To advance the "practice of thrift and economy": Fraternal societies and social capital, 1890-1920

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 586-612

  Beito, David T ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33748356462     PISSN: 00221953     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/002219599551822     Document Type: Review

References (166)

1. Robert D. Putnam, with Roberto Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, 1993), 167.
2. The historical literature of fraternal societies is growing rapidly. See, for example, David M. Fahey, The Black Lodge in White America: "True Reformer" Browne and His Economic Strategy (Dayton, 1994);
3. William A. Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley, 1975);
4. Robert Whaples and David Buffum, "Fraternalism, Paternalism, the Family, and the Market: Insurance a Century Ago," Social Science History, XV (1991), 97-102;
5. Susan D. Greenbaum, "Economic Cooperation Among Urban Industrial Workers: Rationality and Community in an Afro-Cuban Mutual Aid Society, 1904-1927," Social Science History, XVII (1993), 173-193;
6. Hannah Kliger (ed.), Jewish Hometown Associations and Family Circles in New York: The WPA Yiddish Writers' Group Study (Bloomington, 1992);
7. Daniel Soyer, Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939 (Cambridge, Mass., 1997);
8. Mary Ann Clawson, Constructing Brotherhood: Class, Gender, and Fraternalism (Princeton, 1989);
9. Mark C. Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America (New Haven, 1989);
10. Lynn Dumenil, Freemasonry and American Culture, 1880-1930 (Princeton, 1984);
11. Don Harrison Doyle, The Social Order of a Frontier Community: Jacksonville, Illinois, 1825-70 (Urbana, 1978);
12. Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939 (New York, 1990).
13. Frederick L. Hoffman, "Fifty Years of American Life Insurance Progress," American Statistical Association, XCV (September 1911), 88;
14. Richard de Raismes Kip, Fraternal Life Insurance (Philadelphia, 1953), 169;
15. Illinois, state, Report of the Health Insurance Commission, (Springfield, 1919), 228.
16. L.M. Thomas, "The Bulwark of Our Republic," Knights and Ladies of Security, XXI (May 10, 1915), 1.
17. William P. Burrell and D.E. Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History of the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, 1881-1903 (Westport, 1970; orig. pub. 1909), 138;
18. Ladies of the Maccabees of the World, Ritual of the Ladies of the Maccabees of the World (Port Huron, 1910), 19;
19. Independent Order of Saint Luke, Degree Ritual of the Independent Order of Saint Luke (Richmond, 1904), 24;
20. Security Benefit Association, Ritual of the Security Benefit Association (Topeka, n.d), 32;
21. Loyal Order of the Moose, Historical Souvenir of the Loyal Order of the Moose (1912), 10, 51, 61.
22. Security, Ritual, 36. The version of the song in the Maccabees' Ritual included this stanza: Pledged sisters now are we In blest fraternity, Our hopes, our aims, our plans are one Till passing years are done. (40)
23. Moose, Historical Souvenir, 67;
24. Maccabees, Ritual, 66.
25. Independent Order, Historical Report of the R.W.G. Council, I.O, Saint Utkc, 1867-1917 (Richmond, 1917), 41;
26. Moose, Minutes (1925), 91;
27. Moose, idem, Mooseheart Year Book (1918-1919), 131.
28. The use of the family analogy was pervasive among fraternalists. See David Thelen, Paths of Resistance: Tradition and Dignity in Industrializing Missouri (New York, 1986), 166;
29. Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood, 119-120;
30. Clawson, Constructing Brotherhood, 25.
31. Maccabees, Ritual, 58;
32. "No Poor House for Members of the S.B.A or Their Families," Security News, XXX (March 1924), 1;
33. "Protection Now Furnished from the 'Cradle to the Grave,'" Knights and Ladies of Security, XXIII (April 1917), 7;
34. "New $800,000 Hospital to be Occupied," Security News, XXXVI (May 1930), 3;
35. Dean L. Smith, A Nickel a Month (Topeka, 1979), 138-140.
36. Security, Ritual, 14, 49, 51, 57;
37. Independent Order, Degree Ritual, 8;
38. Maccabees, Ritual, 42-43.
39. The journal of Security argued that "fraternalism is religion - the religion of the Master in motion." "Fraternity Is Religion," Security News, XXVII (December 1922).
40. In a provocative analysis, Betty M. Kuyk traces elements of the fraternal ritual of the Independent Order and other black societies to African antecedents ("The African Derivation of Black Fraternal Orders in the United States," Comparative Studies in Society and History, XXV [1983], 559-592).
