No complete account of Negro beneficial societies is possible, so large is their number and so wide their ramification. Nor can any hard and fast line between them and industrial insurance societies be drawn save in membership and extent of business. These societies are also difficult to separate from secret societies; many have more or less ritual work, and the regular secret societies do much fraternal insurance business.

An account of the secret and beneficial societies in several towns of various sizes and in different localities will give some idea of the distribution of these organizations:

The church does not, however, occupy the social life of the Negroes as completely as formerly, or as is now the case in some Southern towns. The home is fast becoming among the more intelligent classes in Xenia the real social unit. But, leaving aside the home, next to the church are the secret orders There are eleven Negro lodges in Xenia, namely: Wilberforce Lodge, No. 21, of Free and Accepted Masons, having 48 members; Lincoln Chapter, No. 2, of Royal Arch Masons, having 18 members; Xenia Commandery, No. 8, of Knights Templars, having 20 members; Damon Lodge, No. 29, of Knights of Pythias, having 70 members; Toussaint Lodge of G. U. Order of Odd Fellows; Daniel's Post of Grand Army of the Republic; Daniel's Corps, No. 228, of Women's Relief Corps; Eastern Star Lodge, No. 2; Bell of Ohio D. T. Tabernacle, No. 511 ; Mount Olive Lodge, No. 25, of Good Samaritans, and a lodge of Knights of Tabor. *

There is probably no city in the land where there are as many societies among the colored people as in Baltimore, and several of the large societies which have spread far and wide, north and south, had their origin here. Nearly all of the societies are beneficial, but they may be divided in general into two classes, those beneficial merely and those with secret features. In order to help one another in sickness and provide for decent burial, through a system of small but regular payments, beneficial societies were formed among little groups of acquaintances or fellow laborers. In Baltimore they date back to 1820, and were afterwards specially exempted from the state laws forbidding meetings of colored people. Twenty-five, at least, had been formed before the war; from 1865 to 1870, seventeen or more were formed; since 1870, twenty or more have been added, several as late as 1884 and 1885. The number of members vary from a dozen to over 100.

In 1884 was held a meeting of many connected with these societies to arouse a more general interest in the work, and very interesting reports were presented. Forty of them gave an aggregate membership of over 2,100. Nearly 1,400 members had been buried, over $45,000 having been given in funeral expenses; $125,000 had been given as sick dues; $27,000 had been paid widows by some thirty of the societies; over $10,700 had been given towards house rent; and over $11,300 had been paid for incidental expenses. Yet there had been paid back to the members of many of the societies, from unexpended balances, as dividends, a total of over $40,000; and there remained in the banks, to the credit of the societies, over $21,400, and in the treasurers' hands a cash balance amounting to some $1,400. Five had small sums invested besides, and one the goodly sum of $5,642. The total amount of money handled by all had been nearly $290,000.

These societies vary somewhat in details. The usual fees from members are 50 cents a month; the usual benefits are $4 a week for a number of weeks, and then reduced sums, in sickness, and $4,000 for death benefit. Some pay as long as sickness lasts Some give widow's dues according to need. One, for example, the Friendly Beneficial Society, organized chiefly by the members of a Baptist church, some fifteen years ago, with the usual fees and benefits, carries a standing fund of about $1,000, and the yearly fees of the members have paid the current expenses of from $300 to $500, and has usually allowed an annual dividend of $5 to each.

The Colored Barbers' Society, over fifty years old, gives $80 at the death of a member. Three societies, originally very large, have been gotten up in the last twenty years, by one colored woman, whose name one of them bears.

A few of these beneficial societies have disbanded; a few have changed to secret societies. Very few of them have been badly managed, although unincorporated and without any public oversight, and everybody seems to speak well of them and of their work.

Secret societies among the colored people are now very numerous. Many important ones date back to before the war. The colored Masons and Independent Order of Odd Fellows are entirely independent of the whites in Baltimore, the colored men having been obliged from the state of public feeling in the United States in the old days to get a charter from the white brethren in England. In 1884 there were nearly 500 colored Masons in Baltimore; now there are probably 700 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, fifty lodges of the seventy-seven working ones, giving a membership of over 2,300. The fifty lodges had, during the past two years, aided their sick, buried eighty-three brothers and relieved seventy-seven widows and orphans, at it total expenditure of over $13,000. The order held real estate worth $18,500 and had over $10,000 in cash.

