History-The first meeting
The first Rotary meeting was held in a typical business office - a small room, not too well lighted, with a desk and three or four uncomfortable chairs, a coat rack in a corner , one or two pictures, and an engineering chart on the wall.
It was the office of Gus Loehr, a mining engineer, and Gus had just welcomes a visitor - a merchant tailor names Hiram Shorey. Hiram took one of the straight backed chairs, and he and Gus began to talk - first casual conversation about the usual topics, but their talk soon drifted to the idea which a lawyer friend had been discussing for several months. The Lawyer's name was Paul Harri, and he had an idea about a new kind of club.. They would discuss it again tonight, for Gus and Hiram were waiting for too more visitors-Silvester Schiele, a coal dealer and Paul Harris himself.
Presently two men entered the room. They remarked that they had just eaten an excellent dinner at an Italian restaurant, Madame Galli's. They talked about one or two amusing experiences, then Paul began to unfold his idea for a new club. He explained that it would be a good thing if a group of businessmen could get together periodically to get better acquainted. Thus Rotary was Born 23 February, 1905
From "Adventure in Service"