41. Independent Order, Degree Ritual, 19.
42. "Editorial Comment," Ladies Review, XXII (January 1916), 1;
43. "Editorial Comment," " Ladies Review, ibid., XX (September 1914), 1.
44. Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 138.
45. Moose, Historical Souvenir, 35, 51.
46. Mary MacEachern, "Editorial Comment," Ladies Review, XXII (December 1916),
47. no page numbers; Independent Order, Degree Ritual, 20;
48. Woman's Benefit Association of the Maccabees, Ritual and Laws: The Order of the Rose (Port Huron, 1917), 25-26.
49. Fanny L. Armstrong, "Woman as a Factor in Fraternal Organizations," Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, V (May 1, 1899), no page numbers;
50. "Address Delivered by Honorable William Jennings Bryan," Mooseheart Magazine, I (October 1915), 18;
51. Moose, Historical Souvenir, 33. Two rare fraternal exceptions to the usual policy of nonpartisanship were the Workmen's Circle, which generally endorsed candidates of the Socialist Party, and the International Workers Order, which was aligned with the Communist Party.
52. Maccabees, Ritual, 37;
53. Moose, Historical Souvenir, 33;
54. "Classification of Mooseheart Students According to Fathers' Occupation," Mooseheart Weekly, VII (June 21, 1924), 5. The data on Mooseheart fathers may not completely mirror the composition of the rank and file. It would make sense that the poorest members would be more likely to leave orphans at Mooseheart.
55. Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 216;
56. Fahey, Black Lodge, 9, 31;
57. True Reformers, Grand Fountain, Minutes (1901), 40.
58. Harvey F. Songer, "The Lodge System," Security News, XXX (July 1924), 4;
59. Maccabees, Ritual, 41-42;
60. Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 386.
61. Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America (New York, 1955), 20.
62. Keith L. Yates, An Enduring Heritage: The First One Hundred Years of North American Benefit Association (Formerly Woman's Benefit Association) (Port Huron, 1992), 15-85, 312-313.
63. An Enduring Heritage: The First One Hundred Years of North American Benefit Association (Formerly Woman's Benefit Association) (Ibid., 160-161, xxiv.
64. Alice E. Boyd, "Our Order," Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, IV (January 20, 1898), 2;
65. Yates, Enduring Heritage, 101-104, 135-136;
66. "History of Order and Biographical Sketches of Officers and Representatives of the Third Biennial Review," Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees (Supplement) (July 1, 1899), 19-24;
67. "The National Council of Women," Ladies Review, XV (September 1909), 188;
68. Locke, "Compulsory Insurance Opposed by Women's Benefit Societies," National Civic Federation Review, V (July 10, 1920), 14, 16.
69. "Elizabeth E. Brown, "The Work of Women," Ladies Review, VII (April 1, 1901), 2.
70. "The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, July 19, 1848," in Henry Steele Commager (ed.), Documents of American History (New York, 1949), I, 315;
71. Aileen S. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920 (Garden City, 1971), 40.
72. Angelina Grimke, one of the founders of the suffrage movement, expressed this view long before the Civil War: "I recognize no rights but human rights - I know nothing of men's rights and women's rights; for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female" ("Human Rights Not Founded on Sex," in Wendy McElroy [ed.], Freedom, Feminism, and the State: An Overview of Individualist Feminism [Washington, D.C., 1982], 31).
73. Emma E. Bower, "Women in the World's Work," Western Review, XV (January 1909), 11.
74. West, "First Address, Vanderbilt, Michigan," October 21, 1891, Woman's Life Insurance Society Papers, Port Huron, Mich.
75. Elizabeth B. McGowan, "The Scope of Woman's Influence and Its Greatest Avenue for Good in Fraternal Organizations," Ladies Review, VII (January 1, 1901), 1.
76. Emma S. Olds, "The Twentieth Century Woman as Fraternalist," The Fraternal Monitor, XXI (October 1, 1900), 35.
77. Elizabeth E. Brown, Grand Commander of Pennsylvania, endorsed the female-only rule on the grounds that members would be "unhampered by the dominating sentiments of men" ("What Can She Do?" Ladies Review, X [July 1, 1904], no page numbers).
78. Elsie Ada Faust, "The Advantages of Fraternalism for Women," " Ladies Review, ibid., XXII (January 1916), 4.
79. Bower, "Benefit of Fraternalism to the Home," Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, V (March 1, 1899), 1;
80. West, "First Address";
81. MacEachern, "Editorial Comment," Ladies Review, XXIII (October 1917), no page numbers.
82. "Bower, "Women in the World's Work"; Fraternal Actuarial Association, Proceedings of the Fraternal Actuarial Association (1918), 66.