Of the secret societies in Baltimore, the most influential are the Samaritans, the Nazarites, the Galilean Fishermen and the Wise Men. The first two were instituted some years before the war. The first has spread from Baltimore, during the forty years of its existence, to a number of states; but a third of all the lodges and nearly a third of all the members are in Maryland (1890). About one-half of the order are women, Daughters of Samaria, and they meet by themselves in their own lodges There are now in Maryland fifty-eight lodges, with a membership of 1,925.

The order of Galilean Fishermen, of men and women together, was begun in Baltimore in 1856, by a handful of earnest workers; it was legally incorporated in 1869. The order has become influential. It is said to number over 5,000 in Maryland.

The order of the Seven Wise Men is a more recent order. There are many more of the same secret, beneficial nature, but these are the largest.

Beneficial Societies of Petersburg, Va. (1899)* (Not including secret orders.)   NAME When organized No. of members Assessments per year Total annual income Sick and death benefits Cash and property 1 Young Men's 1884 40 $ 7 00 $ 275 00 $ 150 00 $ 175 00 2 ^Sisters of Friendship, etc   22 3 00 68 55 43 78   3 Union Working Club 1893 15 3 00 45 00 23 00   4 Sisters of Charity 1884 17 3 00 51 00 30 00   5 Ladies' Union 1896 47 3 00 135 00   128 25 6 Beneficial Association 1893 163 **25c. 5 20 1,005 64 806 46 440 00 7 Daughters of Bethlehem   39 **12c. 3 00 129 48 110 04   8 Loving Sisters 1884 16 **25c. 3 00 22 50 30 50 62 00 9 Ladies' Working Club 1888 37 **12c. 3 00 95 11 52 65 214 09 10 St. Mark 1874 28 **12c. 3 00 84 00 32 00 150 00 11 Consolation 1845 26 **12c. 3 00 68 00 27 00 100 00 12 Daughters of Zion 1867 22 **12c. 3 00 66 00 40 00 36 00 13 Young Sisters of Charity 1869 30 **12c. 3 00 90 00 30 00 100 00 14 Humble Christian 1868 26 **12c. 8 00 68 00 35 50 75 00 15 Sisters of David 1885 30 3 00 90 00 60 00 130 00 16 Sisters of Rebeccah 1893 40 3 00 120 00 85 00 175 00 17 Petersburg 1872 29 **12 1/2c. 3 00 85 00 11 00 99 53 18 Petersburg Beneficial 1892 35 **50c. 5 20 182 00 158 00 118 00 19 First Baptist Church Ass'n 1893 100 60 60 00 40 00 80 00 20 Young Men's 1894 44 **25c. 8 00 211 00 202 25 100 00 21 Oak Street Church Society 1894 38 1 20 42 60 112 63 50 00 22 Endeavor, etc 1894 98 3 00 120 00 96 00 43 00 Total     942   $3 113 88 $2,177 81 $2,275 87

Beneficial Societies of Atlanta, Ga. (1898) (Not including secret orders) NAME When organized No. of members Annual income REMARKS Helping Hand, First Congregational Church 1872 40 $ 120 Benefits paid in 5 years, $255; benevolence, $25. Rising Star, Wheat Street Baptist Church 1870 168 250 Benefits paid in 5 years, $370; donations etc, $50; owns cemetery lot for its poorer members. Daughters of Bethel, Bethel Church 1874 175 525 Donations in 5 years, $125; benefits in 5 years, $580. Ladies' Court of Calanthe 1891 15 72 Benefits $590 since 1891. Daughters of Friendship, Union No. 1, Friendship Baptist Church 1869 150 450 Benefits 5 years, $430; donates much to the church. Fort Street Benevolent Mission 1897   390 Benefits 1 year, $190. Daughters of Plenty 1892 115 250 Benefits in 4 years, $200; secession from Daughters of Bethel. Pilgrims Progress, Park Street Church 1891 120 360 Benefits in 5 years, $600. Sisters of Love, Wheat St. Baptist Church 1880 190 570 Has $600 in bank. Nine organizations   973 $2,978  

