Brother Denhardt was admitted to the Great Council of Kentucky at Lexington in 1900, and has attended every session of the Great Council since. He was elected Great Junior Sagamore at Owensboro in 1902, serving as Great Senior Sagamore in 1903, and at Paducah in 1904 he was elected Great Sachem. Five great suns prior to his being raised to the Great Sachem's stump a movement had been started looking towards a Widows' and Orphans' Home, but no decisive action had been taken, and Brother Denhardt warmly espoused this cause, and through his ardent efforts a law was finally adopted creating a fund for this purpose. At the close of his term as Great Sachem he was elected Great Prophet and Representative to the Great Council of the United States for two great suns, and at the expiration of his term in 1907 he was re-elected for another two great suns.
At the session of the Great Council of the United States, held at Bridgeport, Conn., in Cold Moon, G. S. D. 417, Brother Denhardt was appointed by Great Incohonee Farrar a member of the Judiciary Committee, one of the most important standing committees of the Great Council of the United States.
While Great Sachem of the Great Council of Kentucky, Brother Denhardt became a Benedict, and his charming wife is a regular attendant at the sessions of the Great Council of Kentucky and of the Great Council of the United States.
LEWIS L. BEBOUT
PAST GREAT SACHEM LEWIS L. BEBOUT
1905-6
The subject of this sketch was born October 6, 1874, at Smithland, Kentucky, and when twelve years old removed with his parents to Crittenden County, near Marion. He received a common school education in Crittenden and Marion County schools, and became editor, owner and publisher of the "Marion Monitor," a weekly newspaper at Marion, Ky., at the age of nineteen. He continued in this business but a few months, when he sold out the entire plant and moved to Paducah in 1894.
Enlisting as private in Co. K, 3rd Ky. U. S. V. Infty. during the Spanish-American War, he was made 1st Sergeant of his company, and was commissioned 2d Lieutenant in October, 1898, at Lexington. He commanded the company longer than either of the other officers and was in sole command, and remained so, while the company was in Cuba. At the close of this service he returned to Paducah and engaged in the insurance business, which he is most successfully conducting at the present time.
He was a charter member of Otego Tribe, No. 60, and its first C. of W., and afterwards Chief of Records. When Otego Tribe gave a pow-wow and incurred a debt of several hundred fathoms, he with nine other brothers borrowed the necessary money and paid off the entire debt, in the face of the predicted collapse of the Tribe. Nothing daunted, he with other faithful brothers inaugurated a hunt for palefaces, with the result that 106 were captured and adopted at one time, thus equaling the work of Miantonomo Tribe, No. 1, which accomplished the same feat in 1895.
He was admitted to the Great Council of Kentucky at Owensboro in 1902, and was at once put forward as a candidate for Great Junior Sagamore, but without immediate success. He was, however, at this Council appointed chairman of the Committee on State of the Order, and at the following session of the Great Council, at Maysville, he was successful and was raised to the stump of Great Junior Sagamore, succeeding the following great sun as Great Senior Sagamore, and in 1905, at Frankfort, he was elected Great Sachem. His administration was conservative and the Order prospered under his judicious rulings.