83. For a list of the occupations of those members who died between 1900 and 1903, see the Maccabees, Supreme Hive, Regular Review (1904), no page numbers.
84. Hollister asserted that "the walls that have naturally been built up between women, because of their social position, are thrown down in the lodge room" ("Greetings to the National Federation of Clubs," Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, II [June 1896], no page numbers).
85. "Protect the Home," Ladies Review, XIV (May 1908), no page numbers;
86. "Protect the Home," Ladies Review, " ibid., XV (August 1909), no page numbers;
87. the Maccabees, Ritual, 55-56.
88. "A Chat With Our Members," Ladies Review, IXX (April 1913), 58.
89. Ella J. Fifield, "The Twentieth Century Woman as a Fraternalist," Ladies Review, VII (December 1, 1901)," 1.
90. Hollister, "The Supreme Commander's Department," Ladies Review, XV (August 1909), 166;
91. Terence O'Donnell, History of Life Insurance in Its Formative Years (Chicago, 1936), 649;
92. Louis I. Dublin, After Eighty Years: The Impact of Life Insurance on the Public Health (Gainesville, 1966), 47-49.
93. Security, which admitted both men and women on equal terms, also relied on this argument although to a much lesser extent. "If a woman dies, she will leave just as large a doctor's bill, just as much funeral expense and just as gloomy a husband as a man would leave if the reverse were true ("Women Protected," Security News, XXVIII [December 1922], 2).
94. Fifield, "The Twentieth Century Woman," 1;
95. Maccabees, Approved Decisions and Official Rulings (Port Huron, 1912), 71-72.
96. "Editorial and Personal," Ladies Review, XV (June 1909), 1;
97. "Editorial Comment," " Ladies Review, ibid., XXI (April 1915), no page numbers;
98. "Study Course: Port Huron, Hive No. 1, Mich.," 8, Woman's Life Insurance Society Papers, Port Huron, Mich.
99. Hollister, "The Czar's Peace Conference," Review of the Ladies of the Maccabees, V (May 1, 1899);
100. Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Sociology (New York, 1899), I, 743.
101. Why would so dedicated a feminist as Hollister make such a positive reference to Spencer, a strong opponent of women's suffrage? Hollister may have been aware, as were many other feminists, that Spencer had not always been opposed. In 1850, only two years after the Declaration of Sentiment, Spencer had called for extending full political equality to women (Social Statics: The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of Them Developed [New York, 1954; orig. pub. 1850], 138-153).
102. "Report of Supreme Commander," Maccabees, Supreme Hive, Regular Review, (1915), 62-67;
103. "Report of Supreme Commander," Woman's Benefit Association of the Maccabees, Supreme Review, Regular Session (1919), 33-35.
104. "Hospital Service Directory," Ladies Review, XXV (January 1919), 11;
105. "Report of Supreme Medical Examiner," Woman's Benefit Association of the Maccabees, Supreme Review, Regular Session (1923), 55-57;
106. "Our Hospital Service," Ladies Review, XXIII (March 1917), 37.
107. "The Object of Our Hospital Service," " Ladies Review, ibid., XXIV (November/December 1918), 124;
108. Elizabeth M. Hooper, "Benefits of the Hospital Service," " Ladies Review, ibid., XXIV (September 1918), 102;
109. "Our Watchful Guardians," " Ladies Review, ibid., XII (May 1906), 105;
110. "The Medical Department," Ladies Review, " ibid., XV (November 1909), 242.
111. Fahey, Black Lodge, 19;
112. M.W. Sackett, Early History of Fraternal Beneficiary Societies in America (Meadville, Penn., 1914), 130-159;
113. John S. Butler, Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans: A Reconstruction of Race and Economics (Albany, 1991), 110-111.
114. Fahey, Black Lodge, 19.
115. Black Lodge, Ibid., 4, 19-21, 31, 40.
116. Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 15;
117. Elsa Barkley Brown, "Uncle Ned's Children: Negotiating Community and Freedom in Postemancipation Richmond, Virginia," unpub. Ph.D. diss. (Kent State Univ., 1994), 141-142;
118. Fahey, Black Lodge, 33.
119. Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 75, 87.
120. Fahey, Black Lodge, 19, 52, 150, 256-257;
121. True Reformers, Grand Fountain, From Slavery to Bankers (Richmond, 1907), 9;
122. idem, Minutes (1907), 12.
123. Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 90.