From early times the precarious economic condition of the free Negroes led to many mutual aid organizations. They were very simple inform: an initiation fee of small amount was required and small regular payments; in case of sickness, a weekly stipend was paid, and in case of death the members were assessed to pay for the funeral and help the widow. Confined to a few members, all personally known to each other, such societies were successful from the beginning. We hear of them in the eighteenth century, and by 1838 there were 100 such small groups, with 7,448 members, in the city. They paid in $18,851, gave $14,172 in benefits, and had $10,023 on hand. Ten years later about 8,000 members belonged to 106 such societies. Seventy-six of these had a total membership of 5,187. They contributed usually 25 cents to 37 1/2 cents a month; the sick received $150 to $300 per week, and death benefits of $10 to $20 were allowed. The income of these seventy-six societies was $16,81423; 681 families were assisted. These societies have since been superceded to some extent by other organizations; they are still so numerous, however, that it is impractical to catalogue them; there are probably several hundred of various kinds in the city.

From general observation and the available figures, it seems fairly certain that at least 4,000 Negroes belong to secret orders, and that these orders annually collect at least $25,000, part of which is paid out in sick and death benefits and part invested. The real estate, personal property and funds of these orders amount to no less than $125,000. The function of the secret society is partly social intercourse and partly insurance. They furnish pastime from the monotony of work, a field for ambition and intrigue, a chance for parade, and insurance against misfortune. Next to the church they are the most popular organizations among Negroes.

Of the beneficial societies . . . . . The Quaker City Association is a sick and death benefit society, seven years old, which confines its membership to native Philadelphians. It has 280 members and distributes $1,400 to $1,500 annually. The Sons and Daughters of Delaware is over fifty years old. It has 106 members and owns $3,000 worth of real estate. The Fraternal Association was founded in 1861; it has 86 members and distributes about $300 a year. It “was formed for the purpose of relieving the wants and distresses of each other in the time of affliction and death, and for the furtherance of such benevolent views and objects as would tend to establish and maintain a permanent and friendly intercourse among them in their social relations in life.” The Sons of St Thomas was founded in 1823 and was originally confined to members of St Thomas Church. It was formerly a large organization, but now has 80 members, and paid out in 1896, $416 in relief. It has $1,500 invested in government bonds. In addition to these there is the Sons and Daughters of Moses, and a large number of other small societies.

There is a rising also a considerable number of insurance societies, differing from the beneficial in being conducted by directors. The best of these are the Crucifixion, connected with the Church of the Crucifixion, and the Avery, connected with Wesley A. M. E. Z. Church; both have a large membership and are well conducted. Nearly every church is beginning to organize one or more such societies, some of which in times past have met disaster by bad management. The True Reformers of Virginia, the most remarkable Negro beneficial organization yet started, has several branches here. Beside these there are numberless minor societies, as the Alpha Relief, Knights and Ladies of St Paul, the National Co-operative Society, Colored Women's Protective Association, Loyal Beneficial, etc. Some of these are honest efforts and some are swindling imitations of the pernicious, white, petty insurance societies. *

The older “African societies” in Philadelphia and Newport have already been noted. There was one in New York also, organized in 1808 and chartered in 1810:

There are a large number of beneficial and insurance societies in New York now, as in other cities.

There were in Chatham associations formed, called True Bands. They were composed of colored people of both sexes, associated for their own improvement; their objects were many: For general interest in each other's welfare; to pursue such plans and objects as may be for their mutual advantage; to improve their schools and induce their race to send their children into the schools; to break down prejudice; to bring the churches, so far as possible, into one body, and not let minor differences divide them; to prevent litigation by referring all disputes among themselves to a committee; to stop the begging system (going to the United States and raising large sums of money, of which the fugitives never received the benefit); to raise such funds among themselves as may be necessary for the poor, the sick and the destitute fugitives newly arrived; to prepare themselves ultimately to bear their due weight of political power.

