Travels to Waseca

[This article published in the June 12, 1957, Waseca Journal, provides a glimpse into the history of the Waseca's A.C.T.A. (American Cap Tossing Association) three-boy boxing club that later became the A.K.T.A. (Alpha Kappa Tau Alpha or American Kap Tossing Association) fraternity. The article included photos of members, the summer cottage, the fireplace, and their cup with the fraternity’s insignia. There was no byline on the article and no source for the material or photos was mentioned.]

AKTA at Age of 50 Years, Is Dissolved

   Members of A.K.T.A. fraternity assembled here [at the King Melody Inn] on Sunday for a reunion almost 50 years to the day after banding together in 1907.

A.K.T.A. fraternity got its start by taking over the membership and assets of A.C.T.A. The earlier organization was a three-boy boxing club which had functioned for two or three school years in the basement tunnels of the high school, and wound up with net cash assets of $1.80.

The main idea of A.K.T.A. was to keep up the friendships and the recreational activities of their high school days; however, another definite objective was to continue and enlarge on the joys of the earlier “camping out” expeditions they had experienced in their smaller “north side” or “west side” gangs. So each summer to about 1911, their stove and tent would be set up for a week on the shore of one of the 10,000 lakes.

  For a couple of years, the boys kept their tent and sleeping cots all summer in the [Smith's] woods north of Clear Lake, hiking to and from town daily or crossing the lake by boat to reach their jobs and families and meals.

  The club has been fortunate in having a membership of pretty respectable fellows, also fellows who could figure the angles, for the boys were smart enough in the very beginning to include an older man, V. G. Pickett, their former high school principal, in the charter membership of eight. “Vic,” as well as being a good guy, gave the club an air of dependability.

By 1920 the membership had increased to 43, of whom the following Waseca and out-of-town men were present at this reunion: H. W. Arentsen, Oshkosh, Wis., J. R. Bullard, J. F. Cahill, H. A. Castor, Minneapolis, F. J. Conway, B. J. Gallagher, F. T. Gallagher, H. M. Gallagher, F. B. Goodspeed, H. C. Habein, Rochester, G. P. Madden, J. N. Moonan, L. W. Scott, Janesville, Anton Stucky, Waterville, Paul Stucky, D. D. Turnacliff, St. Paul.

Members who could not attend the reunion, but who sent letters, phone and other messages, included: A. E. Castor, Minneapolis, E. S. Johnson, Waterville, F. R. Johnson, Detroit, Mich., Ed Martinson, Glendale, Calif., R. G. Moonan, Minneapolis, Victor Olsen, Covington, La., H. P. Swartwood, Chicago, E. C. Ward (on eastern trip).

The full roll call over the years contained the following additional names: A. E. Bell, Leon Brosik, L. P. Bullard, T. W. Cahill, A. E. Child, J. G. Cleary, Edwin Cronkright, Damon Cummings, A. A. Doyle, W. R. Everett, Harold Heagerty, C. L. Larson, L. M. Maguire, Laurane Peterson, V. G. Pickett, D. D. Shepard, Alois Stucky, J. T. White and L. P. Zimmerman.

    In 1914, the club leased land on the shore of Clear Lake and built a summer cottage for its permanent home. [The cottage was located in North Star Park on the north shore of Clear Lake, west of the Lakeside club.] This building contained a central lounging room with a fireplace. There was also a small kitchen and encircling sleeping porches capable of bedding down 15 to 20 men. Carpenters framed the structure with the boys doing a great part of the other saw and hammer work under urging of Art Castor and Roy Bell… and over-the-counter urging of Jack Cahill to “aw lets just sit and enjoy it.”

  For 20 years or more the younger members spent most of their recreational hours here, fishing, swimming, or “just resting.” In later years the cottage has been used as the summer home of various members, with a period reserved for the annual reunions, which brought men home from faraway places – more than a little called back no doubt by the wonderful meals served by their star provisionor “Eda” (Manke Prechel). 

The club recently sold the cottage to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Goodspeed, who moved back from Chicago to Waseca and remodeled the building into a year-around home. Frank has been one of the enthusiastic members of the club and it probably will be a sad but cherished memory to him that by coincidence the vote for dissolution of the club’s chartered existence was taken Sunday under his roof, while the organization meeting in 1907 was in the home of his father, George H. Goodspeed.

  When remodeling the cottage, the old field stone fireplace was retained practically as it has stood since 1914. Below the mantle the letters A.K.T.A. still dominate the scene… letters hammered out of iron in the Douglas shop… letters that have been seen and wondered about by many people… letters whose meaning even some members of the club will learn now for the first time. It seems that when the organizing group took over the old A.C.T.A. membership and assets it was stipulated that the old name should be preserved. Just about then, however, the boys became aware of the college fashion of having Greek letter titles for clubs or fraternities, so nothing would do, but they must go Greek.

Then came a hitch, because they could not find a Greek letter for C. It seemed for a while that the club might turn out to be Alpha Gamma Tau Alpha, but then one of the three carry-over members from A.C.T.A. found the letter Kappa and that was it… Alpha Kappa Tau Alpha – “Kappa” surely sounded just right to the boys!

You still don’t know what A.K.T.A. really stands for? It could be a long story, but let’s cut it short. As recounted earlier in this write-up, A.C.T.A. was a boxing club. It was patterned after what was a popular sport in pioneer days, when two opponents faced off against each other, wearing hats, and each tried to knock off the other’s hat without losing their own. The three boys of A.C.T.A. (Larson, Child, Goodspeed [WHS 1906]) did not wear hats but used caps… and did not dare, when they started their club at 15 or 16 years of age, let their parents hear of them “boxing”… so the club was the Amateur Cap Tossing Association. Vera Murphy (Galligan) and Carrie Anderson (Turnacliff) kept the records of the boxing sessions and collected the dues, fees and fines which as before stated ultimately ran up to a $1.80 net after expenses.

It will be a long time before it will be forgotten how these boys joined together to secure good wholesome recreational facilities for themselves and later worked in Waseca or other communities in their professions or business in a truly fraternal spirit.

  [The Alpha Kappa Tau Alpha (A. K. T. A.) fraternity had a complete service set made by O.P.Co., Syracuse China, given to it by member Henry Habien. The emblem includes the initials of the club viewed with some of the letters on their side. The emblem was also used on lapel pins which the club members wore. Many pieces of the set are in the Waseca County Historical Society collection. Photo courtesy of the Waseca County Historical Society.]