American Fraternals

The Odd Fellows are recognised by three links of chain; or the colors white, blue, and red; the letters, FLT which stand for Friendship, Love, Truth. This is a stained glass window in an Elmwood [Lorain,O.] mausoleum. It is made to be viewed from the outside.

Approaching the year 1900, both the Odd Fellows, and the Free Masons in the United States were approaching one million members. The Odd Fellows, the more numerous; some people had dual memberships. The country's population was 76 million in 1900. The country has passed 300 million. There are less than 1.4 mil lion Masons, and maybe less than 50,000 Odd Fellows to-day. The Masons from 1955 to 1964 had over 4 million members. The US population was 179 million in 1960.

this part of an obelisk marble monument in Cleveland's Woodland Cemetery has a combined Mason and Odd Fellow mark
The Masons metamorphised from mediæval laboring organisations; so did the Odd Fellows. Masons worked as builders in stone. Odd Fellows, well the certain etymological derivation is lost, might be termed as laborers of several types, or iregular tradesmen. In England they formed into social clubs about the same time [prior 1750]. This was just before the twin risings of industrialisation, and capitalism; and well after the consolidation of the modern state. The nobility and the monarchs crushed the mediæval guild system. The property and rights of laboring classes were appropriated or demolished.

'Secret societies' brought fear to the ruling classes. The Masons worked to include the highest ranking nobility as members. The Odd Fellows and others were far less bourgeois, and more proletarian.

In the United States, after the War for Union, was an age of robber barons and unrestrained capitalism. Government was controlled by business interests, fascism before the term was known. The War for Union abolished chattel slavery; but until Franklin Roosevelt, labor was not free. Also, until Roosevelt's 'New Deal', the government did not serve the masses. These brotherhoods filled the vacuum.

Fraternal benefit societies were many. They stared with some communality of members. Sometimes it was social, occupational, religious, national, and so on. The Masons came to the US first, the Odd Fellows later. The latter split completely from England.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen 1883, a protective and insurance organization, merged with three other railroad labor unions in 1969. supra, bottom of grave stone Lake View

Many acted as trade unions, especially since such an organisation was often illegal and met with violent suppression. Whether they had that character or not, they aided members. Before banks took over life insurance, these organisations provided members the surface. Some had 'secret rituals', most of these were modeled after freemasonry. Some organisations operated cemeteries. So, in cemeteries it is very common to see insignia of such groups. The first to add these benefits was the Ancient Order of United Workmen [1868].

Knights of Maccabees 1878 [Maccabees after 1914] London, Ontario; most numerous in Michigan; called groups 'tents'; supra Elmwood Cemetery, Lorain, Ohio.