History
Grand & Glorious Order
of
The Hillbilly Degree

FIRST EDITION

Imperial Raban Jim Harris, Author

Printed & Published in U.S.A.
©Copyright – March 1982
Hillbilly Press
P.O. Box 210, Milford, OH 45150

Reprinted by Permission of Imperial Raban Jim Harris

  Application Form for Charter in the Grand and Glorious Order (PDF)
To download a free PDF reader, click here

Dedication

To Jim Harris the founder of this "Grand and Glorious Order of the Hillbilly Degree and the Imperial Clan who have worked many years to establish Hillbilly Clans across the U.S.A. as a fun way to raise funds for the Shrine Burns Institutes and the Crippled Childrens Hospitals.

There are probably many others who helped after Imperial Jim started and maybe in the next edition Jim will write a little more.

1982 Imperial Officers and Their Duties

RAY HOWERTON, Guardian of the Still.
This is where all Clans must obtain their membership cards. Ray as Guardian of the Still also keeps all of the Imperials money and guards it very well. He also has for an extra, beautiful certificates for sale. Any Clan can get a free sample from Ray. He also has Hillbilly Gals cards and some Kentucky passports for sale; and maybe a few other things.

TOM ROSS, Keeper of the Quill.
Tom can supply you with any of our printed documents. Copies of the Constitution and By-laws, report forms, copies of the ritual and also the Hillbilly Gals ritual. He has the up-to-date address list of all Clans and does his best to keep it up-to-date. Need an application to form a Clan; Tom has them also.

CLYDE BLEVINS, Keeper of the Cob.
This is the records man. He keeps all of the records that are sent to the Imperial by all Clans. He is the only one who can add up the records to see what is the total of all money donated and reported. All of the membership lists sent in by all of the Clans are kept by Clyde. Check with Clyde for any past records, either total or by Clans.

JIM HARRIS, Raban of the Clan.
This guy don’t do nothing. He just wears a big hat, that was given to him by Doc Lenox for free, and looks important. He does write a letter or note now and then, does send information to the Hillbilly News, does process new Clans and makes out and sends them their Charters. Does answer any questions on what can and cannot be done and why. Other than that, he don’t do nothing.

History of the Hillbilly Degree

Many years ago, shortly after I became a Shriner, I was exposed to the world of side-line degrees. Now to reach this point in life, a man must first become a Mason. That is a member of the Masonic Lodge. This is a very great organization, so like my father and brothers, I was very proud to become a member.

Now that I was a Mason; I was promptly informed that I must go on up." Some urged me to take the York Rites, and some said take the Scottish Rites; some even said to take both. This some of the best advice that I have ever had that I followed. Now I was able to petition and join the Shrine. Shrine Temples are in all areas of North America and apparently these fellows have fun.

So I became a Shriner. A Shriner is permitted to wear the red fez and join in the many social and charitable activities. He can join the Clown Unit, the Marching Patrol, Oriental Band, or other groups and participate in the colorful parades and be seen in many public places. The social activities are many and always proud to be helping support the Shriners Hospitals. What could be finer than to have fun and help the crippled and burned children at the same time?

At this point I was beginning to acquire a billfold full of cards. Each of the Masonic organizations issues their own annual card, and they soon add up. Then the Temple issues a card; and each of the Units also issues their own annual cards. Now a Shriner becomes exposed to the world of side-line degrees. Many Shriners loved to join as many as possible in order to be able to display the membership cards-sometimes dozens and dozens, and he is always proudest if he has more than the other Shriner. It is quite common to see Shriners have special card cases; which they will flip out at the faintest hint to unfold a strip of cards a yard or two long. This is the world of the side-line degree.

Side-line Degrees came under many names: the Horse Traders, Swords of Timbuktu, Yellow Dog, Mandarin, Mad Dogs of Lebanon and many, many others. Often I would wonder where the money that myself and others paid out for these small pieces of cardboard [the valuable membership card] was going to. Why I even joined the Old Bastards. The money went and the number of membership cards grew.

Slowly into my world of awareness came the realization that all of this money paid out for the side-line degrees was going to Shrine clubs, groups of individuals and sometimes to single individuals. The money paid for fine banquets and parties, material objects, and sometimes went into an individuals pocket. Furthermore, some of the Rituals left me rather cold or in disgust. This could not be right.

What the Shriners needed was a new side-line degree, one that had a new and interesting ritual, and above all a purpose—namely that all profits would go for a worthy cause, to help the children who were admitted to the Shriners Hospitals. The members of this new side-line degree must have some fun and enjoy the activities so that he wanted his friends to also participate, and help spread the word of the new Degree. Rules must be drawn up to assure that all profits went to help those crippled and burned children of the Shriners Hospitals and for no other purpose.

