Through the efforts of W.D. Robinson, an organization of locomotive engineers was attempted as early as 1855, but several years of discouragement followed. On May 8, 1863, at the home of J. C. (Yankee) Thompson at the corner of Linden and Hanover Streets, the first meeting of these locomotive engineers was held, and W.D. Robinson, J. C. (Yankee) Thompson, Sam Keith, Linus Keith, Tommy Nixon, Sam Amlar, Tom Faulkner, John Brown, Henry Larthrop, Henry Hall, John McCurdy, and Uriah Stevens formed an organization known as The Brotherhood of the Footboard. On May 17, 1864, in Indianapolis, Indiana, it was changed to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, whose membership on Jan. 1, 1943 was 70,000. The organization was founded to combine the interests of locomotive engineers and other men in engine service who were or might become eligible for membership, to elevate their financial interests, and to promote their general welfare, with cardinal principles of sobriety, truth, justice and morality. This constitutional purpose, adopted on May 8, 1863, remained the first clause of the present constitution. Through the efforts of brothers E.C. Russ of Division 33 and W.C. Harvey of Division 2, a resolution was submitted by delegates C.J. Brabenac of Division 1, F.L. Putnam of Division 2, and F.W. Dexter of Division 33 to the Grand International Division of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in Cleveland, Ohio, which on June 12th 1942 authorized the erection of a memorial marking the beginning of the movement that started here and resulted in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.