The first True Band was organized in Malden, in September, 1854, consisting of 600 members. It is represented as having thus far fulfilled its objects admirably. Small monthly payments are made by the members. The receipts have enabled them to meet all cases of destitution and leave a surplus in the treasury.

In all other places where the bands have been organized the same good results have followed. There were in 1856 fourteen True Bands organized in various sections of Canada West. *

The beneficial societies are thus seen to be universal among colored people and conducted in all sorts of ways, from the simple form noted in § 3 to the regular insurance society. No accurate estimate of the income of these societies is possible.

Their history in Philadelphia is instructive on this point: Judging from the figures here and in other cities, and remembering that the insurance society is largely replacing the old beneficial society and that the country districts have fewer societies than the city, it seems, to hazard a guess, that between a quarter and a half million dollars are still annually paid to Negro beneficial societies.

As has been said the purely beneficial societies are being absorbed into larger insurance societies. The first Negro insurance society appears in Philadelphia:

The list makes no pretentions to completeness and could be greatly extended. Such Negro insurance societies have had various external difficulties:

Most of the laws referred to are to protect policy holders, but the Negro societies have noticed that Southern legislatures only began to awaken to this need of protection when Negro societies began driving the whites out of business.

Virginia was the first center of this development, because of the extraordinary growth of Negro industrial insurance there:

The career of one Negro insurance society has been so remarkable that it deserves especial study. Most of the following facts are from a United States Government investigation:

The True Reformers constitutes probably the most remarkable Negro organization in the country. The association has its headquarters in Richmond, Va., and its history in brief is as follows:

The association was organized in January, 1881, by Rev. William Washington Browne, an ex-slave of Habersham county, Ga., as a fraternal beneficiary institution, composed of male and female. members, and began with 100 members and a capital of $150. On April 4,1883, or over two years later, the circuit court of the city of Richmond, Va., granted a regular charter of incorporation as a joint stock company to Browne and his associates under the name of “The Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers.” The chief purpose of incorporation was to provide what is to be known as an endowment or mutual benefit fund; the capital stock was “to be not less than $100 nor more than $10,000, to be divided into shares of the value of $5 each;” the company was to hold real estate “not to exceed in value the sum of $25,000;” the principal office was to be kept in the city of Richmond, and officers named in the charter for the year were Rev. William W. Browne, Richmond, Va., Grand Worthy Master; Eliza Allen, Petersburg, Va., Grand Worthy Mistress; R. T. Quarles, Ashland, Va., Grand Worthy Vice-Master; S.W. Sutton, Richmond, Va., Grand Worthy Chaplain; Peter H. Woolfolk, Richmond, Va., Grand Worthy Secretary; Robert I. Clarke, Centralia, Va., Grand Worthy Treasurer. These, with six others, composed the Board of Directors for the first year. Thus the True Reformers started on their way as a full-fledged joint stock corporation, whose chief aim was to provide a form of what is known as mutual beneficial insurance for its members. In 1898 the charter was amended so that a part of section 2 should read as follows: “The said corporation shall issue certificates of membership to its members and shall pay death benefits to the heirs, assigns, personal or legal representatives of the deceased members;” and section 4, as follows: “The real estate to be held shall not exceed in value the sum of five hundred thousand ($500,000) dollars.”

Up to December, 1901, the last report of the organization shows that it had paid in death claims $606,000, and in sick, $1,500,000, and that the membership was over 50,000, having increased 18,000 in the preceding year. The increase in twenty years from a membership of 100 and a capital of $150 to a membership of over 50,000, and with real estate aggregating $223,500 in value, constitutes an excellent showing.

