History: Thirteen Club Formed to Combat Superstitions

For many people, the number 13 has always been a bad luck number.

This superstition can be traced back to various beliefs. In Norse mythology, Loki the god of mischief, crashed a dinner party as the 13^th guest, which led to chaos. In some cultures, the number 13 disrupts the harmony of the number 12. Twelve is often seen as the perfect number. There are 12 months in a year, two 12-hour cycles in a day, and 12 zodiac signs.

As a way of combating the superstitions surrounding the number 13, and other superstitions, in the late 19^th century Captain William Fowler in New York City, started the 13 Club. Soon, 13 Clubs sprang up throughout the United States. Several presidents including Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt were members.

Although it started with 13 members, and the first meeting took place Friday, Jan. 13 of 1882, the during the 1890s club soon gained many more members.

Even some cities in Wyoming had a thirteen club.

The Daily Boomerang, September 10, 1892

Although this club was not in Sheridan, it was in New Haven Connecticut it tells about the meetings of the new club.

The Sheridan Post, July 20, 1893 – Thirteen Daring Young Hen. If thirteen young men—lawyers and physicians—who have just organized a Thirteen club in this city, can find a haunted house to meet m they will be most happy. The organization is nearly complete, the bylaws and rules have been drawn up and adopted, and the only thing lacking is the haunted house. If this cannot be found it is proposed to use the dead house owned by the town.

Among the rules are almost everything superstitious people avoid. The president is to sit under an open umbrella during all meetings and at the quarterly dinners. A ladder will be raised in the room, and every member entering will past under it. A cross-eyed janitor will be secured, and one of the members whose hair is fiery red will be obliged to enter the meeting room first every time it opened. A skeleton will be seated opposite the president at every feast, and two black cats will be purchased and kept in the club room. Each member takes a solemn obligation to look at the new moon over his left shoulder, pass on each side of a post when two are walking together, walk between any couplet who may be seen talking together on the street, and do everything contrary to the accepted custom. The meetings will be held on Friday evenings, and if any member has to make a journey he will start on Friday or the thirteenth of month.

This from the Cheyenne Daily Sun, Friday, March 3, 1893 – The most famous of all the unique clubs is the Thirteen club, the original one of the worlds, founded in this city (New York) 11 years ago and on the 13^th day. It was organized to combat superstition of all injurious kinds, and more particularly those superstitions connected with 13 persons sitting at table and Friday, sixth day of the week, called “hangman’s day.”

It started with 13 members, who sit together at dinner every month for three years before one of them died. The oldest living member of the original 13 is over 90 years of age, and hale and hardy. The club now numbers 1300 members and they dine 13 at each table five times each year, with the annual dinner being held on the 13^th day of January, the anniversary of the founding of the club. -New York Times

Sometimes they may have gotten a little carried away with the number 13.

The Daily Boomerang, November 9, 1891 – The Philadelphia Times is at pains to find out that Mr. J. Sloat Kassett was born on the 13th of the month, has thirteen letters in his name and is a member of the Thirteen club.

The esteemed times will also be interested in knowing that Mr. Kassett is thirteen years older than he was when he entered the campaign, knows thirteen times as much as he did when he resigned the collectorship. Unlucky number, that 13.

However, the number 13 isn’t always bad luck. A baker’s dozen is 13, to make sure the baker doesn’t cheat the customer. There were 13 original United States colonies, and 13 stripes on the US. Flag.

A number is what one makes of it, as we see in this story from Bill Barlow’s Budget, December 21, 1892 – On one side of the new quarter dollar there are thirteen separate representations of the number thirteen. There are thirteen stars, thirteen letters in the scroll held in the eagle’s beak. Thirteen marginal features in each wing, thirteen tail feathers, thirteen parallel lines in the shield, thirteen horizontal bars, thirteen arrowheads in one foot, and thirteen letters in the words “quarter dollar.”

The popular superstition that thirteen is an unlucky number, these coins are full of luck to the person who has plenty of them.

But, the Thirteen Club was an interesting idea to help combat superstitions in the 19^th Century.