The Junior Order of United American Mechanics is an American fraternal order. It began as a youth affiliation of the Order of United American Mechanics, but seceded to become its own organization and eventually absorbed its parent order. Originally, it was an anti-Catholic, nativist group.
In 1923 the JOUAM had 253,399 members in its "Funeral Benefit Dept" and 22,519 "Beneficiary Degree" members. Its headquarters at that time were located at 741 Wabash Building, and reportedly had state and local councils in nearly every state in the Union. It also ran a home for the orphans of deceased members in Tiffin, Ohio, which housed 800-900 children. While the Order's purposes were mostly fraternal by this point, membership remained restricted to Protestants, and some of its officers still continued to advocate anti-Catholic positions. [3]
By 1969 this had dwindled to 35,172, 15,000 of which were social (non-insured) members. By 1979 the number had dropped to 8,500, evenly divided between social and beneficiary members in 400 local councils. The group was then headquartered in Willow Grove, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and held a national convention biennially. It also had a bimonthly news paper, Junior American, [4] which is still published. [5]
Between 1925 and 1932, they constructed the Junior Order United American Mechanics National Orphans Home near Lexington, North Carolina. [6] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. [7]
The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist terrorist and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Catholics, Native Americans as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals, Muslims, and atheists.
The Knights of Columbus is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Blessed Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. Membership is limited to practical Catholic men. It is led by Patrick E. Kelly, the order's 14th Supreme Knight.
The Improved Order of Red Men is a fraternal organization established in North America in 1834. Their rituals and regalia are modeled after those assumed by men of the era to be used by Native Americans. Despite the name, the order was formed solely by, and for, white men. The organization claimed a membership of about half a million in 1935, but has declined to a little more than 15,000.
The Knights of Honor, was a fraternal order and secret society in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Knights were one of the most successful fraternal beneficiary societies of its time.
A benefit society, fraternal benefit society, fraternal benefit order, friendly society, or mutual aid society is a society, an organization or a voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit, for instance insurance for relief from sundry difficulties. Such organizations may be formally organized with charters and established customs, or may arise ad hoc to meet unique needs of a particular time and place.
Sons of Norway, founded in 1895 as the Independent Order of the Sons of Norway, is a fraternal organization principally representing people of Norwegian heritage in the United States and Canada. The organization includes in its mission the promotion and preservation of the heritage and culture of Norway and other Nordic countries and to provide life insurance and other financial products to its members. The organization is classified as a non-profit 501(c)(8) fraternal beneficiary society.
While the traditional social fraternity is a well-established mainstay across the United States at institutions of higher learning, alternatives – in the form of social fraternities that require doctrinal and behavioral conformity to the Christian faith – developed in the early 20th century. They continue to grow in size and popularity.
The Order of United American Mechanics was an anti-Catholic American Nativist organization of the mid-19th century. It was founded in Philadelphia amid the anti-alien riots of 1844-45. It originally was called the Union of Workers. Members were required to undertake efforts to publicize and campaign against the hiring of cheap foreign labor and to patronize only "American" businesses.
The Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW) was a fraternal organization in the United States and Canada, providing mutual social and financial support after the American Civil War. It was the first of the "fraternal benefit societies", organizations that would offer insurance as well as sickness, accident, death and burial policies.
The Knights of Equity (KOE) is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization established in the US in 1895 and still in active operation in the 21st century. The group is among the oldest Irish-Catholic membership associations in America. With some 65 local chapters, called "courts", during its period of greatest influence, the group was an important Catholic political and fraternal benefit society. The early society organized Irish Catholics in America against discrimination, and gave financial aid to impoverished Irish immigrants.
The New Richland Odd Fellows Hall is a historic Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) clubhouse in New Richland, Minnesota, United States, built in 1902. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006 under the name Strangers Refuge Lodge Number 74, IOOF for its local significance in the themes of entertainment/recreation and social history. It was nominated for being the home of a large and important local fraternal organization, and for serving as a venue for a wide range of other groups and events. The building now houses the New Richland Public Library.
The Daughters of America is an American secret society, Nativist organization dating from the late-19th century. It was founded in 1891 as an auxiliary of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. Since its heyday in the 1930s, the organization is believed to have shrunk significantly, to the point that it is no longer known whether or not it still exists.
The Supreme Council of the Royal Arcanum, commonly known simply as the Royal Arcanum, is a fraternal benefit society founded in 1877 in Boston, Massachusetts by John A. Cummings and Darius Wilson, who had previously been among the founders of the Knights of Honor, a similar organization, in Kentucky. The Royal Arcanum home office is located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Herbert B. Hunter was an architect in North Carolina. Early in his career he worked as a draughtsman for Leonard L. Hunter. His principal North Carolina projects occurring in the 1920s. Hunter established his own firm in High Point, North Carolina in the early 1920s. He was an early member of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and was pictured among the group at the annual meeting in Charlotte in 1929. He worked as an architect for the National Park Service designing park buildings. President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected him to make the drawing for the White House Oval Room. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I and World War II, planning hospitals and other structures.
Junior Order United American Mechanics Children's Home, DBA American Children's Home, is a historic Junior Order of United American Mechanics orphanage located near Lexington, Davidson County, North Carolina. The complex was designed by architect Herbert B. Hunter and consists of five major buildings built between 1925 and 1932. The complex is modeled after the University of Virginia. The Colonial Revival style buildings include Administration Building (1927), the Pennsylvania Building, the South Carolina Building, the North Carolina Building, and the Samuel F. Vance Auditorium (1932).
Lodge Boleslav Jablonsky No. 219 is the meeting hall of a Czech American fraternal society in Poplar Grove Township, Minnesota, United States. The hall was built in 1916 and remains in use as of 2016. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 for having local significance in the themes of European ethnic heritage and social history. It was nominated for being a representative of ethnic history in the last part of Minnesota to be settled by Euro-Americans.