But it is not the growth nor even the existence of the Grand Fountain of the True Reformers as a mutual insurance association, with its small army of employees, that causes it to be considered here; it is the affiliated by-products, to use an industrial expression, that are of interest and that may prove to be of great economic value to the Negro race. *

The report of the order for 1907 with the “by-products” or affiliated departments is as follows:

The Fountain Department has grown from four Fountains or lodges in 1881, to 2,678 Fountains or lodges in January, 1907. The 100 members have grown to more than 100,000, who have been initiated into the order, and of whom there are now benefited in the Fountains 50,636. There have been 8,322 deaths in the Senior Fountain, for which there has been paid $979,440.55.

The joining fees of this department are from $4.60 to $6.60, and persons are admitted from 18 to 60 years of age. Monthly dues, 55 cents for eight months and 60 cents for four months are paid into the Fountain by each member. No extra tax or assessment is levied to pay the death benefits.

In 1885 there was organized and put in operation a department for the children known as the Rosebud Department. For twenty-one years this department was in operation under the management of the Grand Fountain and more than 30,000 children have been entered into this department. Children are taken from 2 to 18 years of age. The joining fee is 50 cents, monthly dues are 16 cents. Sick benefits range from $1 down to 25 cents per week, according to the length of time sick. There have been 727 deaths in this class for which the sum of $23,214 has been paid.

The class department of the Mutual Benefit Degree was introduced in 1885 for the purpose of paying to members of the Fountain department an additional amount in death claims of from $200 to $1,000. This department, like the others, has grown and increased, from time to time, until today there are 5,980 members. There have been 1,134 deaths in the twenty-two years, for which there has been paid to the heirs of deceased members $354,334.70.

The following tables will give the ages, joining fees and dues of each of the classes:

Class “B” Table AGES Joining fee Value of certificate after 1 Yr. Value of certificate before 1 yr. Annual dues Quarterly dues 18 to 25 $ 2 50 $ 200 00 $ 100 00 $ 4 75 $ 1 20 25 to 30 2 75 200 00 100 00 4 75 1 20 30 to 35 3 00 200 00 100 00 4 75 1 20 35 to 40 3 25 200 00 100 00 5 70 1 43 40 to 45 3 50 140 00 70 00 6 70 1 43 45 to 50 3 75 115 00 58 00 6 65 1 66 50 to 55 4 00 90 00 45 00 6 65 1 66 55 to 60 4 25 65 00 33 00 7 70 1 90

Class “E” Table AGES Joining fee Value of certificate after 1 Yr. Value of certificate before 1 yr. Annual dues Quarterly dues 18 to 25 $ 5 00 $ 500 00 $ 250 00 $12 60 $ 3 15 25 to 30 5 25 500 00 250 00 12 60 3 15 30 to 35 5 50 500 00 250 00 15 60 3 90 35 to 40 5 75 500 00 250 00 16 60 3 90 40 to 45 6 00 500 00 250 00 20 48 5 12 45 to 50 6 25 500 00 250 00 20 48 5 12 50 to 55 6 50 500 00 250 00 23 48 5 87

Class “M” Table AGES Joining fee Value of certificate Annual dues Quarterly dues 18 to 30 $ 11 00 $ 1,000 00 $ 21 00 $ 5 25 30 to 35 12 00 900 00 25 56 6 39 35 to 40 12 50 900 00 25 56 6 39 40 to 45 13 00 800 00 26 04 6 51 45 to 60 13 50 700 00 26 04 6 51

In 1887 the necessity for a repository for the funds of the organization was made very evident when at the organization of a subordinate Fountain in Charlotte county, Virginia, the funds collected were entrusted to a white store keeper by the treasurer for safe keeping. The white storekeeper passed the word amongst his neighbors, and it was determined by them to break up the organization. Feeling between the races was running very high because of a recent lynching in the neighborhood. This strange condition of affairs led to the organization of the savings bank. The Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain, United Order of True Reformers, was chartered by the Virginia Legislature March, 1888, and went into operation April 3,1889, receiving $1,200 on deposit the first day.

The capital stock was placed at $100,000, each share being $5. The by-laws provided that only members of the Grand Fountain could take stock, and one person was only allowed to take a limited amount. In this way it was sought by the founders to perpetuate the bank and prevent the possible pooling of the stock. In thirteen years from the date of the charter the whole amount of capital stock was taken up.

