The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 1864. The Knights of Pythias is the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress.
Knights of the Maccabees was a fraternal organization formed in 1878 in London, Ontario, Canada. Most active in the U.S. state of Michigan, the group's fraternal aspects took a backseat to providing low-cost insurance to members. In the society's early years it also provided other final-expense related benefits such as society cemeteries.
A mutual organization, also mutual society or simply mutual, is an organization based on the principle of mutuality and governed by private law. Unlike a cooperative, members usually do not directly contribute to the capital of the organization, but derive their right to profits and votes through their customer relationship.
A benefit society, fraternal benefit society, fraternal benefit order, friendly society, or mutual aid organization is 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 the unique needs of a particular time and place.
A mutual insurance company is an insurance company owned entirely by its policyholders. It is a form of consumers' co-operative. Any profits earned by a mutual insurance company are either retained within the company or rebated to policyholders in the form of dividend distributions or reduced future premiums. In contrast, a stock insurance company is owned by investors who have purchased company stock; any profits generated by a stock insurance company are distributed to the investors without necessarily benefiting the policyholders.
The International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor (IOT) is an international co-ed African American fraternal organization best known as the sponsor of the Taborian Hospital.
The American Mutual Life Association (AMLA) is an ethnic fraternal benefit and social organization for Slovene immigrants and their descendants in the United States. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, it serves members primarily in Ohio. It is a member of the American Fraternal Alliance.
American Income Life Insurance Company (AIL) is an American unionized life insurance company that provides supplemental life insurance to labor unions, credit unions, and associations.
There have been a number of interlocking fraternal orders known as the beavers. The Fraternal Order of Beavers was created in 1911. The relationships between these and the Beavers Reserve Fund Fraternity, Beavers National Mutual Benefit and the National Mutual Benefit is complex. The North American Order of the Beaver was founded in 1990.
The American Fraternal Alliance (AFA) is an umbrella group of fraternal orders in the United States. It was founded as the National Fraternal Congress of America in 1913, in Chicago, Illinois. It adopted its current name in 2011.
The Knights of the Ancient Order of the Mystic Chain were a secret society in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Founded by Freemasons in 1871, the group had a strong Masonic influence in its rituals and degrees, as well as incorporating elements from the Bible and Arthurian legend.
Esther W. Taylor was an American physician, one of the earliest women physicians in New England.
American Protestant Association was the oldest American, exclusively anti-Roman Catholic secret society. It is believed to have been the prototype of the American Protective Association. It was established at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had five degrees, which, according to the Cyclopedia of Fraternities, "in connection with the personnel of its earlier membership, point to Orange sympathies." It is probable that American Protestant associations existed as long ago as the 1844, but it is also probable that the American Protestant Association was founded in 1849, because the "forty-fifth annual convention" of the Pennsylvania State Lodge was held at its natal city in 1895. The Association was active mainly in Pennsylvania. Its members were noted for their anti-Catholic tendencies. A schism, in 1884, gave rise to the "Order of American Freeman". The "Junior American Protestant Association", modelled probably after the original "junior order," that of the Sons of America, was founded in 1864, and like the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, afterwards declared its independence of the parent society, even going so far as to change its name, in 1890, to "Loyal Knights of America". A schismatic African-American branch of the American Protestant Association was formed in Pennsylvania, in 1849, and was still in existence in 1907.
Brotherhood of American Yeomen was a coeducational North American secret fraternal benefit society organized in 1897. In 1932, the organization was changed to a mutual, legal reserve, level premium company.
Canadian Order of Chosen Friends was a fraternal benefit order that existed in Canada in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Organized in 1887, it was an offshoot of the Indianapolis-based Order of Chosen Friends.
Columbian Mutual Life Assurance Society was an American fraternal benefit order. It was originally organized in 1903, under the laws of Georgia, as "Eminent Household of Columbian Woodmen" (sometimes referred to as "Columbian Woodmen of Georgia" or simply, "Columbian Woodmen". When this organization merged with the "Columbia Woodmen of Mississippi" in 1921, the name of the merged institutions was changed to "Columbian Mutual Life Assurance Society". In 1922, its home office moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where it erected a 22-story office building, known as Columbian Mutual Tower. The Society paid sick and death benefits and admitted both men and women. In 1924, it had 831 subordinate lodges with a benefit membership of 24,039.
Knights of Reciprocity was an American semi-political secret society. Largely inspired by opposition to the Farmers' Alliance, it was organized in Garden City, Kansas, on November 26, 1890, by members of the Masonic Fraternity, Odd Fellows, and Knights of Pythias. The KofR was organized for the express purpose of aiding James G. Blaine to the Republican presidential nomination, and grew so rapidly that when the 1892 Republican National Convention was held in Minneapolis, the order had a membership in Missouri alone of over 20,000. With the defeat of Blaine, interest in the order lagged for a time, but after William Warner's nomination, the enthusiasm flamed up again.
League of Friendship, Mechanical Order of the Sun was a fraternal beneficiary labor organization formed on April 30, 1868, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. From it sprang the Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW). The membership of the League was composed almost entirely of mechanics, engineers, firemen, and day laborers employed in the shops and on the lines of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, later known as Erie Railroad. Its object was "to advance and foster the interests of its members by cooperating in effort and financial assistance whenever called upon to serve a worthy and approved cause." To this pledge each member was bound by a solemn oath to be obedient and faithful. The League was governed by a "Grand Council", and the dissension which led to the resignation of "Father" John Jordan Upchurch and the other founders of the AOUW, and to the final disbanding of the League, October 27, 1868, was caused by a tax levied by that Council, which many members regarded as an imposition.
