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.
The group grew rapidly in Canada and several US States, reaching 10,000 members by 1880. The organization was not on an actuarially sound basis - no medical exams were required of new members, and assessments of death was 10 cents for each member. As death claims began piling up, the organizations expenses began to outweigh its income. A group of business men in Michigan, where the order had a number of members, endeavored to put the Maccabees on a sound financial basis. To this end a "grand review" was held in Buffalo, New York in 1880 to reorganize the society, drawing up a new constitution and laws. Major N. S. Boynton was elected the new Supreme Lieutenant Commander. This created a brief schism with the Canadian group seceding under a man named McLaughlin. In 1881 a meeting of the two factions representatives met at Port Huron, Michigan, and they agreed to reconcile their differences. A committee was appointed, chaired by Boynton, to draft a new constitution acceptable to both factions, and this was agreed to in February 1881.[4]
Under the new constitution, Great Camps could be formed in states or provinces with more than 1,000 members and the Supreme Tent (overall organization) operated the beneficiary aspect of the organization. The Great Camp of Michigan was incorporated in that state on June 11, 1881, which was considered the foundation date of the reorganized order. Organizational stability remained elusive. At the Supreme Tent in July 1881 the Michigan delegates obtained an amendment to allow individual Great Camps to establish their own beneficiary programs, anticipating that the national organization would become defunct. By 1882, the order had indeed become dormant outside of Michigan, and Boynton became Great Record Keeper and then Great Commander of the state. The Supreme Tent was then revived, again, in September 1883.[5]
In 1914 the organization changed its name from the Knights of the Maccabees to simply The Maccabees.[6]
In terms of finances and benefits, the Maccabees adopted the National Fraternal Congress Tables in 1911 and the American Mortuary Table of Rates in 1920. A "Supreme Review" conducted in 1958, the Macabees became a mutual life insurance company effective 1961, though still kept some fraternal features.[7][8]
By 1920 the ladies' auxiliary, Ladies of the Maccabees, claimed more than 200,000 members.
In 1926 they established their headquarters at the Maccabees Building in downtown Detroit, Michigan. In 1960 the Maccabees relocated to a new building in Southfield, Michigan - a suburb of Detroit. In 1986 they built new 251,000-square-foot (23,300m2) office building, in Southfield.
In 1941 the group gained control of the Michigan Union Life Association, furthering its transformation from a benefit society into a modern, legal-reserve insurance company.
In 1962 the group changed its name again, this time to the Maccabees Mutual Life Insurance Company.
In the 1990s the organization was demutualized and sold to the Royal Insurance Group and operated under the name Royal Maccabees Life Insurance Company.
In 1999 Royal Maccabees was sold by its parent company, Royal & SunAlliance Financial Services, to Swiss Re.[11] Swiss Re merged it into its subsidiary, Reassure America Life Insurance Company.[12]
Organization
The group was structured on a three tiered model, with local Subordinate Camps, Great Camps at the district level and the whole considered the Supreme Tent.[8] By the 1970s the local groups were called "Subordinate Units". Head offices were traditionally in Detroit, but in 1965 they were moved to Southfield, Michigan.[13]
Membership was open to all white persons between 18 and 70, though those over 52 were ineligible for the beneficiary features. Applicants had to be of good moral character, bodily healthy and socially acceptable. Furthermore, those engaged in extra-hazardous occupations, such as coal miners, electric line men, aeronauts, people engaged in blasting, the manufacture of highly flammable or explosive material and submarine officers were excluded from membership. Also, no one who was involved in the liquor trade or an alcoholic was admitted. Certain classes of railway employees, expressmen, miners (excluding coal miners) and firemen had to pay an additional 25 cents assessment per each $1,000.[14]
On December 1, 1896 the Knights had 182,000 members in 40 states and provinces, though a third of the membership was in Michigan. The death rate among the membership was 5.54 per 1,000, which was considered exceptionally low. They also had a permanent headquarters in Port Huron, which had opened in 1892.[14] By 1915 membership had reached 331,756. However, by 1978 membership was down to about 10,000[7] There were 3,500 members in the US and Canada in 1994.[8]
Degrees
Degree of Protection - In the Degree of Protection, the candidate was introduced to the demands of Honor, Courage, and Obedience. The candidate learned the history of Maccabee household and how it protected Judea from King Antiochus during the war of independence. To prove themselves fit to "join in the cause of humanity," the tyros had to undergo an ordeal.