The bank receives deposits of from one dollar up, and pays interest at the rate of 3 per cent on all deposits. The business for the first five months of the bank amounted to $9,881.28 in deposits. Today it has:

The Reformers' Mercantile and Industrial Association was incorporated December 14,1899. This department conducts a system of stores doing an annual business of over $100,000. The principal one of these stores is located at Richmond, Va.

The Reformer, a weekly newspaper with a circulation of 19,000 copies, is published by the Reformers' Mercantile and Industrial Association. A general printing department is conducted by the Reformer, where all classes of printing is neatly and quickly done.

The Hotel Reformer, located at No. 900 North Sixth street, Richmond, Va., has accommodation for 150 guests.

The Reformer Building and Loan Association, incorporated under the laws of the State of Virginia, has as its object the encouragement of industry, frugality, home building and saving among its members. Its offices are located at No. 604 North Second street, Richmond, Va.

The Real Estate Department of the Grand Fountain was established in 1902, and controls the property holdings of the organization. It has under its control twenty-seven buildings and three farms, with a total value of $400,000, which belong to the institution, and leases for the benefit of the institution twenty-three other buildings.

Brief summaries of the business of thirty other Negro industrial insurance societies follow:

1. Progressive Benefit Association, Charleston, S. C.—Fees 5 to 40 cents per week, to be collected by agents. Sickness is reported at the office, and paid one week after report on doctor's certificate. Death claims are paid one week after reported. Business: 1904, $10,744; 1905, $10,102; 1906, $10,331; 1907 to July 1, $4,632.

2. The American Life and Benefit Insurance Co., Durham, N. C.—Chartered February, 1906. Business: Amount paid in 1906-7,$5,235.15; amount paid out, $3,250.76.

3. The American Beneficial Insurance Co., Richmond, Va.—Two hundred stockholders. Branch establishments in all cities and towns of Virginia and the District of Columbia. Business: 1902-3, $61,177.34; 1903-4, $60,657.80; 1904-5, $76,278.80; 1905-6, $83,951.60; 1906-7, $89,453.84. Total paid up capital, $15,000. Real estate owned in Richmond and Newport News, $5,000. “It was organized August, 1902, in the city of Richmond, with the present officers in charge. It had a healthy start from the beginning, for within three weeks after the President made the call for those who desired to take stock to meet him, $8,700 in cash was paid in. Sixty thousand persons have taken policies with us during these five years.”

4. Home Protective Association.—Members in State, 2,000; lodges 100. Methods of operation: On the assessment plan. Total income for 1906-7, $18,000; real estate owned, $4,500. “The association was organized three years ago with ten charter members.”

5. Mutual Improvement Society, Washington, D. C.—Members, 6,000, with branch offices in twenty-five States of the Union. Business: Two years, 1906-7, $60,000. “Society was incorporated March 1, 1897.”

6. Union Mutual Aid Association, Jacksonville, Fla.—Branch establishments throughout principal cities and towns of Florida. Business done in the last three years, $50,000; total capital, $5,000. Real estate owned: Bridge and Union streets.

The Grand Secretary of the Prince Hall Lodge of Massachusetts, the mother Grand Lodge of Negro Masonry in America, gives the number of Negro Masons as follows:

The financial status of the various lodges can only be approximately stated from the following actual data. The regular income of those reporting is $261,751, and they hold $1,005,150 worth of property. Probably the total income is about $500,000 and the property over $1,000,000:

STATE INCOME EXPENDITURE PROPERTY Grand Lodge Subordinate lodges Charity Other Purposes Arkansas $ 1,597 $ 51,157 $ 22,055 $ 23,683 $ 217,247 California 1,385         Colorado         16,000 District of Columbia 683 5,755 1,600   5,475 + Florida 3,037       3,000 Georgia   32,400     110,000 Illinois 2,300       80,000 Indiana 681     5,173 10,352 Kentucky 1,400       40,000 Louisiana         55,900 Maryland   7,500 5,000   17,500 Massachusetts 373       1,650 Michigan     389 1,757 4,225 Mississippi 2,896       80,855 Missouri   31,707   27,705 61,948 Iowa 2,400       1,715 New Jersey         3,013 + New York 1,000       7,000 North Carolina 2,520 14,000     68,560 Ohio         80,000 Oklahoma   3,000       Pennsylvania 2,000 48,000     28,000 South Carolina 1,576         Tennessee         7,000 + Virginia   45,284     80,610 West Virginia         25,000

