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Old
Joe the Buffalo:
Soon after the Chicago Corral was organized in 1944, the
famous buffalo skull drawing by Charles M. Russell, the
well-known Western artist, was adopted as the trademark
of The Westerners. Later, someone gave the Chicago
Corral a real buffalo skull and a new tradition
developed, one that has been adopted by many other
Corrals and Posses. Meetings of the Chicago Corral
are not officially open till two members uncover the
bleached buffalo skull on the wall as members stand.
With right hand in Napoleonic posture, they grin, and
then say, "Hello Joe, you old buffalo!" As the
meeting's end, the rite is reversed with, "Adios Joe,
you old buffalo!" Silly? Maybe. But
fun.
Who is "Old Joe" we mention and feature so often in WI?
The following article, which first ran in a 1971 issue
of the Buckskin Bulletin, will explain more. It
was written by the late Don Russell, editor of the
Chicago Brand Book for many years.
"Old Joe?"He's
the bleached buffalo skull with "THE" between his horns
and "WESTERNERS" below his chin. You'll find him on
letterheads and publications issued by Corrals and
Posses from Chicago to Washington, Los Angeles to
London, Omaha to Munich. No Westerner tradition runs
deeper. And fortunately, because of the reportorial
genius of the late Elmo Scott Watson, my predecessor on
the Chicago Brand Book, we can trace Old Joe back to his
beginnings.
"Our very first skull (drawn, I think, by Burleigh
Withers) was in brown ink on tinted stock bearing the
sole word "Westerners." Elmo had it done by inexpensive
offset or mimeograph for letterheads. The same sketch,
sometimes copied by a stylus in inept hands, was used
for the first two years of the mimeographed Chicago
Brand Book. Letter-press printing came with the March
1946 (Vol. III, No. 1) issue, and on both nameplate and
masthead Old Joe shows in the now familiar form.
"The artist seemingly copied the Charles Russell skull
long used by the Potomac Corral as its emblem. But who
was he? And when did he do it?
"The Old Joe sketch first shows up in the beautifully
executed scroll attesting Honorary Life Membership in
the Chicago Corral for Sergeant Charles A. Windolph, one
of the 24 Seventh Cavalry Troopers awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle
of the Little Big Horn, June 25-26, 1876. Windolph,
serving with Reno, had risked his life to fetch water to
the wounded. The scroll was ready in October, 1944.
"It seems to have been done under the enthusiastic
direction of Wyoming-reared Burleigh Withers, himself an
artist and a proprietor of Withers-McCallum-Stearns, a
then well-known Chicago commercial art studio. The final
mimeographed Brand Book, January-February, 1946, answers
the question as to the artist. Noting that scrolls had
been sent to three Honorary Life Members--Sergeant
Windolph, Philip Fairbault Wells (a veteran of the
1890-91 engagement at Wounded Knee), and Stewart Edward
White (whose novel The Westerners may have suggested our
name)--it added "The calligraphy (hand lettering to you)
on these scrolls is executed by Resident Member Raymond
F. DaBoll and buffalo skull emblem of Westerners, is
painted in gold on them by M. Martin Johnson." A Chicago
Westerner, he later became an LA charter member.
"The Los Angeles Corral's first The Branding Iron (JanuaryFebruary
1947) had the insignia artistically centered on its
nameplate and also its masthead. No objection was raised
in the Windy City, although the design had been filed as
trademark in Washington, September 20, 1946, and was
later registered as in use since 1944.
"Old Joe has gone a "fur piece" since 1944. You'll
find him adorning printed matter from many a Corral. I
can guess what Munich Westerners mean and I like their
sub-line: "Gesellschaft zur pflege der Amerikanischen
Pioniergeschichte!"
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©Photo by Jim Argo
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