After discussing side-line degrees with a friend one day back in 1969, 1 decided to see if I could put something down in writing to establish such a new degree. I could only draw upon my own experiences--born and raised in the Hills of West Virginia and now living in the hills of Kentucky. I could recall the outhouse moon; which closely resembled the Crescent, a symbol held in the highest esteem by all Shriners. This somehow reminded me of corn cobs, moonshine, etc. So I sat down and wrote. Slowly the new Degree took substance and form

Now the Hillbilly Degree did not take form in a few days; it really took several months and several rewrites. The truth is, if I had it to do over, there are a few other changes I would make. However, it finally looked pretty good. Much better than most of the other side-line degrees that I had taken.

Then I wrote a Constitution to assure that no one made any money from this Hillbilly Degree--all profits must go to help those crippled and burned children of the Shriners Hospitals. Now we are ready to go, and a couple of friends agreed to help me try out the new Degree.

With the help of a couple of friends, it takes three to put on the Degree work, we initiated a few of the Shriners of El Hasa Temple in Ashland, Kentucky and everyone seemed to enjoy it. So we realized that the new Hillbilly Degree would be accepted at least as well as the many other side-line degrees.

The next step was to obtain a copyright, so that no group could come along later and put on this degree and not abide by the rules that the profits must go to help the crippled and burned children. This was what it was all about. Thus copyright No. 23370 was obtained in 1970 which can and will be renewed after it expires. Now all that these first Hillbillies received upon initiation was the membership cards. Now we found a source for Hillbilly Hats, and everyone started to wear their ‘Hillbilly Tuxedos," the overalls to all meetings. The more worn and patched, the better they were accepted. The Hillbilly Degree was on the way, but we still thought of this as only a local side-line degree for the El Hasa Temple area.

At the Imperial Shrine Convention in Miami, Florida in 1970 we decided to put the Hillbilly Degree work on. Over a hundred joined from other Temples, and the Shriners from Hejaz Temple in South Carolina wanted to be authorized to put on this Hillbilly Degree and put on the work in the name of their own Clan. This called for some quick action.

Since it was apparent that The Grand and Glorious Order of the Hillbilly Degree was a success, it was important to tie up all the loose ends. A Trust agreement was drawn up between the three officers accepting the responsibility of control of any money coming into their hands to be for the charitable benefit of the crippled and burned children. Agreement was certified and duly registered. An application was filed with the Internal Revenue Service for exemption from Federal income tax and was approved. Finally approval was granted by the Board of Trustees of the Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children to raise money for the Shriners Hospitals.

Now, do you know of any other side-line degree in Shrinedom that has received all of these approvals? If you do, let me know so that I can apply for membership.

An Application for Chapter was drawn up and the people of South Carolina from Hejaz Temple were granted Clan No. 2. Slowly the word went out and Kosair received Clan No. 3. Beni Kedem in W. Va. asked for Clan No. 4 in 1971; and Syrian of Cincinnati received Clan No. 5 in 1972. Clan No. 6 at Nemesis of W. Va. was not set up until 1974, Aladdin of Columbus, Ohio became Clan No. 7.

No. 8 also went to Aladdin, the only Temple to have two Clans. Then came Rajah, Bektash, Yaarab, Lulu, Oasis, Murat, Kena, Al Koran, Acca and Morocco. Others followed in Al Chymia, Crescent, Moslem, etc. to the current total of 60 Clans as of Sept. 1981. Two are in Canada.

Webmaster’s Note: Imperial Raban Harris adds in a note that there are 160 Clans at the beginning of 1999.

Future Clans will be duly noted in the Hillbilly News, so you can follow history as it is made.

"SHADY" GRADY KINNEY
HOWARD "DIRTY EAR" STRATTON

Pictured are Howard ‘Dirty Ear" Stratton and "Shady" Grady Kinney, the founders of "Hillbilly Days" at Pikeville in 1977. It has been one of the events that has helped the Hillbilly Clans grow and raised a lot of money for Shrine Hospitals. Howard is on the Hillbilly News Staff and has written many interesting articles about the Hillbilly Clans and Hillbilly Days. Following is part of an article written for the Sixth Annual Hillbilly Days and we felt had a place in this history.

Here’s How It Is In Pikeville

Dear Hillbilly Bob:

Mountain Dew Outhouse #2 of Clan #1 here in Pikeville, Ky. wants to invite all clans to the 6th Annual Hillbilly Days here on April 15, 16 & 17 in Pikeville, Ky. Come all of you including Jack Grace from California and Paul McCutcheen from New Mexico. Meet some genuine mountain people here deep in the Appalachian mountains. We were born and bred hillbillies before we ever heard of a Shriner or Mason. We are civilized, good common help your neighbor kind of people. We will feed you, talk good to you, show you the old mountain good hospitality that all of you have beard of about us.

This annual event is not all for show this was the way we lived 30 years ago and I am proud of it. Hillbilly Days has something for all ages. Our old people love it as do our young and others. Come on down and meet some genuine Hillbillies. This is the home of the Hatfield-McCoy fued right here in Pikeville. Our old people still talk of it.

This will be an experience you will never forget.

Come on down and be with us. It is only 5 months away. We have a genuine Hillbilly Sheriff William [Bill] Deskins, high sheriff and a genuine Hillbilly Judge Wayne T. Rutherford. The town is ours for three days and nights. Some good old mountain music from our local people all three days. Plenty of good CORN. We had a good harvest this year.

Bring your campers and sleeping bags. You won’t need much sleep anyway. We have plenty of camper parking. We will set you up an outhouse and you can bath when you go back home. Anybody can go 3 days without a bath. Come on down to the hills and meet us and when this is over let’s all plan to make the trip to Cincinnati, Ohio for the first big national Hillbilly Convention. Me and Betty and youngins (ant wait. Cincinnati will never he the same after we get there. Looking forward to meeting ever one on Hillbilly Days.

Korn News from Pikeville.

Howard "Dirty Ear" Stratton

We thought rite about hyar would be a fair place to put one of Imperial Jim’s best riteins fur the Hillbilly News an its bout Hawaii.

HI YOU ALL:

Well I sure nuff didn’t see any of you people in Pikeville at the big annual Hillbilly Days an I dont think you could see me neither. Mainly it was on account of I werent up there no how an the reason I werent there was on account of I been doble crossed and thats fer sure.

Now it seems fer sure that way back yonder las summer when I was hob nobbin an chewin the fat with the big shots up in Pikeville and we all done said that Hillbilly Days was agoin to bee on April 9-12 which was fine with us. Then I done went an told maw and she said fine so lets usns go off fer a spell with a bunch of flatlanders what was plannin to go off to Hawaii to gawk round an I said fine ifn we could get us a bunch of Yankee dollars which it was goin to cost.

Maw done started takin in washin and fixun up peoples hair to look purty and sellin chicken aigs an all kinds of things to get us sum Yankee dollars an we done weht an signed up to go out to Hawaii fer a spell on April 23 to do a little rubber neckin and gawking wif those flat-landers an we done give them sum of maws Yankee dollars to show it was for sure.

Now rite here is whar I done went and got doble crossed on account of them thar big shots up in Pikeville done went and changed the whole dung Hillbilly Days affairs to be done on April 23-26 which is when maw an me done promised to go off gawkin in Hawaii and done give them some Yankee dollars to be sure. Soon as I heered bout the change in days I done went an told maw that we got to stay in Kentucky on account of we sure nuf better not miss no Hillbilly Days and maw done got riled up sumin awful like and done told me plain that Hawaii was whar she was goin to go an I could go anywhar I plum well pleased to go but it better be Hawaii.

Now I done give thisun a hole lot of thinkin and I done thought that them thar hoochie coochie gals in Hawaii was goin to be a hole lot better on my eye balls so done gone and went wif maw which is why i didnt see you all in Pikeville.

Now i done thot that when seed Hillbilly Days that done seed it all til we got out thar to Hawaii. Why them hoochie coochie gals is almost as purty as them Hillbilly gals an they aint got as much clothes to ware so they jest run round wif a little bit of grass tied round there butt an sume flours and what they done did when them ukuleties was a playn you aint going to believe no how but I done strained my eye balls fer sure.

Now I done purty near fried my hide in thet Hawaii sun an am still peeling like some dang snake and most near got pizened by sum gooy paste what them Hawaii folks said was POY an you was supposed to eat it and i dont think even the hawgs goin to eat thet stuff an live an I sure did an me an maw had a whoopin big time een ifn we couldnt find no decent moon to drink. Next year its goin to be Pikeville fer sure an thats a dang fact.

Rekon you heard of forewords, wal this is afterword

I shore do hope y’all enjoyed reedin this hyar book. I was rite proud when Imperial Jim sayd print the history but he don’t know bout the rest I put in here. We’uns is trying to mak tha hole U.S.A. a bunch of Hillbillies an if’n we can get this agoin thar won’t be nuttin to worry about no more caus we’ll jus be doin 2 things making White Litening which taks care of lots a things, lak fuel fur heat, fuel fur yore automobil, fuel fur yore lamps for lite, an samplin will mak you furgit to worry. Now the secund ting we’ll tak all the muney from sellin it an mak all the crippled an burned chillun well so they can grow up an mak White Litening, so life is one big happy circle.

This has been printed and published by the Hillbilly Press which also prints a monthly publication "Hillbilly News." We welcome your comments, subscriptions and ideas. The Hillbilly Press is chartered in the state of Ohio as a non-profit organization to promote Hillbilly Clans and their activities.

The Editor
Hillbilly Press
P.O. Box 210
Milford, Ohio 45150

Return to Hillbilly 99 Home Page