To this must be added an account of the insurance features, which are usually in a separate department, known as the Masonic Benefit Association. The method of operation is by assessment of all members on the death of any participant. Reports by States are as follows:

This endowment policy is confined to the South and is criticised by Northern Masons. Massachusetts thus criticises Mississippi:

Vital statistics for these associations are given only for 1904:

Members of the Philomathean Institute of New York and of the Philadelphia Library Company and Debating Society of Philadelphia, applied for admission to the International Order of Odd Fellows in 1842. They were refused on account of their race. Thereupon Peter Ogden, a Negro, who had already joined the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows of England, secured a charter for the first Negro American lodge, Philomathean, No. 646, of New York, which was set up March 1, 1843. In 1847 certain white lodges of Pennsylvania sought to join the English order, but finding themselves compelled to treat with Ogden, demurred. Ogden replied:

A bit of prophecy that proved only too true.

This spirit of independent manliness in its relations with England has been kept up. In 1865, for instance, we find this resolution:

The growth of the order is thus indicated:

1848 1 lodge   1868 89 lodges 4,009 members 1886 11000 “ 86,853 “ 1896 2,047 “ 155,537 “ 1904 4,643 “ 285,931 “

The reports of the Grand Secretary are as follows:

The order was organized by J. H. Rathbone and others, in the city of Washington, D.C., February 19, 1864.

At the session of the Supreme Lodge of the Knights of Pythias of the World, held at Richmond, Va., March 8, 1869, an application for a charter from a body of colored citizens of Philadelphia, Pa., was refused on account of their color. Nevertheless, several colored men, E. A. Lightfoot, T. W. Stringer and others, were afterwards regularly initiated into the mysteries of the order of Page, Esquire, Knight, etc., in a regular lodge, working under the control of the Supreme Lodge of Knights of Pythias of the World.

Thereupon a Supreme Grand Council of the Knights of Pythias, to be known as the Supreme Lodge of North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, was instituted for the purpose of extending its benefits to all persons, without distinction of race or color. Lightfoot Lodge, No. 1, in the city of Vicksburg, State of Mississippi, March 26,1880 (the date of the Pythian period), was the first.

There was a re-incorporation, with a slight change of name, in 1903.

In his address before the Supreme Lodge, in 1905, the Supreme Chancellor said:

The membership has grown as follows:

STATES 1897 1899 1901 1903 1905 Alabama 544 997 1,640 3,674 6,146 Arkansas 219 805 1,654 3,727 7,000 District of Columbia   107 96 85   Colorado     300 329 200 Florida 400 265 506 771 1,430 Georgia 1,284 1,344 2,386 4,516 7,984 Iowa   136 206 242 144 Illinois 361 500 763 1,543 1,706 Indiana     475 872 2,010 Kansas   189 316 500 537 Kentucky   409 723 1,476 2,010 Louisiana 577 1,016 1,760 3,845 6,400 Mississippi 800 1,150 3,069 3,790 7,930 Missouri 741 650 1,048 1,976 2,800 New Jersey   411 382 713 978 New York 230   105 202 315 North Carolina         965 Ohio   1,400 2,166 2,534 3,131 Pennsylvania 277 333 680 1,033 1,037 Massachusetts         230 Tennessee   576 1,057 1,554 3,500 Texas 809 2,600 4,038 5,500 5,075 Virginia 842 1,411 1,654 2,630 3,542 West Virginia 399 837 1,187 1,528 2,012 Indian Territory         345 Oklahoma         184 Supreme Jurisdiction       2,000 1,300 *Total     27,212 44,640 69,331

Expenditures and property are thus reported: