son of the Rev. Keast of the Methodist Evangelical Church, was in charge of ticket sales.

In 1913, Lodi's population was listed as 4,000, according to the Chautauqua advertisement that year. The advertisement was glowing in its compliments of Lodi and its expectations for a full audience.

"This is a city of happy homes and contented people. Every farmer has his library and farm journals and takes an active interest in all activities for the public good. He is interested in the Chautauqua because it brings his children in contact with high class entertainment -- a feature too seldom found in smaller communities."

The Chautauqua opened in Lodi at 2:30 a.m. on June 16, 1913. For five days, Lodi adults and children heard a wide variety of entertainers and orators. The Seton Indian Camp was set up for children's activities where children learned an appreciation for nature and were encouraged to lead a clean life and do good for others.

There were musical performances by the White City Band of Chicago and Artists Trio and lectures by Della Crowder Miller on "The Chautauquas" and by Miss Belle Kearney on "Old Days in Dixie Land." Senator Elmer J. Burkett of Nebraska also delivered a speech entitled, "The Young Woman and the Young Man." Ben Chapin gave an interpretation of Abraham Lincoln speaking on the old Civil War days. Julius Caesar Nayphe, a Greece native and graduate of Oxford University, spoke on "the Balkan Question."

The Chautauqua was such a success that there was immediate talk about planning the event for the next year. Lodi businessmen and citizens guaranteed the sale of 600 season tickets.

The June 12, 1913 Lodi Sentinel, however, did report on some business between the City of Lodi and the Chautauqua officials. City trustees said the Chautauqua needed to pay a $12.50 license fee to the city for operating "a school of learning and amusement." The Chautauqua officials were a bit miffed but apparently paid the fee.

Chautauquas were held in June in Lodi over the next few years, and Lodi actually became the western headquarters for towns where Chautauquas were scheduled. Eight managers met in Lodi over the next few years to plan their programs and schedules. Many props, including tents, were stored and shipped from Lodi. Some of the communities served through the Lodi headquarters included Modesto, Turlock and Watsonville.

The Chautauqua movement reached its peak in the 1920s when traveling tent assemblies visited more than 10,000 communities in the nation. As radio and motion pictures became more popular and available to the public, the popularity of the Chautauquas faded.

Vintage Lodi is a local history column that appears on the first and third Saturday of the month. Information for this article was taken from the Lodi Historian spring 2002 issue.

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Chautauqua assemblies popular in early Lodi

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