124. Twenty-Five Years History, Ibid., 170;
125. Fahey, Black Lodge, 30. A speaker at a True Reformer meeting predicted that the "Brown before the rebellion and the Browne after the rebellion shall cause the white man to grasp the black's man hand, regarding him truly as his equal." See
126. Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 206.
127. Twenty-Five Years History, Ibid., 80, 117.
128. Twenty-Five Years History, Ibid., 135, 171;
129. Fahey, Black Lodge, 27.
130. Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 119. Bowen quotes Browne as stating, When it comes to building churches, then the women are ahead; societies, then the women are ahead; when it comes to shooting crap, then the boys are ahead; bar-rooms, the boys are ahead. . . . I am getting jealous; we want the men, and I am not going to stop until we get them. We want the boys from gambling dens; help us, girls.
131. (Burrell and Johnson, Twenty-Five Years History, 173-174)
132. Alexa Benson Henderson, Atlanta Life Insurance Company: Guardian of Black Economic Dignity (Tuscaloosa, 1990), 9;
133. Butler, Entrepreneurship and Self-Help, 184, 188;
134. Fahey, Black Lodge, 22;
135. B.E. Research, "B.E. Banks," Black Enterprise, XXVIII (June 1998), 181.
136. Independent Order, Fiftieth Anniversary - Golden Jubilee, Historical Report (Richmond, 1917), 5-6;
137. Margaret Reid, "Mary Ann Prout," in Darlene Clark Hine (ed.), Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (Brooklyn, 1993), 948-949.
138. For more on the relationship between mutual aid and black churches, see Henderson, Atlanta Life Insurance Company, 7-17.
139. Elizabeth B. Brown, "Uncle Ned's Children," 207, 500-503;
140. Elizabeth B. Brown, "idem, "Womanist Consciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint Luke," Signs, XIV (Spring 1989), 615-616, 624-630.
141. See also Gertrude W. Marlowe, "Maggie Lena Walker," in Hine (ed.), Black Women in America, 1216;
142. Fahey, Black Lodge, 22;
143. Wendell P. Dabney, Maggie L. Walker and the I.O. of Saint Luke: The Woman and Her Work (Cincinnati 1927), 38.
144. Elizabeth B. Brown, "Uncle Ned's Children," 145.
145. Elizabeth B. Brown, "Idem, "Womanist Consciousness," 617, 630.
146. Dabney, Maggie L. Walker, 12-13;
147. Marlowe, "Maggie Lena Walker," 1218-1219;
148. Elizabeth B. Brown, "Womanist Consciousness," 618-619;
149. Walker, "Traps for Women," Addresses, n.d. In 1921, Walker ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent of education in Virginia on the "Lily-Black" Republican ticket (Elizabeth B. Brown, "Womanist Consciousness," 618).
150. Walker, "Nothing But Leaves," Addresses, 1909 (Maggie L. Walker Papers, Maggie L. Walker National Historical Site, Richmond, Virginia [henceforth MLWP]).
151. Dabney, Maggie L. Walker, 13;
152. Elizabeth B. Brown, "Uncle Ned's Children," 544-547.
153. Walker, "Nothing But Leaves," 16;
154. Walker, idem, "Stumbling Blocks," Addresses, February 17, 1907,
155. MLWP; Elizabeth B. Brown, "Womanist Consciousness," 623.
156. "Womanist Consciousness," Ibid., 624. In Walker's words, "When I sit and listen to colored men tell colored women to stay at home, mind the children and wait on their husbands," Walker declared, "I grow sad. How many of us colored women are wives - how many have husbands who can take care of us?" ("Traps for Women," 17).
157. Elizabeth B. Brown, "Womanist Consciousness," 620, 622.
158. Dabney, Maggic L. Walker, 12;
159. Marlowe, "Maggie Lena Walker," 1218-1219;
160. Elizabeth B. Brown, "Womanist Consciousness," 618-619.
161. Walker, "Beniah's Valour," Addresses, March 1906, 8, 15, MLWP. Walker framed the issue in personal terms: Well, when next you send your banking committee down to the white man's bank, to take your club money, your society money, your church money and your Sunday School money, don't forget, that with your own hands, you are placing a stumbling-block in the pathway of that boy and that girl you are sending to school, which will, probably, take them all their lives to overcome. (Walker, "Stumbling Blocks," 38)
162. Elizabeth B. Brown, "Uncle Ned's Children," 526-528.
163. Uncle Ned's Children," Ibid., 543-544;
164. Dabney, Maggie L. Walker, 54, 128-129.
165. Maggie L. Walker, Ibid., 121-122;
166. B.E. Research, "B.E. Insurance Companies," Black Enterprise, XXVIII (June 1998), 189.