Degree of Friendship - In the Degree of Friendship, the Commander takes the part of Mattathias, the Lt. Commander that of Judas, the Past Commander that of John (son of Mattathias), and the Chaplain that of Eleazar (son of Mattathias). The candidate received instruction in the nature of friendship.
Degree of Loyalty - In the Degree of Loyalty, the dramatic work revolved around the following characters: Apelles, Mattathias, Matthathias's four sons, Judas, Soldiers, while the candidate, Sentinel, and a Knight took the parts of Jewish peasants. In keeping with the Maccabee legend of the revolt at Modin the patriarch Mattathias remained steadfast to the Jewish religion when ordered to make sacrifice to Greek gods and at great personal risk stops an apostate Jew from offering sacrifice to false gods. The lesson derived from his example was that of genuine patriotism and inculcated the duty to uphold and defend the rights of liberty and conscience when they are threatened by irresponsible power in any form. Additionally, the candidate was reintroduced to the ghost of Eleazar and finally sees the end of the rebellion.[15]
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.
The International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor is an African-American co-ed fraternal organization best known as the sponsor of the Taborian Hospital.
The Improved Order of Heptasophs was a fraternal order in the United States that existed from 1878-1917. It was distinguished from its parent organization, the Order of Heptasophs in that its main focus was on insurance.
Catholic Financial Life (CFL) is a Milwaukee-based life insurer and fraternal organization. It is one of the largest Catholic not-for-profit financial services organizations in the United States, second only to the Knights of Columbus. Fraternal benefits societies are nonprofit membership organizations that designate a portion of their income for charity.
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 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.
The Tribe of Ben-Hur was a fraternal organization based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace. In 1930 it became the Ben-Hur Life Association.
Assured Life Association, formerly Woodmen of the World and/or Assured Life Association, having officially changed its name to on January 1, 2015, is a fraternal benefit society based in Denver, Colorado whose beginnings can be traced to the same founder as Modern Woodmen of America and Woodmen of the World in 1890. Today, Assured Life Association is not affiliated with either organization. Aside from offering insurance benefits the organization is a non-profit Life Insurer organized to give back revenues to its member customers through direct benefits such as college scholarships and summer camp grants for youth and through discounts on other products and services. The Society also has a member-directed matching charitable giving program. Four national community service projects are promoted among Society member customers each year.
The Gleaner Life Insurance Society, originally the Ancient Order of Gleaners, is a fraternal benefit society based in Adrian, Michigan.
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 and adopted its current name in 2011.
The Degree of Honor Protective Association is a fraternal benefit society. It was originally organized as a female auxiliary to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, but split off in 1910 to become its own independent group. It merged with Catholic Financial Life in 2017.
The Order of Chosen Friends was a fraternal benefit order that existed in North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The group suffered a number of splits during its lifetime, leading scholar Alan Axelrod to call it "almost a parody" of fraternal benefit societies of the time.
The Ladies of the Maccabees (L.O.T.M.) was the female auxiliary of the Knights of the Maccabees. It was the first fraternal benefit society operated exclusively by women. This was an insurance benefit society which grew to 80,000 members by 1913 and had paid out over $50 million in endowment benefits. The Ladies of the Maccabees Building, in Port Huron, Michigan was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Frances E. Burns was an American social leader and business woman. She served as Great Commander for Michigan of the Ladies of the Maccabees. She was the first woman executive of an American fraternal congress that was national in its scope.
↑ Alan AxelrodInternational Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders New York; Facts on File, inc 1997 p.166
↑ Stevens, Albert C. Cyclopedia of Fraternities: A Compilation of Existing Authentic Information and the Results of Original Investigation as to the Origin, Derivation, Founders, Development, Aims, Emblems, Character, and Personnel of More Than Six Hundred Secret Societies in the United States New York: E.B. Treat and Co., 1907 p.152
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
