Knights and Ladies of Honor

The Knights and Ladies of Honor were an American fraternal benefit organizations in the late 19th and early twentieth century.

History

The Knights and Ladies of Honor originated as a splinter group of the Knights of Honor, a fraternal secret society founded in 1873. In 1875, the Knight of Honor created an auxiliary, the Degree of Protection, open the wives, mothers, widows and unmarried daughters and sisters of members of the Knights of Honor, as well as male members of the parent order. The only a few lodges of the auxiliary were formed in the years between its creation and May 1877, when the Supreme Lodge of the Knights of Honor abolished the auxiliary. On September 6, 1877 representatives of the lodges of the Degree met in convention in Louisville, Kentucky, and decided to form their own organization. This convention elected a "Provisional Supreme Lodge", which included, among others, J. A. Demaree, one of the original founders of the Knights of Honor. The first official meeting of the "Supreme Lodge of Protection, Knights of and Ladies of Honor" was held on September 19, 1878 in St. Louis and the order was incorporated by the Commonwealth of Kentucky on the following April. On December 14, 1881 the General Assembly of Kentucky amended its charter slightly, changing its name from the Order of Protection of the Knights and Ladies of Honor to the Order of the Knights and Ladies of Honor.[1]

Organization

The Knights and Ladies of Honor were organized on a three tier system with local Subordinate Lodges, state level Grand Lodges and governed by a national Supreme Lodge. There were 16 Grand Lodges in 1896.[2] Its headquarters was in Indianapolis, Indiana.[3]

Membership and Benefits

Membership in the Knights and Ladies of Honor was open to acceptable white men and women between the ages of eighteen to fifty who was in a reputable profession, business or occupation. One of its goals was "to give all moral and material aid in its power" to its members and their dependents by holding "moral, literary and scientific" lectures as well as assisting each other to obtain employment and encouraging each other in business. There was an optional relief fund which was divided into four "divisions" for $500, $1000, $2000 and $3,000. Upon the death of a member a sum of money was given to that members designee's were given the sum of money the deceased contributed in life as well as the amount specified on his certificate.[4]

On June 30, 1878 it had 907 male members and 1,018 females, for a total of 1,925. On December 1, 1895 it had 39,922 men and 43,083 women totaling 83,005.[5] Of the 8,000 death benefits the society paid out during that time, 4,198 were male and 3,802 were female.[6] In 1898 it had declined to 72,000.[7] In 1908 it claimed 100,000 members.[8]

As the group's membership aged and more members died the monthly assessment went up. In 1916 older members of the group appealed to the New York State Department of Insurance to protect their interests, claiming that the assessments were exorbitant and was half a million dollars behind on its death benefits. In one case an 84-year-old man was paying an $18.40 assessment, 922% more than he had originally paid when he joined the order forty years prior.[9]

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References
  1. 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 E. B. Treat and Company, New York p.142
  2. Stevens p.143
  3. Alvin J. Schmidt Fraternal Orders (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press), 1930, p.175
  4. Stevens p.142
  5. Stevens p.142
  6. Stevens p.143
  7. Schmidt p.175
  8. Preuss, Arthur A Dictionary of Secret and other Societies St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co. 1924; republished Detroit: Gale Reference Company 1966; p.213
  9. Preuss p.213

See also
  • "Honor, Knights and Ladies of" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
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